Seeing people before exploitation
When people talk about modern slavery, the focus is often on statistics, compliance, or policy. But for me and many others like me, this is not abstract. It is a lived reality. Before exploitation, I was a business owner. I have experience in asset management, ambition, and huge responsibility. I also had vulnerabilities, and those vulnerabilities were exploited. However, it is important to remember that modern slavery doesn’t happen because people are vulnerable; in one way or another, we all are. It happens because somebody decides to exploit those vulnerabilities.
This is where the conversation must begin: people affected by modern slavery are people first. We are not defined only by the harm we experienced. Our skills, aspirations, and dignity existed before exploitation, and they remain after. To view us only as “victims” is to miss the bigger picture of who we are and what we can contribute to the future of work, and particularly work in modern slavery.
Healing from exploitation is not about forgetting. The memories do not vanish. Trauma leaves scars that remain part of us. But survivors often talk about the importance of forward momentum.
For me, that has meant turning graves into gardens. Taking the ground of pain and planting something new: perspective, resilience, hope. It is not a false reality. It is the honest work of facing trauma and rewriting its meaning. We do this by investigating what was done to us – the vulnerabilities, the fears, the abuse, the control – then change the narrative of it.
This is why opportunities for work and dignity matter so much. Work is not only income. It is belonging, stability, and participation in society. When employers recognise survivors as contributors, they help create the soil in which new gardens can grow.
The role of business in eradication
The most recent ILO (International Labour Organization) report indicates that profits from forced labour reached a staggering $236 billion, highlighting the alarming scale of exploitation in the global economy. This also draws a picture that says, at its core, modern slavery is an economic issue. Human beings are treated as commodities, to be used for profit or personal gain. Whether through cheap labour in supply chains, sexual exploitation, or forced criminality, the logic is the same: people are reduced to transactions.
This is why harsher penalties are needed for those who exploit. Modern slavery continues because exploitation is cheap and low risk. To end it, exploitation must become costly and unacceptable. Businesses, too, must acknowledge the uncomfortable truth that their systems and supply chains may enable exploitation. When cost-cutting and profit take precedence over people, the conditions for modern slavery flourish.
Businesses cannot, therefore, treat modern slavery as a box-ticking exercise. A glossy report or surface-level audit does not protect workers. Real responsibility means embedding dignity into every decision: procurement, recruitment, partnerships, and culture.
Companies need to invest in long-term relationships with suppliers, build safe reporting channels, and challenge the assumption that cheaper always means better. They must also engage with survivors. Auditors can spot irregularities, but survivors know the control methods traffickers use. We know the vulnerabilities they exploit. We know how fear, threats, and debt bondage can keep people trapped. And we know the signs because those signs were once all over us.
Lived experience engagement is not optional. It is crucial. If businesses are serious about tackling modern slavery, they must listen to and learn from those of us who have lived it. Legislation should require companies to disclose in their modern slavery statements a survivor engagement plan, guided by NGOs that have modern slavery expertise. This means a plan that puts lived experience at the centre of modern slavery action and details how companies intend to safeguard, ensuring people with lived experience receive recognition and value through fair compensation, acknowledgement and opportunities to lead.
Survivor insight should and must be embedded into prevention, remediation, escalation, and long-term business practices. This ensures remedies and escalation paths respond to real needs rather than corporate assumptions. It also shifts the power dynamic and mindset from business leaders feeling like they are fixing survivors’ problems to survivors actively defining and leading on what eradication, dignity, justice, and recovery look like.
Flawed legislation
Over the past few years, I’ve seen how flawed legislation can worsen the challenges survivors face. A good example of this is the Nationality and Borders Act 2022. It was presented and portrayed as a way to strengthen immigration control and protect the UK’s borders. However, it has made life harder for people like me. Instead of creating pathways to safety, it has created suspicion. Survivors are forced to “prove” their exploitation at the very moment they most need trust and protection. Modern Slavery is not an immigration issue; it is a crime that survivors shouldn’t have to do the time for.
Legislation that is supposed to safeguard survivors should not re-traumatise them. Yet under the Act, evidential thresholds are so high that many are disbelieved, discredited, or denied support. Survivors already live with trauma, fear, and stigma. Flawed laws deepen those wounds. When systems punish survivors instead of protecting them, traffickers benefit. Exploitation thrives in silence, and silence grows when survivors are afraid to come forward.
My aspirations for a future without exploitation
My own aspirations are clear. I want to influence legislation so that survivors are better protected, not punished. Laws like the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 need reform. Survivor voices must be present in parliamentary debates, advisory groups, and policymaking. Without lived experience at the table, policies risk repeating the same mistakes.
I also want to work alongside businesses. The future of work cannot be built on exploitation. It must be built on fairness, accountability, and dignity. My goal is to show businesses the responsibility they truly have. Not just to comply with the law, but to lead by embedding ethical practices and survivor engagement into every part of their operations.
The choices we make today will define the future of work. If survivors continue to be silenced by flawed legislation, exploitation will remain hidden. If businesses continue to view people as commodities, modern slavery will persist.
But if survivors are seen as people first, as colleagues, leaders, and changemakers, we can shape a different future. One where lived experience informs policy. One where businesses embrace their moral and economic responsibility. One where graves are turned into gardens.
That is the future I want to see, and I believe it is possible.
Our thanks to the Futures of Work team for featuring this piece and for continuing to highlight important conversations about modern slavery.
Brandon Thomas has a background in asset management and brings his professional expertise to modern slavery charity Unseen’s business team, combining it with his lived experience to drive meaningful change. He began his journey with Unseen in 2022 as a survivor consultant, working closely with the policy and research team to ensure legislation meets the real needs of survivors. He has worked alongside universities across the UK on research projects that have fed into legislation and visited parliament to advise the Home Affairs Select Committee on what recovery should look like for survivors.
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