60+ anti-trafficking organisations urge election candidates to prioritise modern slavery

The anti-trafficking sector has joined forces to make some key recommendations to prospective candidates in the upcoming UK general election and to the future government.

Hope for Justice is one of more than 60s NGOs that are calling for a renewed commitment to ending modern slavery in the UK and around the world. These organisations are signatories to a joint open letter, published in full below.

The letter highlights three key priorities for the future government to take action on. It comes as the political parties begin their official campaigning and voters prepare to go to the polls on July 4.

In advance of the forthcoming general election, our organisations ask that all political parties express a renewed commitment to tackling modern slavery in the UK and around the world.

Policy makers and those delivering services must prioritise engaging and consulting with communities at risk and survivors in a consistent and meaningful manner. This is essential to ensuring that our collective response meets survivors’ needs and reflects their hopes and sense of justice.

In addition to pledging to tackle modern slavery in election manifestos, we ask that any future government commit to the following principles to guide their anti-slavery strategy.

Action must be taken across a range of policy areas in order to minimise the risk of modern slavery and human trafficking amongst at-risk communities both in the UK and globally. Hostile immigration policies, the lack of meaningful protection for workers, restrictive visas, inadequate child protection, homelessness and many other intersecting policies create vulnerability to exploitation and abuse. Any future government must therefore commit to adopting a holistic approach to minimise such vulnerabilities.

In responding to survivors of modern slavery, it is essential that the Government adopt a survivor-centred and human rights-based approach. Recent years have shown that an immigration and law enforcement-led approach to modern slavery is ineffective both for ensuring adequate protection for survivors and for holding traffickers to account. Equally, the conflation of modern slavery with immigration has not only heightened vulnerability to exploitation, it has also undermined survivors’ recovery.

Survivors must be able to realise their rights to support, protection and justice, as contained in international law. This requires that survivors are able to access assistance including financial support, safe accommodation, legal aid advice and representation, long-term independent advocacy and support, compensation, and leave to remain. This requires a cross-government strategy.

Responsibility must underpin the Government’s anti-slavery strategy. Modern slavery remains a low-risk, high-profit crime: relatively few traffickers are convicted and sentences are lenient. Survivors rarely receive compensation from those who exploit them. Businesses should be held accountable for their responsibility to identify and mitigate forced labour in their operations and supply chains.

We encourage the future government to commit to the vision in which perpetrators are held to account, victims are compensated, and businesses act responsibly.

Signatories (updated 3rd June 2024):