David T C Davies is the former Welsh Secretary and MP for Monmouth
In southern Hungary, close to the Croatian border, lies the town of Mohács, scene of one of the most disastrous defeats in European history.
On 29 August 1526, the Hungarian army was destroyed by the forces of the Ottoman Empire. Thousands died, including the Hungarian king and much of the country’s ruling elite.
The defeat opened the way for more than 150 years of Ottoman domination over much of Hungary. Across Central and Eastern Europe, generations faced invasion, raids and the constant threat of being enslaved.
Girls could be sold into domestic or sexual slavery while boys were converted to Islam and required to serve the Sultan.
My wife comes from southern Hungary, and I have often attended the extraordinary annual festival at Mohács, where local people dress in animal skins and terrifying wooden masks.
According to local legend, villagers disguised themselves as frightening creatures to drive out the occupying Ottoman soldiers. The festival is a reminder of centuries of occupation and suffering.
It also reminds us of something rarely mentioned in Britain’s modern debate about slavery.
Europeans were themselves victims of slavery on an enormous scale.
For centuries, communities across what is now Hungary, Poland, Ukraine, Russia and the Balkans faced the threat of slave raids, with captives sold in markets supplying the Ottoman Empire.
A 2026 study by researchers at MIT and Oxford University estimates that around five million people were captured in slave raids between 1453 and 1774.
And this was not confined to the distant past. Records show Circassian girls being sold as slaves in the Ottoman Empire as late as 1908.
Yet how many people in Britain know anything about this?
Millions living in Britain today have Central and Eastern European heritage. Their ancestors may have lived for generations under the threat of slavery.
Should their descendants now be expected to share some collective British guilt and potentially see their taxes handed over to atone for the transatlantic slave trade, when their own ancestors may have been victims of slavery?
It wasn’t only Eastern Europeans.
For centuries, slave traders operating from the Barbary Coast of North Africa attacked European shipping and coastal communities. Thousands of British sailors and coastal residents, including people from Cornwall and Devon, were captured and sold into slavery or held for ransom.
Does anyone seriously suggest Britain should now demand apologies and reparations from Morocco, Algeria or Turkey for events hundreds of years ago?
Of course not.
It goes without saying that slavery in all its forms was an appalling evil. Britain played a shameful role in the transatlantic trade but African rulers and traders also participated in capturing and selling slaves.
And after abolishing slavery in1833 Britain deployed the Royal Navy to suppress the trade. Around 1,600 British sailors died during this campaign.
Nobody today should claim personal credit for the bravery of those sailors nearly 200 years ago. Equally, nobody should be expected to accept personal guilt for the actions of people who lived centuries before they were born.
Yet Andy Burnham now wants to discuss apologising for slavery, while proposing debt relief for poorer Commonwealth countries.
He insists this is not reparations. But if debts are written off or reduced at British taxpayers’ expense, what exactly is the difference?
The history of slavery is far more complicated than the version so often presented.
Europeans enslaved Africans. Africans enslaved other Africans. North African slave traders enslaved Europeans. Ottoman and Crimean Tatar raiders carried away millions from Eastern Europe.
And Britain, having played a major role in the transatlantic trade, subsequently became a leading force in suppressing it.
None of this excuses the suffering of enslaved Africans. But neither should remembering their suffering mean forgetting the victims elsewhere.
If we are going to teach children about slavery, let’s teach them the whole history, including the millions of Europeans whose suffering is so rarely discussed.
Back in Mohács, there is a sombre religious memorial to those who died fighting the Ottoman armies. Its inscription reads:
“Wanderers entering this site, bow your heads in respect to the fallen Christian heroes.”
Labour MPs may be ignorant of the history of slavery in Europe but the Hungarians will never forget.
David T C Davies is the former Welsh Secretary and MP for Monmouth
In southern Hungary, close to the Croatian border, lies the town of Mohács, scene of one of the most disastrous defeats in European history.
On 29 August 1526, the Hungarian army was destroyed by the forces of the Ottoman Empire. Thousands died, including the Hungarian king and much of the country’s ruling elite.
The defeat opened the way for more than 150 years of Ottoman domination over much of Hungary. Across Central and Eastern Europe, generations faced invasion, raids and the constant threat of being enslaved.
Girls could be sold into domestic or sexual slavery while boys were converted to Islam and required to serve the Sultan.
My wife comes from southern Hungary, and I have often attended the extraordinary annual festival at Mohács, where local people dress in animal skins and terrifying wooden masks.
According to local legend, villagers disguised themselves as frightening creatures to drive out the occupying Ottoman soldiers. The festival is a reminder of centuries of occupation and suffering.
It also reminds us of something rarely mentioned in Britain’s modern debate about slavery.
Europeans were themselves victims of slavery on an enormous scale.
For centuries, communities across what is now Hungary, Poland, Ukraine, Russia and the Balkans faced the threat of slave raids, with captives sold in markets supplying the Ottoman Empire.
A 2026 study by researchers at MIT and Oxford University estimates that around five million people were captured in slave raids between 1453 and 1774.
And this was not confined to the distant past. Records show Circassian girls being sold as slaves in the Ottoman Empire as late as 1908.
Yet how many people in Britain know anything about this?
Millions living in Britain today have Central and Eastern European heritage. Their ancestors may have lived for generations under the threat of slavery.
Should their descendants now be expected to share some collective British guilt and potentially see their taxes handed over to atone for the transatlantic slave trade, when their own ancestors may have been victims of slavery?
It wasn’t only Eastern Europeans.
For centuries, slave traders operating from the Barbary Coast of North Africa attacked European shipping and coastal communities. Thousands of British sailors and coastal residents, including people from Cornwall and Devon, were captured and sold into slavery or held for ransom.
Does anyone seriously suggest Britain should now demand apologies and reparations from Morocco, Algeria or Turkey for events hundreds of years ago?
Of course not.
It goes without saying that slavery in all its forms was an appalling evil. Britain played a shameful role in the transatlantic trade but African rulers and traders also participated in capturing and selling slaves.
And after abolishing slavery in1833 Britain deployed the Royal Navy to suppress the trade. Around 1,600 British sailors died during this campaign.
Nobody today should claim personal credit for the bravery of those sailors nearly 200 years ago. Equally, nobody should be expected to accept personal guilt for the actions of people who lived centuries before they were born.
Yet Andy Burnham now wants to discuss apologising for slavery, while proposing debt relief for poorer Commonwealth countries.
He insists this is not reparations. But if debts are written off or reduced at British taxpayers’ expense, what exactly is the difference?
The history of slavery is far more complicated than the version so often presented.
Europeans enslaved Africans. Africans enslaved other Africans. North African slave traders enslaved Europeans. Ottoman and Crimean Tatar raiders carried away millions from Eastern Europe.
And Britain, having played a major role in the transatlantic trade, subsequently became a leading force in suppressing it.
None of this excuses the suffering of enslaved Africans. But neither should remembering their suffering mean forgetting the victims elsewhere.
If we are going to teach children about slavery, let’s teach them the whole history, including the millions of Europeans whose suffering is so rarely discussed.
Back in Mohács, there is a sombre religious memorial to those who died fighting the Ottoman armies. Its inscription reads:
“Wanderers entering this site, bow your heads in respect to the fallen Christian heroes.”
Labour MPs may be ignorant of the history of slavery in Europe but the Hungarians will never forget.