The NGO Hestia made a super-complaint regarding UK law enforcement’s response to modern slavery. Modern slavery operations by police forces increased by 250% in 2018, however only 7% of these cases have been referred to the Crown Prosecution Service. Their report Underground Lives from March 2019 indicates that police are criminalising the victims of trafficking, therefore hindering the prosecution of their exploiters. HTMSE founder Philippa Southwell was quoted in this report:

“We are still prosecuting individuals on a daily basis when there are key trafficking indicators. […] If we continue to prosecute victims of forced criminality, we will continue to have low prosecution rates for modern slavery-related cases. Almost all of my clients that have been prosecuted do not want to co-operate with a subsequent or parallel investigation into their exploitation because they feel they are not believed.”  

For the full March 2019 report Underground Lives by Hestia, read here.