We won’t solve modern slavery until we separate the problem from the politics

The news from the Diocese of East Anglia that some 6,000 people within the diocese may be victims of slavery has come as a shock to many. Co-lead of the East Anglia Diocesan Initiative on Modern Slavery Simon John has quoted this disturbing figure based on statistics just published by the Home Office which have revealed that in 2024, a record 19,125 victims of modern slavery were referred into the National Referral Mechanism (NRM), the UK’s system for protecting victims. This marks a significant increase from the 17,000 referrals recorded in 2023.

The NRM data has identified around 1,000 victims in East Anglia, but this figure only includes those people who been positively identified as being trapped in slavery. Hence Simon John’s prediction that in East Anglia alone the number of people actually suffering is likely to be six times the recorded data.

The Home Office has also estimated that there could be as many as 200,000 enslaved individuals in Britain and – if the trend continues exponentially – that figure will reach one million by 2037.

Modern slavery, which can include human trafficking, slavery, servitude or forced labour, has been rising globally due to a mix of poverty, conflict and migration, affecting millions of people. It’s also a crime that is often hard to identify, as many of those being exploited are being forced into exploitative work in the drug or sex trades, car washes, nail and hair salons, private homes or the social care sector. Men, women and children are being abused and exploited in this way, and coercive control and manipulation can make their plight all but invisible to the untrained eye. That’s why the Diocese of East Anglia has taken a lead and has some 40 individuals in training to recognise the signs of modern slavery.

“Modern-day slaves are not hidden away. They are working among us, but their wages are often paid directly into their traffickers’ bank accounts,” said Simon John.

“Many victims are unable to report their condition due to fear, coercion, or lack of opportunity. As Christians, we have a duty to act. Jesus said: ‘I was in prison and you visited me’ – likewise, we are called to reach out to our suffering brothers and sisters.”

For its part the government has pledged to hire dozens of caseworkers to process claims for support in the NRM, but currently there is a huge backlog of more than 17,000 people waiting for a decision on their claim. One of the main reasons for this is that the majority of slavery claims are linked intrinsically with immigration issues, and it’s not always easy to separate the two. That said, slavery is a personal crime against the individual and should never be conflated with immigration offences.

Some of these issues did come to the surface this week as legislators in Westminster were debating the UK’s 2015 Modern Slavery Act. Billed originally – by the committee that wrote it – as “world-leading” the intervening decade has sadly seen little change or improvement for those being exploited, and the number has simply grown and grown. Despite the best promises of parliament, prosecution and conviction rates for modern slavery in the UK are still lamentably low. The Court Proceedings Database shows that in 2017, 2018 and 2019 collectively, just 64 adult offenders were sentenced for modern slavery and human trafficking offences under the Modern Slavery Act. In this same time frame, 22,756 potential victims of modern slavery were referred into the NRM. For 2020, the National Crime Agency has estimated there were 6,000-8,000 offenders, but secured only 91 prosecutions resulting in just 56 convictions.

In fairness to prosecutors one of the biggest obstacles to a successful case is that so much hangs on victim testimony and, for all sorts of very sound reasons, there is invariably an unwillingness to speak out, especially when the spectre of deportation is hanging over victims. Exploiters know and use this threat ruthlessly, that’s why many organisations working in this area are now calling for different prosecution mechanisms that focus far more on identifying perpetrators than victims. Whatever else has changed in society, the alertness of the general public is still the best antidote to such exploitation, as it is usually happening in open view.

The growing gap between victims and prosecutions is of course worrying politicians, but ours is a country where a catastrophic and systemic failure to address – or at times even acknowledge – an immigration ‘problem’ has led to a large segment of the population heading underground, often in search of very questionable employment.

We hear an awful lot about asylum seekers being on benefits and getting free handouts, so it’s worth just detailing just exactly what the taxpayer does stump up for each new asylum seeker. Firstly, our government is obliged to provide some form of accommodation somewhere in the UK of its own choosing. Then £49.18 is provided for each person – as the government documentation states this is to “help you pay for things you need like food, clothing and toiletries.” This amount is paid onto a debit card each week from which you can draw the cash. Pregnant mothers get an extra £5.25 a week to help with essentials, a child under three gets £5.25 and a baby under one year old gets £9.50. NHS treatment is free and some families might even get free school meals. By comparison the basic UK weekly Jobseekers Allowance (for more regular citizens) is £90.50, and help with rent is added via the Universal Credit Scheme. In round terms the taxpayer supports an unemployed person with £100 a week, and an asylum seeker with £50 a week.

Understandably this low level of support leads many into questionable employment to help make ends meet. For refugees and others the lack of appropriate documents and low income makes them particularly vulnerable to those who set out deliberately to target illegal employment, with all the negative consequences that can bring. This isn’t helped by the 2015 Modern Slavery Act itself, where the wording is dangerously flawed.

A key component of guilt under this law is that the perpetrator must know, or ought to know, that they are contravening the Act. This has essentially created a crime and a legislative process between the accused and accuser, but ignores the wider environmental factors that are allowing such exploitation to take place. In simple terms the law ought also to have had the ability to address the wider mechanisms that lead such exploitation in the first place. Issues like onerous and exploitative contracts with employers, and even government restrictions banning asylum seekers from working are also morally unjustifiable.

When prime minister Theresa May vowed to help rid the world of the “barbaric evil of modern slavery” and introduced the Modern Slavery Act in 2015 it was applauded by many, and it helped to position the UK as a global leader in this field. May described modern slavery as “the greatest human rights challenge of our time” and she wasn’t short in encouraging other Commonwealth states to adopt legislation reflecting the Act. Others, however, pointed to the subscript of old empire in her rhetoric, and drew attention to the hypocrisy of Britain lecturing others on modern slavery whilst ignoring its own ‘hostile environment’ immigration policies. A decade on, the 2015 Act has delivered none of its promises, and sadly Britain is rapidly becoming a global embarrassment over its mishandling of immigration issues.

For all its claims about leading the world in good practice, current UK immigration policy is one of costly, complex and prohibitive regimes, delivering very few legal routes for vulnerable people to come to the UK and be allowed to work legitimately. Little wonder then the number of those finding themselves reduced to slavery and exploitation just continues to increase, and this really won’t change until the protection of those affected by modern slavery is separated from the dubious politics of immigration control.

Joseph Kelly is a catholic writer and public theologian