Hundreds of Modern Slavery Victims Locked Up in England’s Prisons

(OpenDemocracy)* 21 August 2024 — Hundreds of modern slavery victims may be being locked up in prisons across England and Wales, an exclusive investigation by openDemocracy can reveal.

Between March 2023 and June 2024, the Prison Service and the Ministry of Justice received 268 warnings that an inmate was a potential victim of modern slavery and trafficking.

Exploited people can be forced to commit crimes such as pick-pocketing, marijuana cultivation or county lines drug-running, as well as other serious offences.

The warnings were sent by prison staff who suspected a prisoner was at risk, using the National Offender Management Information System, a database to record personal details about inmates.

More than one warning can be recorded for the same person, meaning some survivors could have been imprisoned multiple times during those 15 months.

openDemocracy used Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to uncover the warnings as part of a joint investigation with After Exploitation, a non-profit organisation that works to track the hidden outcomes of modern slavery in the UK.

Our findings suggest “there are likely more victims of modern slavery in prison than there are traffickers,” said Marija Jovanovich, an academic at the University of Essex’s Law School who specialises in researching human trafficking and modern slavery.

While many victims of modern slavery held in prison will be UK nationals, recent changes to the UK’s immigration laws allow the government to deny migrant people official recognition of their status as a modern slavery victim when they have been sentenced to at least 12 months in prison. In some cases, this means they can be deported after their sentence.

Jovanovich explained that although international agreements say victims of modern slavery, who can be children or adults, should be “subject to a non-punishment principle if the crimes they committed were compelled as a result of their exploitation”, this often does not happen.

“There is no firewall between the criminal justice system and protection,” she said. “The data shows that the principle is not being applied, whether by police, prosecutors or defence lawyers. The endpoint is victims being put in prison.”

This was echoed by Maya Esslemont, the director of After Exploitation, who said victims “may be tortured, coerced or threatened with violence against themselves and their families by traffickers in order to ensure compliance, but this vulnerability is not always enough to save survivors from incarceration”.

“It is incredibly common for victims of criminal exploitation to be punished first and supported second due to poor understanding of vulnerability and exploitation within the criminal justice system,” they added.

Modern slavery victims – including those in prison – are legally entitled to specialist support under the Modern Slavery Victim Care Contract, the UK’s response to its international obligations laid out in the European Convention Against Trafficking.

This support is designed to ensure a vulnerable person is not re-trafficked into slavery and can rebuild their lives following trauma and abuse.

For victims, it includes an allocated support worker, safe house accommodation – which is often provided by charities contracted by the government – and financial aid.

Incarcerated victims have a right to this support after leaving custody even when the non-punishment principle may not apply, for example if they commit a crime that is not related to their exploitation.

But currently there are no dedicated national services in place to help modern slavery victims in prison to access that support. An FOI by openDemocracy revealed that all prisons in England and Wales instead have a “single point of contact” who is trained to identify potential victims.

The result is that when it comes to getting the help they need, victims can be at the whims of the prison service.

Since the start of 2023, nearly 8,000 UK nationals have been identified as potential victims of modern slavery. The majority were children, with 2,600 exploited via county lines activity.

Despite this being a recognised form of modern slavery, the Children’s Society charity has warned that “children involved are treated as criminals.”

openDemocracy approached the Ministry of Justice for comment, but did not receive a response.

Denied help

If the judicial system already makes accessing modern slavery support difficult for British victims, the situation is even more precarious for foreign nationals who have survived exploitation and are serving sentences of 12 months or more.

A new policy known as the Public Order Disqualification can be used to entirely cut them off from support they would otherwise be entitled to and, in some cases, mean they are refused leave to remain in the UK.

openDemocracy’s analysis of Home Office data found that 496 foreign-born individuals have been disqualified from modern slavery support under the new rule, which was introduced in the Nationality and Borders Act, since the start of 2023.

Boris Johnson’s government passed the Act in 2022 after his home secretary, Priti Patel, claimed the modern slavery system was being “rampantly abused by child rapists, people who pose a threat to national security and failed asylum seekers with no right to be here”.

At the time, the Office for Statistics Regulation, a non-ministerial government department, raised concerns that her statement was misleading.

It warned that statistics from the National Referral Mechanism – the system that identifies someone as a victim of modern slavery and triggers support – “do not support the claims that people are ‘gaming’ the modern slavery system, and the source of [Patel’s] claim is unclear.”

Jovanovich told openDemocracy the Nationality and Borders Act has created “a hierarchy of victims”.

“It is really problematic because it creates a presumption that everyone who falls within the new law’s scope is a threat to public order, excluded from all forms of support, and puts the onus on the victim to prove their need for protection,” she said.

Immigration detention

Our investigation also found that more than 2,300 potential and confirmed victims of modern slavery were held in immigration detention in the year to 31 March 2024.

Up until 2021, the Home Office stated that victims of trafficking should be held in immigration detention only in exceptional circumstances. Its Adults at Risk policy now demands victims produce evidence proving they are likely to suffer harm in detention.

“Immigration detention is an unacceptable environment for survivors of modern slavery and trafficking,” Beth Mullan-Feroze, counter-trafficking legal and policy manager at the Helen Bamber Foundation, told openDemocracy.

“It not only increases the risk of re-traumatisation and negative long-term physical and mental health outcomes. It can also prevent victims from being identified and from receiving the support they need and to which they are entitled.

“We do not believe that a person’s recovery needs can be met in a detention setting,” Mullan-Feroze added. “Survivors of trafficking should not be detained.”

An inspection of the Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre last month found five cases where modern slavery concerns were raised but “not followed up appropriately”.

One individual claimed he had been seriously mistreated by men who forced him to sell drugs. Despite being assessed as an adult at risk, he was deported.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “We are committed to tackling all forms of modern slavery and ensuring victims, both UK and foreign nationals, are provided with appropriate support to begin rebuilding their lives.”

*SOURCE: OpenDemocracy. Go to ORIGINAL: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/modern-slavery-victims-prison-detention/?utm_source=SEGMENT%20-%20Newsletter%3A%20oD%20weekly&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Slavery%20victims%20locked%20up%20in%20English%20prisons&_kx=V5m6aL7AXQbxHMvnrNL5Xefx11i6E8wZvd4mCUwtDtI.YjCYwm

2024 Human Wrongs Watch