Modern slavery victims going undetected in UK prisons

The UK’s prison system is failing to detect and support victims of modern slavery, with some inmates found to be serving time for crimes they were forced to commit.

The revelations made in a new report by the University of Essex and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in the UK warns a lack of data surround the topic means the scale of the issue is likely to be much larger than known.

Researchers identified numerous challenges for effective identification of modern slavery survivors in prisons, including insufficient awareness and training of prison staff, resource shortages and big barriers for survivors to disclose their stories.

One key issue highlighted is the disconnect between prisons and the National Referral Mechanism (NRM), the national system to identify survivors of modern slavery in the UK, resulting in prisons often not knowing there are survivors who are already in the NRM among their populations.

Prisons themselves aren’t able to refer people as potential victims.

Essex Law School’s Dr Marija Jovanovic, who led the study, said: “International law binding on the UK requires countries to deal with modern slavery by identifying and protecting survivors, whilst sending perpetrators to prisons.

“The reality is much more complicated, with many survivors being sent to prisons, sometimes for the crimes they were forced to commit by their traffickers, instead of being protected. “Shockingly, given how few convictions there are on modern slavery charges, it’s not out of the question that there might be more survivors than perpetrators in UK prisons.”

Not being recognised as victims of modern slavery means that they are unable to receive support in prisons, and even those formally identified as victims often do not receive specialist support, including mental health support, and face challenges in accessing support post release.

Many of them face risk of further exploitation and re-trafficking, both in prison and post release.

Several people interviewed in research mentioned situations where survivors were imprisoned with their traffickers.

Researchers carried out 46 semi-structured interviews with a range of participants including NGOs, police officers, prison staff, and other experts. They also conducted a focus group discussion with survivors of modern slavery who experienced imprisonment in the past, and they surveyed 50 out of 117 Modern Slavery Single Points of Contact (SPOCs) – a role introduced in all prisons in England and Wales in 2022 whose job it is to improve the ability of prisons to identify and support survivors.

The sense of this issue being underreported has been shared by many professionals interviewed by the researchers.

One forensic psychologist said: “I’ve probably [seen over] a hundred over the last few years and it’s increasing exponentially.”

Another professional working in the Northern Ireland Prison Service said: “I know we have made a number of referrals […] and I know […] that the chaplains anecdotally would tell us that a large number of foreign nationals they see claim to have been either enslaved or trafficked.”

The research project was conducted in partnership with Hibiscus Initiatives and was commissioned by the Modern Slavery and Human Rights Policy and Evidence Centre (Modern Slavery PEC), which in turn is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).

More information can be found in the report.