Donate

UK’s modern slavery response weakened by immigration legislation

Efforts to combat modern slavery have been undermined by recent immigration laws, which have deterred victims from coming forward and enabled traffickers to evade accountability, according to a new report.

Published by Unseen, the anti-slavery charity, ‘Restoring belief, reducing criminality’ assesses the impact of modern slavery provisions within the Nationality and Borders Act 2022, the Illegal Migration Act 2023 and the Safety of Rwanda Act 2024.

The research draws on official Home Office figures, data from the Modern Slavery & Exploitation Helpline, and interviews with police, professionals on the frontline and survivors, concluding that policies designed to curb irregular migration have weakened both victim protection and law enforcement capability. 

Unseen’s analysis highlights how there is no evidence of widespread abuse of the UK’s modern slavery identification system. However, a growing culture of disbelief in potential victims – reflected in higher evidential thresholds and new disqualifications from support – has made it significantly harder for victims to be identified, helped and protected. As a result, many survivors disengage from authorities altogether, allowing traffickers to use fear and silence to maintain control and avoid detection.

The report warns that misclassifying modern slavery as an immigration issue obscures its reality as a serious economic crime linked to fraud, money laundering, drug offences, violence and exploitation within UK communities. Where victims are denied recognition or support, investigations collapse and perpetrators remain beyond reach. 

Key findings include: 

  1. Victims of modern slavery have become the focus of efforts to combat organised immigration crime, wasting UK resources to wrongly penalise people subject to trafficking rather than the criminal gangs who exploit them. 
  2. Policies have failed to address irregular migration and instead enable traffickers to move people into and around the UK with little risk of detection.  
  3. Trust between victims and authorities has collapsed, increasing the likelihood that survivors disengage, disappear, or enter irregular work to survive.  
  4. Recent policies prevent the accurate identification of modern slavery occurrence and limit the opportunity law enforcement has to pursue offenders – potentially in violation of international law.  
  5. UK nationals, including children groomed and exploited within the UK, are now less likely to be recognised as victims or to access statutory support. 

Unseen is calling on the government to separate modern slavery from immigration policy, restore early access to support for potential victims, and strengthen law enforcement by embedding financial investigation into every modern slavery case. 

Andrew Wallis OBE, CEO of Unseen, said: “Modern slavery is not an immigration loophole. It is a serious, high-harm crime. Yet recent legislation has tilted the system away from victims and towards traffickers. Our evidence shows that when survivors are met with suspicion rather than belief, they disappear from view and criminal gangs are free to operate. Restoring belief is not about lowering the bar. It is about restoring justice and giving the UK a fighting chance to tackle exploitation properly.”

This latest research from Unseen follows a report published by the charity in October 2025 on the economic cost of modern slavery. According to the report, the socio-economic impact of modern slavery on the UK is up to £60bn a year, with the cost to police forces reaching £210m in 2024.

An evidence summary of our research is available below:

download the evidence summary

For queries and further information, please contact [email protected]

Related stories

Donate
Justine Currell

As I came to understand more about the issue, including through a visit to an Unseen safehouse, I knew I needed to do more to stop this abuse and exploitation.

For the last five years of my Civil Service career, I was the Modern Slavery Senior Policy Advisor in the Home Office and led on development of the Modern Slavery Act, including the transparency in supply chains provision and business guidance.

I joined Unseen to lead the development of the Modern Slavery & Exploitation Helpline, and Unseen’s work with businesses. I am regularly called upon to present at national and international conferences and use my experience of working with Ministers to influence other governments internationally to take action to address modern slavery and, in particular, business supply chain issues.

In my spare time I enjoy keeping fit, music, reading and travelling.

Andrew Wallis

What ultimately compelled me to act was a report on how people from Eastern Europe were being trafficked through Bristol airport to the USA. Kate Garbers, who went on to be an Unseen Director, and I wrote to all the city councillors, MPs and the Police Chief Constable challenging them on the issue. The challenge came back to us: this city needs safe housing for trafficked women. And so Unseen began.

But we never wanted Unseen to be just about safe housing. We wanted to end slavery once and for all, and that remains our driving focus.

I chaired the working group for the Centre for Social Justice’s landmark report “It Happens Here: Equipping the United Kingdom to Fight Modern Slavery”. This is now acknowledged as the catalyst behind the UK’s Modern Slavery Act of 2015. It was a great honour to be awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours that year. On the other hand, I’ve also been described as “the loveliest disrupter you could ever hope to meet”.

This job has taken me from building flat-pack furniture for safehouses, to working with businesses to address slavery in supply chains, to delivering training, raising awareness and advising governments around the world.

When not at work, I enjoy travelling, spending time with my dog Harley, cooking, supporting Liverpool and Yorkshire CC, music (I’m a former DJ) and endurance events such as the Three Peaks Challenge and Tribe Freedom Runs – which I vow never to do again. Until the next time.