They come from Vietnam, Albania or Nigeria, hidden in trucks, trains, buses or aboard boats. Others arrive from nowhere, are caught in the same city where they were born and forced to work for drug traffickers or prostitution. There are an estimated 136,000 victims of modern-day slavery in the United Kingdom.
“We are witnesses to modern slavery a lot more often than we realise, but potentially the system in which modern slavery thrives is so engrained in our every day lives, we struggle to see it”, said Amber Cagney, from The West Midlands Anti Slavery Network.
So far this year, 7273 potential victims have been referred to the Home Office through the National Referral Mechanism, where it is determined whether or not they have been victims of modern slavery. This is an increase of 45% over 2018 and 97% over 2017.
This rise is partly due to the introduction of the Modern Slavery Act in 2015 and the raise of awareness among public bodies. For Cagney, “there has to be a willingness to invest in training for front line staff and to spend time planning pathways internally for how survivors will be supported once they are identified – this is an obstacle for services that have had budget cuts over the years and have many conflicting and higher prioritised demands, such as dealing with the rise in knife crime”.
According to the latest figures published, from July to September of this year 2808 potential victims were referred to the NRM. By country of origin, the majority are from the United Kingdom, followed by Albania, Vietnam and China.
In the same period, 1045 adults and 805 minors were referred to the NRM as potential victims of labour exploitation. This is the most common form of slavery, followed by sexual exploitation (409 persons). Three people from Vietnam, Romania and Pakistan suffered organ harvesting.
However, it is estimated that a high percentage of victims of modern slavery do not give their consent to be referred into the NRM. In some cases because they do not receive adequate information, in others, as in the case of survivors who are in an irregular situation in the United Kingdom, fear of deportation influences this decision. “They may need to make applications for asylum, discretionary leave or visas”, said Cagney. “Even EU nationals under the implementation of the EU settled status scheme, can be intimidated by the idea of the Home Office gathering data on them”.
If they are not referred through the NRM, the case cannot be studied, they do not appear in the statistics and in most cases neither can they access support -apart from charities, relatives or friends-. And even access to this type of support depends on the location of the survivor: “If a region identifies very few numbers of modern slavery, their options for support will be low, but if they are identified in regions that have a stronger response, there are more support providers they can access. It is unfortunate, but it is a postcode lottery approach if a survivor is not willing to engage with and relocate for the NRM”, added Cagney.
But even survivors who access the NRM and are identified as victims of modern slavery may lack adequate support. According to Dame Sara Thornton, the UK's Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner, in her Strategic Plan 2019-2021, published in October, “there is good evidence that in the longer term victims who have received a positive conclusive grounds decision from the NRM can be at risk of homelessness, destitution, re‑traumatisation and re-trafficking”.
In addition to immigrants, other vulnerable groups, such as children and homeless people, are frequent victims of modern slavery. Of those referred this year into the NRM, 3103 (43%) were children at the time of exploitation. More than half of them are from the UK. This is partly due to the exploitation of children by drug traffickers in what are known as 'county lines'. As for the homeless, Cagney stated that “they can have numerous vulnerabilities on top of the lack of a secure home and income, such as substance misuse issues, mental health problems, lack of family networks and historic trauma”.
Kidnapped, forced into prostitution, working on illegal cannabis plantations, washing cars, picking fruit, or in the back of a shop. With the same chains ( both literals and symbolic) that tied the ankles of slaves in the 17th century. Two hundred years have elapsed, and what should be a dark part of the country's history continues to be daily stories. What should be an eradicated practice is simply a hidden one. Illegal, but widespread.
“Slavery is still here, it’s abolished systematically, but it’s not abolished in society”, concludes Cagney.