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Thousands of victims of modern slavery are being denied support because of Britain's crackdown on illegal migration, according to more than a dozen sources, a decade after the approval of legislation that put the country at the forefront of the global fight against human trafficking.
Britain's Modern Slavery Act of 2015 forced large businesses to tackle slavery in their supply chains and strengthened existing protections for victims.
But those protections have been eroded by rules introduced in 2023 to curb illegal migration, as the political priority switched to dealing with the tens of thousands of migrants arriving in Britain each year aboard small boats.
Reuters interviewed more than a dozen individuals in government, law enforcement, the judiciary and charities who said the tougher laws were leaving thousands of victims trapped in modern slavery, both by denying requests for support and by stopping others from coming forward for fear of being deported.
"Modern slavery is not an immigration issue; it's a human rights issue," said Kathy Betteridge, a director at the Salvation Army, which has operated the government contract to support victims for the last 14 years.
After new legislation required victims to present greater proof of exploitation to qualify for state support, the share of rejections in slavery cases leaped to 45% in 2023, from just 11% in 2022, official data shows. In the first nine months of 2024, the figure was 46%.
In 2023, the Home Office - Britain's interior ministry - identified around 17,000 people as potential victims of modern slavery, and a further 13,587 in the first nine months of last year.
The bulk of the referrals were migrants, often brought to Britain to work in nail salons, car washes, sex work and the illicit drug trade, according to police.
That may only be the tip of the iceberg. A report by a House of Lords committee, published in October, said there were an estimated 130,000 victims of modern slavery in Britain.
"When the Modern Slavery Act was passed in 2015, the UK was said to be world leading. That is no longer the case," said the report, published in October. It urged the government to amend the immigration rules.
Britain's Labour government, which came to power in July, has not altered the legislation, despite saying while in opposition that the rules were unfair.
Last week, Prime Minister Keir Starmer's government retained a Conservative ban on asylum seekers being able to claim modern slavery protections despite Starmer having said in the past it drove "a coach and horses" through protections for trafficked women.
A Home Office spokesperson said the government was working to clear the backlog of those waiting for final decisions on their claims for modern slavery support and would toughen legislation against criminal gangs responsible for exploitation.
"It is unacceptable in today's Britain that thousands of vulnerable people - mostly women and children - are being forced to work against their will, often while facing regular physical and sexual abuse," the spokesperson said.
Source: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/nri/migrate/uks-tougher-immigration-policy-risks-trapping-victims-in-modern-slavery/articleshow/118003901.cms
