The government’s illegal migration bill strengthens the hand of traffickers

Modern slavery and human trafficking are two of societies biggest ills – condemning people to lives of misery and often death. With recent data from the Anti-Slavery International revealing there are 49.6 million current victims of modern slavery, with 130,000 in the UK alone, it demonstrates swift and urgent action needs to help end this truly awful crime once and for all – both on a national and international scale.

That’s why the government new proposals announced this week in the Illegal Migration Bill was so disheartening – taking a sledgehammer to our world-recognised modern slavery framework and marking a huge step back in effort to end the crime once and for all. As the government’s very own social media graphic so shockingly communicated, under new proposals thousands of victims will now be denied vital access to support.

The direct implications of the new proposals are deeply concerning. The new measures will cut off extremely vulnerable people, who are either trafficked or arrive illegally, from the UK’s National Referral Mechanism (NRM) – which is the official referral system for identifying victims of modern slavery. Research from Unseen UK reveals 91% of victims were found to be genuine in 2021, with this figure rising to 97% in 2022. This indicates that many genuine victims of modern slavery will be denied access to the NRM to have their case heard, let alone receive support once their case has been found to be conclusively proven.

If anything, the new Bill will now strengthen the hand of traffickers and modern slavers. The ban from the UK’s official systems means asylum seekers and illegal migrants are more at risk of relying on traffickers and slavers. Illegal gangs of traffickers and slavers will even be able to target illegal migrants and asylum seekers who have not previously been trafficked to the UK – increasing the likelihood of modern slavery occurring.

The Co-operative Party is proud that our movement has always acted to help modern slavery victims. From campaigning for legislation and improving protections for victims to committing over 100 councils to eliminate modern slavery from their supply chains, we’ve always stood with victims to end the crime once and for all. But this week’s announcement is a huge blow for many of us who have campaigned on this issue for years.

A good start would be to appoint an Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner – a role overseeing work done to identify and protect modern slavery victims in the UK. With this legally-required role left unfilled (as it has been for nearly a year), the Government will continue to avoid scrutiny over bills like the Illegal Migration Bill.

We must and we can do better. At present, the government’s plan is unworkable and they should move towards actions which reduce the Home Office backlog which has impeded the asylum system. Going forward we must ensure our asylum and migration system provides people with human dignity and does all it can to prevent the scourge of human trafficking and slavery.