UK Anti Slavery Day 2024

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Today marks Anti Slavery Day 2024 in the United Kingdom. Anti-Slavery International estimates more than 130,000 people in the UK are trapped in modern slavery. This includes forced labour in sectors such as agriculture, construction, hospitality, beauty and manufacturing. It includes sexual exploitation, domestic slavery or forced criminality such as cannabis farming.

Within HTMSE’s network in the UK and around the world, there are many organisations, legal professionals, country experts and trafficking experts who are working to protect those who are subjected to modern slavery. This Anti Slavery Day 2024, HTMSE invites professionals and organisations who are not yet signed up to join this network to help create a streamlined response to cases of modern slavery.

UN’s Pact for the Future to Address Modern Slavery 

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This month global leaders will attend the 79th UN General Assembly (UNGA) Summit of the Future, where the Pact for the Future will address the urgent need for action against modern slavery, human trafficking, forced and child marriage, and forced labour. The pact is an effort to contribute to Sustainable Development Goal Target 8.7, seeking to end forced labour, modern slavery, and human trafficking. The Pact for the Future will be adopted by leaders of UN Member states, which highlights the priority actions needed to address the global issue of modern slavery and human trafficking. 

This issue is critical considering the 10 million person increase in persons experiencing modern slavery over the last five years. This is a result of increased hardship and vulnerability due to Covid 19, climate change and national conflicts. The ILO and IOM with Walk Free Foundation produced a Global Estimate of Modern Slavery of 50 million people currently experiencing modern slavery, including forms of forced labour and forced marriage. 

There is a call to address the vulnerabilities of women and girls, who are victims of forced marriage and other forms of exploitation through gender inequality. There are considerations for the vulnerability of children and young people, and the nexus of vulnerability they face along with future issues posed by the climate crisis. There are considerations for migrant workers, who are 3 times more likely to be exploited by forced labour than non migrant workers. It is considered that “modern slavery affects people of all ages and is caused by collective injustice and cannot be addressed in isolation from other social issues”. 

For further reporting please see the Walk Free Foundation. 

National Referral Mechanism statistics UK, First Quarter 2024 (January to March)

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Statistics for the National Referral Mechanism in the UK, for first quarter in 2024 (January to March) includes a summary and breakdown of the number of potential victims of modern slavery referred into the (NRM) or via the Duty to Notify (DtN) process.

Key Results:

  • 4,524 potential victims of modern slavery were referred to the Home Office from January to March 2024, representing a 9% increase compared to the period from October to December 2023 (4,134) and a 5% decrease compared to the period from January to March 2023 (4,738)
  • 73% (3,291) of potential victims were male and 27% (1,226) were female; this is the highest quarterly number of referrals for females since the NRM began
  • 80% (3,628) of referrals were sent to the Single Competent Authority (SCA) for consideration and 20% (896) to the Immigration Enforcement Competent Authority (IECA)
  • the most common nationalities referred this quarter were UK (24%; 1,105), Albanian (17%; 791) and Vietnamese (11%; 493)
  • 5,161 reasonable grounds and 3,893 conclusive grounds decisions were issued this quarter; of these, 55% of reasonable grounds and 48% of conclusive grounds decisions were positive
  • the number of reasonable grounds decisions and conclusive grounds decisions issued by the competent authorities were both at their highest for a quarter since the NRM began
  • the Home Office received 1,125 reports of adult potential victims via the DtN process

 

See the full Home Office Report here.

World Day Against Trafficking In Persons 2024

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Yesterday, 30th July 2024 marks the 10th year of World Day Against Trafficking In Persons. We have seen progress and development in national modern slavery legislation around the world, yet there are still many issues regarding effective implementation, and international legal cooperation.  

According to the ILO, there are 49.6 million people in modern slavery globally, including 12 million children. Traffickers target vulnerable individuals or groups that may be faced with  psychological or emotional vulnerability, economic hardship or be forced to migrate due to political instability or natural disasters. 

In 2024, the rise in digital technology is providing complexities in the response to human trafficking and modern slavery. Traffickers recruit individuals online by deceiving, grooming or controlling victims, leading to their exploitation either within one country or across national borders. A major challenge for experts and policy makers to combat human trafficking, is to refine and advance their use of digital technology. 

HTMSE is a directory that links victims to professional support, and professionals to other professionals working in the modern slavery and human trafficking sector globally. It is a platform for stakeholders including researchers and academics, country and trafficking experts, specialist organisations, legal and medical experts to list their professional profiles and expertise in the sector. HTMSE reports on current news, as well as relevant resources and material on our eLearning platform. An expert witness training and service for expert reports and medicolegal reports is currently in development.

EU Parliament Expands Actions to Protect Human Trafficking Victims

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The European Parliament will revise its rules to expand actions to prevent victims of human trafficking. This vote by the MEPS from April 2024 was an overwhelming majority with 563 voting in favour of the amendment and 17 abstaining, which will update the directive from 2011, which regards the prevention of trafficking in human beings and protecting its victims of sex trafficking and forced labour. Under the new amendment the EU’s actions will broaden to include the criminalisation of forced marriage, illegal adoption, and the exploitation of surrogacy. Furthermore, amendments outline: 

  • Increased coordination between anti-trafficking and asylum authorities
  • Criminalisation of services of trafficked victim, where the user is aware of the exploitation
  • Penalties for companies convicted of trafficking
  • Increased support to victims
  • Protecting victims of trafficking who have been forced into criminality. The amendment ensures that prosecutors are able to choose not to prosecute victims for criminal acts they were coerced into committing. 

For more information on this amendment, see the Amending Directive 2011/36/EU on preventing and combating trafficking in human beings and protecting its victims.

Overview: 2023 National Referral Mechanism Statistics 

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The National Referral Mechanism (NRM) is the United Kingdom’s system that identifies  potential victims of modern slavery. Annual statistics for 2023, as well as the 4th quarter October – December 2023 have been released in March 2024. The increases in referrals to the NRM are likely due to increased awareness of modern slavery, as well as potential increases in exploitation. Major findings detail: 

4th Quarter, October – December 2023

  •  4,142 potential victims of modern slavery were referred to the Home Office, a similar number to the previous quarter (4,131) and a 6% decrease from the same quarter in 2022 (4,413).
  • The most common nationality referred in the quarter were UK nationals (27%; 1,139). Albanian nationals were the second most commonly referred with 802 referrals (19%), with Vietnamese nationals third with 268 referrals (6%).
  • Of the 4,142 potential victims referred, 48% (1978) were potential victims who claimed to have been exploited when they were adults, whilst 47% (1,945) claimed to have been exploited when they were children. Of these, 75% (3,097) were male and 25% (1,041) were female.
  • Regarding the type of exploitation most commonly seen amongst referrals, the highest proportion of referrals were for criminal exploitation only (28%; 1,172). For adult potential victims, labour exploitation was most commonly reported (34%; 680), whereas child potential victims were more commonly referred for criminal exploitation (43%; 844). Though referrals flagged as county lines partly drove the increase in referrals for children within the criminal exploitation category between 2020 to 2022 (average of over 550 referrals each quarter), in 2023, the number of referrals flagged fell to an average of around 390 each quarter.

 

Overall in 2023, 15,247 reasonable grounds and 9,825 conclusive grounds decision were made. Of these, 55% of RG decisions and 66% of CG decisions were positive. The number of CG decisions was the highest annual number made since the NRM began.

The full Home office report can be found here, Modern Slavery: National Referral Mechanism and Duty to Notify statistics UK, quarter 4 2023 – October to December. 

SCA Timeframe Imposed for Reconsideration Requests

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The Single Competent Authority (SCA) is the United Kingdom system that identifies whether someone is a victim of modern slavery or human trafficking. In the last three months the SCA has updated its guidance on the timeframe in which a reconsideration of one’s status as a ‘victim of slavery’ can be made. The updated policy imposes a timeframe to be “within one month of a negative reasonable grounds or conclusive grounds decision” with any further evidence provided with the reconsideration request. The reconsideration requests include the following grounds:

  1. If further evidence is available which, when combined with the evidence already taken into account, could prove that the individual is a victim of modern slavery.
  2. There are particular concerns that a decision made, does not follow the SCA’s guidance.

 

If evidence arises outside of the one month period of the decision, the SCA can be informed and a request for a reconsideration extension can be made. Evidence that may be considered relevant for a reconsideration include, but are not restricted to the following:

  • Evidence from the police that the individual is victim of a modern slavery crime.
  • A judgment from the Immigration tribunal that an individual is a victim of modern slavery.
  • A Section 45 defence being successfully used in Court.
  • Evidence suggesting that the statutory guidance regarding the making of a Conclusive Grounds Decision has not been followed correctly.  

 

World Day Against Trafficking In Persons 2023

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Today marks World Day Against Trafficking In Persons 2023. The ILO estimates there are 24.9 million victims of human trafficking worldwide. UNODC’s Global Report on Trafficking in Persons released in January this year indicates that the Coronavirus pandemic and other crises around the world increased the vulnerability of human trafficking victims, yet fewer victims of modern slavery are being identified. In many developing countries, public sector capacity to respond to modern slavery have been weakened.

In the UK, from its world leading position in the fight against modern slavery, the political framework has posed challenges to the fight against human trafficking. Over the last 12 months since Brexit, we have seen increasing numbers of modern slavery due to larger supply chains providing more chance for exploitation. However, the UK has now put hundreds of modern slavery cases on hold from the National Referral Mechanism while government draws up new instructions for officials in light of the Illegal Immigration Bill.

Within HTMSE’s network in the UK and around the world, there are many organisations, legal professionals and trafficking experts who are working tirelessly to protect those who are subjected to the heinous crime of human trafficking. This World Day Against Trafficking In Persons HTMSE invites professionals and organisations who are not yet signed up to join this network to help create a streamlined response to cases of human trafficking and modern slavery.

The Illegal Immigration Bill

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The National Referral Mechanism (NRM) has released new statistics which illustrates the high number of victims of slavery that are bound up in those seeking asylum in the United Kingdom. Overall, 2022 statistics are high – beginning from the increase in small boat arrivals picked up by first responders at the UK border, to the Duty to Notify process seeing the highest number of reports ever to the Home Office (4,580) – to the highest number of potential victims of modern slavery recorded through the NRM ever (16,938), a 33% increase since the prior year. As such the highest number of slavery cases were recorded in 2022. 88% of reasonable grounds cases (17,000) and 89% of conclusive grounds cases (6,000) that were considered by the competent authorities were deemed positive. This shows that the majority of cases claimed to be slavery, are indeed slavery, and the UK Modern Slavery Act plays a critical role in international human rights justice for those seeking asylum.

Imbedded with political issues surrounding high numbers of immigrants entering the UK, fears arise around the exploitation of this system that is designed to protect victims. 

According to NRM statistics, for the first year Albanian nationals were the highest number of referrals per nationality, exceeding UK nationals at 25%, mostly being child potential victims of slavery. Albanian nationals accounted for 27% of potential victims of modern slavery, mostly being adults, and many arriving via small boats to UK shores. This has given rise to backlash at the statistics with rhetoric suggesting Albanian refugees are ‘claiming to be slavery victims’ using the UK Modern Slavery Act. However, migrants also from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and Syria arriving in small boats are usually unable to access visas, passports or conventional safe routes of immigration and are therefore highly vulnerable to the exploitation of human traffickers.

For further information, see the Home Office National Referral Mechanism and Duty to Notify statistics UK, end of year summary 2022.

Landmark Lawsuit against Tesco for Forced Labour found in Thai Supply Chain

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Burmese workers producing F&F Jeans and other clothing for Thai company VKG were subject to conditions of forced labour when supplying the Thai branch of Tesco between 2017-2020. This included illegal pay rates such as £3 per day, employees subject to 99 hour working weeks, ill working conditions such as outdated machinery causing injuries to the employees, and the employer tampering with wage records through control of employee bank cards. In 2020, 136 VKG workers were dismissed when asking to be paid the minimum wage, leading to the inquiry into modern slavery within VKG.

During investigations, police and Thai officials are accused of contrived interviews. It took only one day to interview 114 ex-VKG workers, where victims’ statements were allegedly deleted, they were rushed and ‘cut off’ from finishing sentences. NGOs witnessing the interviews observed that due process was not followed and interviews were ineffective, suggesting they were conducted for appearance rather than to obtain true conclusions of the safety of the VKG employees working conditions.

This landmark lawsuit against Tesco for ‘negligence and unjust enrichment’ is brought forward by Oliver Holland, partner at Leigh Day, representing 130 workers formerly employed by VKG, as well as a 7 year old daughter of an employee who was raped on factory grounds. Tesco does not have day to day dealings with the factory, yet the corporation has encouraged its suppliers to reimburse their employers, and commented on previous compensation paid to VKG workers by the Thai labour court. However, within the remit of the UK, Tesco will face repercussions against the UK Modern Slavery Act for forced labour found within their supply chain. It is critical for corporations to be held accountable for modern slavery within their global supply chains in order to address the profits gained from inequality and human rights abuses.

For the full Guardian reports, see here:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/05/thai-police-accused-sham-probe-alleged-forced-labour-former-tesco-supplier#:~:text=Tesco-,Thai%20police%20accused%20of%20′sham’%20forced%20labour,inquiry%20at%20former%20Tesco%20supplier&text=Thai%20police%20have%20been%20accused,conclude%20no%20laws%20were%20broken.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/18/workers-tell-of-sweatshop-conditions-at-thai-factory-used-by-tesco