A survivor of modern slavery has finally been given autonomy over where he lives in the UK following a string of poor decisions affecting his recovery after exploitation.
Waiting more than four years to be identified as survivor of modern slavery
It took the Home Office more than four years to formally identify Henrik* as a survivor of sexual exploitation and domestic servitude under the National Referral Mechanism (NRM). Henrik finally received his positive Conclusive Grounds decision via the NRM in March 2024.
In March 2023, The Independent published this article about the long wait times that victims were facing for NRM decisions under the previous Government: Thousands of modern slavery victims waiting over two years for Home Office decision | The Independent. And in October last year, the new Government announced that 200 staff are being hired to deal with the huge backlog of modern slavery cases.
During his long wait for a decision, Henrik* was living in a safe house in Central England, where he thankfully established a strong network of support.
But in November 2023, the Home Office announced they would be moving the survivor into asylum support accommodation in the West Midlands. This would leave him without the connections that he had established over several years – connections which were vital to his wellbeing, mental health and to rebuilding his life after being exploited in the UK.
Hope for Justice’s team of Independent Modern Slavery Advocates® (IMSAs) worked with a housing solicitor, Henrik’s NRM support worker, mental health professionals and other NGOs to advocate on the survivor’s behalf. Together, we asked the Home Office to grant asylum accommodation in the city council where the survivor had strong community links.
Home Office relocates survivor two hours from support network
One of our IMSAs said: “Despite our advocacy, the Home Office instead moved the survivor to another town almost two hours away. Our team saw a huge deterioration in this survivor’s mental health and overall health as a result of moving. He had already suffered trauma from his exploitation. He had been working out where he would live in the future and was suddenly told he would not be able to live there because the system was moving him. The Home Office took away his choice.”
Henrik was in the asylum support accommodation for only a few weeks before he received a positive asylum decision from the Home Office. Hope for Justice was delighted that Henrik had been granted refugee status in the UK, which meant he would be able to work in the UK. But this decision meant he needed to move out of the asylum support accommodation.
In December 2023, Hope for Justice’s team of Independent Modern Slavery Advocates® (IMSAs) worked alongside Henrik to assist him to present to the Local Authority in Central England, the area he had been re-building his life over the past four years.
Local authority fails to provide housing for survivor of modern slavery
But the local authority reviewed the survivor’s case and decided that the survivor’s local connection was with the council in the West Midlands, due to this being where he had asylum accommodation, despite him only living there for a few weeks. Henrick was therefore refused accommodation in Central England.
The survivor told us: “Initially, I was very frustrated when I was told I could not live in the area I had lived in for the past four years. I felt broken as the recovery with my mental health was a work in progress; this felt like a big setback.
“The people and connections around me were part of my recovery and they were helping me. I was concerned about losing my wellbeing and mental health when I was told about the initial decision that I could not remain in the area. I was not even given the option to talk to anyone from the council directly, and they did not seem to consider how I felt or the impact of this decision.”
Legal challenge and advocacy lead to local authority overturning decision
For the next eight months, Hope for Justice worked alongside a housing solicitor to challenge the local authority’s decision. We demonstrated to the city council its legal duty to provide Henrik with somewhere to live.
Just before the case was due to go to a County Court appeal hearing, the local authority finally accepted that the survivor had local connection to their area under the Housing Act 1996. They agreed that they owed the survivor a full housing duty, which means he is now eligible for accommodation in the area where he has an established community.
The survivor said: “I was greatly struggling with my mental health as a result of the first decision and feel this could have been avoided if the local authority had made the right decision initially. I was pleased that they realised they had made the wrong initial decision.
“However, they did not acknowledge their wrong decision and did not apologise. I felt like I was not treated like a person. Although it was positive to finally have the option to move back to the area I had made home.”
Housing solicitor says Henrik is ‘one of many’
Laura Coyle, a partner at Turpin Miller LLP in Oxford, who assisted Henrik in his appeal said: “There is no clarity as to how accommodation provided under the National Referral Mechanism should be treated when it comes to determining local connection.
“In this case, the local authority chose to disregard the accommodation provided under the NRM, asserting that it could not be treated as residence of choice and ignoring the many other factors that gave Henrik a clear local connection to their local authority area.
“While I am very pleased that Henrik ultimately succeeded with his case, he is one of many suffering under the current legal framework.
“Urgent change is required to ensure that survivors of modern slavery and former asylum seekers are able to establish a local connection in areas where they have developed real community links without having to engage in debilitating legal battles with local authorities.”
Plans to advocate for structural change over local connection
One of Hope for Justice’s IMSAs said: “This survivor has had to deal with a string of poor decisions affecting his long-term recovery after exploitation.”
Ellie Russell, Hope for Justice’s Advocacy Manager, said: “Our team will seek to raise this issue at policy level in order to advocate for structural change around local connection and how it interacts with accommodation provided under the NRM. We hope this case can act as a precedent for other survivors facing similar issues.
“In order to aid survivors’ recovery, Hope for Justice believes local connection should be defined in homelessness legislation as being where the survivor has the strongest community links, as opposed to prioritising the area they have been placed for asylum accommodation.
“Ultimately, we want to ensure that survivors of modern slavery are able to access accommodation within their community where they have established networks of support.”
*Name and image changed to protect identity of the survivor
