The formation of the new UK Government is an opportunity to reset our approach to tackling modern slavery.
For years successive governments have failed to effectively and sustainably address modern slavery and human trafficking. While the number of survivors identified each year increases, their rights to support and protection have been consistently undermined, and the number of successful prosecutions remains low.
It is only by working with survivors of modern slavery that we can hope to end this abuse and provide survivors with the assistance they need for their recovery. Sadly, too often survivors have been shut out of conversations about their experiences and their needs.
In recent years, it has felt to many of us that the Government has been working against survivors. In the name of creating a deterrent effect, the governments of Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak restricted survivors’ rights and attempted to remove them to Rwanda. This demonstrates a profound misunderstanding of modern slavery, in particular the way in which a victim’s agency and autonomy are denied by their traffickers.
The last Government’s actions served to strengthen traffickers’ control, emboldening them to act with impunity. Survivors increasingly fear trusting the State or disclosing their experience for fear of being detained and deported. The previous Government created more vulnerability, not less.
Rather than punishing survivors, we must work with them to understand their experience, to assist them in their recovery and to prevent further harm.
The new Government has set out a legislative agenda which provides opportunities to strengthen protection for survivors of modern slavery and those who are at risk.
Within days of being in office, the new Government had cancelled the Rwanda Plan. We welcome the move to scrap the plan. In December last year, Hope for Justice wrote a policy briefing for MPs voting on the Rwanda Plan. We also wrote extensively on how the scheme would have enabled traffickers to operate with impunity and make the most vulnerable individuals even more vulnerable: What does the Rwanda Plan mean for victims and survivors of human trafficking? | Hope for Justice.
Within the proposed legislation there are opportunities to undo some of the damaging legislation introduced in recent years and to strengthen protections for survivors. This includes the Employment Rights Bill, the Victims, Courts and Public Protection Bill, and the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill. We look forward to working with the Government to use this legislation to implement a safeguarding approach to modern slavery.
We welcome the Prime Minister’s comments around migration during a press conference at the fourth summit of the European Political Community (EPC), and published by the BBC. Keir Starmer said: “We also have to tackle the problem upstream in relation to the drivers of migration, whether that’s climate, poverty, or whether that’s conflict.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Image, Home Office press handout
We also support the positive messaging regarding human rights. Sir Keir Starmer vowed that his Government will “never” leave the European Convention on Human Rights. This promise was made last week at the EPC summit opening, before the leaders of more than 40 other countries. He said: “We will approach this [migration] issue with humanity and with profound respect for international law, and that’s why my Government scrapped the unworkable Rwanda scheme on day one, and it’s why we will never withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights.”
Further promising signs are the new UK Government’s commitment to protecting vulnerable individuals, including tackling violence against women and girls and child criminal exploitation (CCE), as outlined in the King’s Speech, and a new deal for working people to ban exploitative practices and enhance employment rights.
The new Government has pledged to introduce a new law on the exploitation of children and young people by criminal gangs, including county lines. We believe that safeguarding must be at the heart of our response.
As Jess Phillips, MP for Birmingham Yardley, takes on responsibilities for safeguarding in the Home Office, we look forward to working with her to make this a reality.
Prior to the election, Jess Phillips, said: “Modern slavery is of course a serious crime and so a Labour government must commit to seeing traffickers prosecuted, their assets seized, and survivors compensated. To do so, we must first take good care of those who have suffered exploitation.”
Financial stability is a critical component in a survivor’s recovery, reducing their anxiety about being able to support themselves or their dependents, and so reducing their susceptibility to offers of exploitative work. More must therefore be done to enable survivors to claim compensation from their traffickers.
Making it easier for survivors to claim compensation of course plays a dual purpose. Trafficking is extremely profitable and so greater financial accountability is absolutely vital if we are to make this a high risk, low reward crime.
Society can be judged in how it treats our most vulnerable and isolated communities. Those who have suffered modern slavery have been treated abysmally in recent years, they have been vilified and scapegoated. If we are to end slavery, it is time to change our approach and to put their needs first.
