UK's landmark Modern Slavery Act is 10 years old. But justice is still out of reach for many survivors

This year, the Modern Slavery Act will be ten years old.

Former prime minister Theresa May described modern slavery as “the great human rights issue of our time”, and the act was aimed to situate the UK as pioneers in the fight against exploitation setting a benchmark for other nations. Yet a decade on, justice is out of reach for many survivors. For them, escape from trafficking and modern slavery does not mean freedom comes easily. Survivors are often trapped within the UK legal system, which punishes and criminalises them due to crime they were forced to commit. Rather than freedom, some survivors face arrest, imprisonment or deportation for offences they committed under threat and coercion.

Under the Modern Slavery Act, a new mechanism was introduced to protect survivors from being prosecuted for crime they were forced to commit. However, this ‘Section 45’ defence only provides a statutory defence for victims who are forced to commit crimes as a direct result of their exploitation. In theory it should prevent unjust prosecutions for offences victims had no real choice in committing. However, its effectiveness is limited by a long list of exempt offences. There are more than 100 crimes which are not covered, including many linked to forced criminality such as possessing a weapon. In our experience at Hibiscus Initiatives, we speak to many survivors of modern slavery and criminal exploitation who have been made to carry weapons for protection or under duress, who are not covered by Section 45.

Additionally, a lack of specialist training among professionals including police, solicitors and judges means the defence is often underused, leaving many survivors criminalised instead of protected. There is no public data on how often Section 45 is successfully used, making it impossible to assess its effectiveness.

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As we approach the anniversary of the Modern Slavery Act, our reflections must reflect the ongoing criminalisation of survivors. Despite the aim to protect them, hundreds have been prosecuted and imprisoned for offences directly linked to their exploitation under the Act. Data obtained by After Exploitation and openDemocracy shows that, between March 2023 and June 2024, 368 people in UK prisons were identified as potential modern slavery survivors. This statistic alone exposes the failure of our justice system to recognise coercion, yet it is likely the tip of the iceberg.

The UK’s approach does not just criminalise survivors, it deports them. Survivors of modern slavery already faced immigration insecurity, due to a lack of guaranteed, long-term immigration leave for survivors. Now, under the Nationality and Borders Act 2022, new ‘Public Order Disqualifications (PODs)’, allow the Home Office to deny trafficking victims support or protection from deportation if they have received a sentence of 12 months or more. This flies in the face of the ‘non-punishment’ principle in international law, which should protect survivors from being penalised for crimes committed under coercion. In 2024 alone, 242 potential trafficking victims were disqualified from protection under this policy.

For migrant survivors, this means facing both imprisonment and immigration detention, followed by deportation. Survivors may be locked in detention centres or removed from the UK, often back to unsafe conditions and in some instances back to their traffickers. Instead of offering justice, the system traps survivors in a cycle of criminalisation and expulsion.

Underscoring these barriers to justice and recovery is the racialised and gendered ways the system is harming survivors. Black, minoritised and migrant women are disproportionately targeted by the criminal justice system, with Black women more likely to be arrested than white women but less likely to receive victim support. As a frontline service supporting Black and minoritised migrant women who face issues within the criminal justice and immigration system, we meet many women in prison who were coerced into drug importation due to poverty and exploitation. Yet, courts rarely recognise this as mitigating factor. 

Once in prison, survivors also experience widespread racial and intersectional discrimination, abuse and neglect. Ministry of Justice statistics show that more than half of Black and mixed ethnicity women report a form of verbal intimidation, physical or sexual assault, theft and other types of victimisations from staff in prisons. Asian women have faced this treatment at an even higher rate.

One woman supported by Hibiscus recalled: “During my stay in prison, three black women committed suicide. They killed themselves because no one was listening to them… Staff members were telling them to ‘do whatever they feel like’… Finally, the worst happened.”  
 
This is not just an issue of wrongful punishment. It is an issue of institutionalised racism, neglect and dehumanisation. If the UK is serious about combatting modern slavery, it must stop punishing its victims.

The government must urgently repeal policies like Public Order Disqualifications and invest in specialist, trauma-informed organisations who are best-placed to support survivors through recovery and justice. Without this support, the factors which contributed to the survivors’ offending remains unchanged. 

This support is also vital for victim-survivors with no recourse to public funds as they are excluded from accessing essential support around housing and benefits, leaving them in a position where their basic needs cannot be met. Without these steps, the UK will continue to betray the very people the Modern Slavery Act was meant to protect. A new briefing by Hibiscus and After Exploitation shows how victim/survivors of modern slavery including trafficking, forced labour and sexual exploitation continue to be arrested, imprisoned and deported. 

The full brief can be found here.

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