Slavery in the UK

Modern slavery is closer than you think

Modern slavery is present in every part of the UK. You might even see people trapped in slavery without knowing it. It might be someone working in a private home on your street; the man working in the car wash in town; or the cleaner who empties your office bin every night. It can be difficult to spot the signs, but if you are concerned about someone, please call the modern slavery helpline.

The number of people identified as victims of modern slavery has been rising year on year, with over 23,411 people referred to the authorities in 2025. The real number of people trapped in slavery is likely to be much higher, with some estimates suggesting there are more than 130,000 people, and others suggesting 122,000 people are in slavery. Estimates also suggest that the UK imports around £20 billion worth of goods that are at risk of having been made with forced labour.

Modern slavery in the UK

Modern slavery exists in many forms in the UK, including exploitation into criminal activities like cannabis farming, sexual exploitation, domestic slavery or forced labour on farms, in construction, shops, bars, nail bars, car washes or manufacturing. 

While it is impossible to know the full extent of modern slavery in the UK, the Home Office release data to demonstrate the number of people referred to authorities. At the end of 2025, there were:

• 23,411 potential victims of modern slavery identified through National Referral Mechanism (NRM)– the highest number of referrals since the records began in 2009 
• 7,130 potential victims who were identified through the Duty to Notify process – meaning they did not consent to entering the formal support system 
• 30% of all of these were children – meaning there were 7,028 potential child victims 
• 22% of people referred were British nationals 

In 2025, labour exploitation was the most common form of slavery in the UK, followed by criminal exploitation. Criminal exploitation is often driven by the cultivation and sale of drugs in the UK. This includes British children forced into ‘county lines’ drug trafficking, and Vietnamese nationals trafficked into forced labour in cannabis production. 

How do people get trapped in slavery?

Many people are trafficked into slavery in the UK from overseas, as was recently revealed by Sir Mo Farah, for example. But anyone can be exploited, including British nationals, who accounted for the most referred nationality in 2025.  For the many people who find themselves forced to work in illegal enterprises like drug manufacturing, there’s the ever-present fear of being criminalised by the UK authorities for the activities that they have been trafficked into. This is a serious injustice and prevents many victims from feeling able to trust the police, social workers and other authority figures. 

Sadly, the UK’s anti-slavery system has ongoing barriers to effective prevention, identification and protection of those affected. The UK’s ‘hostile environment’ and recent legislation, such as the Nationality and Borders Act and “Illegal Migration” Act, mean people trafficked from abroad are often treated as immigration offenders, instead of being given the support and care they need to recover from their ordeal. Cuts to public services further hamper efforts to prevent exploitation, and mean the authorities often lack the resources they need to investigate trafficking cases. 

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