Slavery resources

Joint response to the announcement of reforms to the modern slavery framework 

With the announcement today that the new Immigration and Asylum Bill will include reforms to the modern slavery legislative framework, leading organisations and experts warn the government that it cannot end human trafficking and modern slavery without a safeguarding-first response to survivors that shifts the balance of risk decisively onto traffickers. 

While we welcome indications the Bill may include some positive improvements for the identification and support of child trafficking victims, we are concerned that there remains no meaningful commitment to a comprehensive child exploitation strategy. Furthermore, minimal and selective commitments on children must not be used to justify wider reforms that will deny survivors’ protection, embolden traffickers, and place more children at risk of exploitation and harm.

The ‘Decade of dignity’ report is a strategic roadmap to eradicate modern slavery in the UK by 2036. Produced by a coalition of the leading anti-slavery organisations including Anti-Slavery International, the report challenges the current ‘low risk, high reward’ environment that allows exploitation to flourish in plain sight. We move beyond fragmented responses to provide a unified, systemic vision built on four pillars: mandatory corporate accountability, a toughened criminal justice response, survivor-centred recovery, and a national strategy for child protection.

The ‘Decade of dignity’ is our collective commitment to dismantling the systems of exploitation and replacing them with a society where every individual is seen and every person is free.

As part of the expanding global landscape of business and human rights legislation, several countries have either implemented or are in the process of introducing import and product bans to prevent the market flow of goods made with forced labour.

While these legislative efforts are increasing, differing approaches are emerging as to whether and which forms of child labour should fall into the scope of product and import bans. There are important nuances that must be considered in developing tools to tackle child labour.

Modern Slavery (MS) is a serious and growing issue. Local Authorities (LAs) play a key role in identifying and supporting survivors. However, many LAs face challenges in fully adopting their legal responsibilities as First Responders (FRs).  

Following the publication in May 2025 of research on LAs’ implementation of their First Responder responsibilities (see key findings below) and the development of a preliminary training framework, the Middlesex University research team, in partnership with the Anti-Trafficking Monitoring Group (ATMG), held further consultations with LAs, NGOs, and lived experience experts to strengthen and refine this framework. 

The finalised training framework, published in February 2026, sets out core guiding principles, a four-tier training structure (from awareness to leadership), and practical recommendations for implementation, designed as a flexible, adaptable structure, rather than a prescriptive curriculum to support councils in developing context-specific, survivor-centred training programmes.  

The study identified several barriers and areas for improvement: 

1. Limited awareness and training: Many LAs staff are unaware of their role as FRs. Training, where available, is often inconsistent and not tailored to local needs. Some staff assume that only the police can deal with MS cases. 

2. Fragmented responses: While some councils have strong MS policies, others lack clear processes for identifying and supporting survivors. This results in an inconsistent approach across different regions. 

3. Barriers to multi-agency working: Effective MS response requires collaboration between LAs, law enforcement, and community groups. However, miscommunication, lack of trust, and unclear responsibilities hinder joint efforts. 

4. Gaps in supply chain oversight: LAs have a legal duty to monitor their supply chains for potential exploitation, but reporting is inconsistent and many councils lack the resources to conduct thorough checks. 

5. Examples of good practice: Some LAs have developed strong partnerships with community organisations, invested in specialist MS teams, and introduced innovative training approaches. These examples highlight what is possible with the right strategies in place. 

This report was produced by Middlesex University in partnership with the  Anti-Trafficking Monitoring Group. 

Read the May 2025 research and executive summary here.

Over the past few years, there has been a renewed conflation between modern slavery and immigration enforcement, which is undermining government efforts to tackle modern slavery and leading to the de-prioritisation of measures aimed at addressing it.

This approach has driven legislative and policy changes resulting in unequal access to identification and support for survivors, gradually eroding the protection system that took years of government work to develop and improve. The departure from a human rights-based and victim-centred approach in favour of implementing immigration enforcement policies is harmful to survivors, communities and our society as a whole.

This briefing aims to examine the consequences of this approach, its past and current impact, as well as the potential implications for the future.

Increasingly, countries have, or are legislating, instruments to ban the import of products made by forced labour. These include the US, Canada and Mexico. The EU Forced Labour Regulation, which bans the sale, import and export of goods made using forced labour, is the most recent piece of such statute. Given that the EU single market is currently the world’s largest consumer market, the Regulation has the potential to influence business practices globally, to prevent, end or mitigate forced labour, and to stop companies profiting from forced labour in their supply chains. The Regulation could also drive progress in legislative efforts related to forced labour in other countries, whose companies may be impacted by robust enforcement of the Regulation. Importantly, the Regulation will address a significant gap in the EU legislative framework, as there has previously been no instrument in the EU that prohibits the market flow of products made with forced labour.

The Regulation provides that the Union seeks to eradicate the use of forced labour and promote decent work and labour rights worldwide. Article 11(f) states the European Commission shall make available guidance for economic operators on due diligence in relation to forced labour imposed by state authorities. The purpose of this briefing is to inform the due diligence guidance that the Commission will publish in relation to state-imposed forced labour. It provides what due diligence efforts are expected of companies to identify risks of state-imposed forced labour in operations and supply chains, when disengagement is necessary, and what steps should be taken to swiftly disengage. The draft due diligence provided herein aligns with international guidelines and established principles by international organisations including the ILO, the OECD and the United Nations. 

The briefing also provides a comprehensive explanation of how state-imposed forced labour is distinct from forced labour carried out by private actors. In the former, it is the State –  which has obligations under core human rights treaties and ILO Conventions to protect its population, including from forced labour – that is the perpetrator. This type of forced labour, therefore, requires a different response by companies as the  abuse is carried out in pursuit of government policy and is maintained by the state apparatus itself. This briefing also includes examples of how state-imposed forced labour is currently carried out in various geographic locations and across sectors.

Anti-Slavery International, Friends of the Earth, Labour Behind the Label, Corporate Justice Coalition, Transform Trade, Freedom United and Ekō delivered our joint petition of over 145,000 signatures on behalf of over 40 civil society organisations and unions calling for the introduction of a Business, Human Rights and Environment Act.

The outdated Modern Slavery Act is entirely ineffective in driving corporate change to address modern slavery in UK supply chains. Section 17 of the Environment Act on due diligence for forest-risk commodities is weak, being narrowly
focused only on illegal deforestation and failing to meet international environmental standards. Without long overdue secondary legislation, Schedule 17 remains unenforceable.

We now urgently need a comprehensive due diligence law to prevent the UK becoming a dumping ground for goods made with human rights abuses and environmental harms, and a safe haven for companies unwilling to comply with stronger laws in other countries. The time to act is now.

Response to The Employer Pays Principle Feasibility Study within the Horticulture Value Chain

On 8 July 2025, the “Employer Pays Principle Feasibility Study within the Horticulture Value Chain” was published by Alma Economics following co-commissioning by the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and Seasonal Worker Scheme Taskforce. The Employer Pays Principle (EPP) states that no worker should pay for a job – the costs of recruitment should be borne by the employer not the employee. Respect for the principle is fundamental to combatting exploitation, forced labour and trafficking in global supply chains.

The UK government has a duty to safeguard the welfare and interests of migrant seasonal workers who play a crucial role in propping up the horticulture sector and the food supply chain more generally.  It also has a duty to other stakeholders in the horticulture supply chain, including growers. Private sector actors must be held more accountable for their role in upholding the welfare and human rights of workers on the SWV, but the UK government also cannot abdicate its responsibility on these issues. Indeed, the UK government’s recently updated “Transparency in supply chains” guidance states that companies wishing to undertake responsible recruitment “should follow the Employer Pays Principle”. The government therefore cannot sensibly call for anything but the mandatory implementation of EPP on the SWV if it takes its own commitments around responsible business conduct and human rights seriously. We therefore call on the government to swiftly coordinate the safe and ethical implementation of EPP on the SWV in a way that protects workers.

The platform economy, a business model centred on the use of digital platforms, is attracting growing attention from human rights and civil society organisations, trade unions, international organisations and governments. This business model is reshaping ways of working, which evolve with technological advancements. It allows businesses to cut operating costs and expand quickly. Consumers, in turn, should enjoy greater convenience, more choice and simplified transactions.

Despite the many possible benefits for platforms and consumers, emerging evidence has shown how this business model is also leading to platform workers experiencing human and labour rights violations. These are exacerbated by the limited legal protections in this non-traditional sector, where workers are mostly (mis-)classified as independent contractors, which denies them the enjoyment of basic labour rights.

In this paper, we support the argument that the platform economy is structurally exploitative, with risks of labour rights violations and potential risks to forced labour rooted in its core business model, particularly due to the nature of the relationship between platforms and workers and the use of algorithmic management to allocate work. Yet, we also acknowledge that these same elements make it difficult to capture the concrete manifestations in this sector of the concepts underpinning the definition of forced labour, i.e. involuntariness and coercion, making more research crucial to further unpack the findings and analysis this paper offers.

By having in-depth conversations with a small select group of workers in two jurisdictions, this paper hopes to contribute to the evolving discussions on decent work in the platform economy, to improve labour protections for workers by addressing the complexity of the risks to which they are exposed. It also hopes to encourage further research and analysis on how international forced labour indicators frameworks can be applied to this growing business model, including how to make sure that relevant frameworks can be contextualised and adapted to respond to the evolving and emerging business models and employer-employee relationships of the future.

Modern Slavery (MS) is a serious and growing issue in England and Wales and Local Authorities (LAs) play a key role in identifying and supporting survivors. However, many LAs face challenges in fully adopting their legal responsibilities as First Responders (FRs). This report explores these challenges and opportunities, focusing on improving training, awareness, and collaboration to strengthen the local response to MS.

The study identified several barriers and areas for improvement:

1. Limited awareness and training: Many LAs staff are unaware of their role as FRs. Training, where available, is often inconsistent and not tailored to local needs. Some staff assume that only the police can deal with MS cases.
2. Fragmented responses: While some councils have strong MS policies, others lack clear processes for identifying and supporting survivors. This results in an inconsistent approach across different regions.
3. Barriers to multi-agency working: Effective MS response requires collaboration between LAs, law enforcement, and community groups. However, miscommunication, lack of trust, and unclear responsibilities hinder joint efforts.
4. Gaps in supply chain oversight: LAs have a legal duty to monitor their supply chains for potential exploitation, but reporting is inconsistent and many councils lack the resources to conduct thorough checks.
5. Examples of good practice: Some LAs have developed strong partnerships with community organisations, invested in specialist MS teams, and introduced innovative training approaches. These examples highlight what is possible with the right strategies in place.

This report was produced by Middlesex University in partnership with the Anti-Trafficking Monitoring Group.