Research and analysis from the anti-trafficking sector has demonstrated the considerable shortcomings within the UK’s anti-trafficking framework, failing victims and survivors of trafficking.
The UK government has tended to view trafficking and modern slavery as a discrete form of abuse rather than existing at the extreme end of a continuum of exploitation. Working conditions must be improved generally to avoid situations degrading to the stage where they amount to human trafficking. Strengthening the labour market enforcement can help to embed a model based on proactive protection rather than simply redress once a situation has degraded to a sufficient level of severity.
This joint submission looks at the impacts of the UK’s immigration enforcement-centred approach, current obstacles in the identification and protection of victims of trafficking and modern slavery and provides a series of recommendations.