After years of litigation and research, ATLEU and partners have made the case for the family worker exemption to be removed. This has led to the important recommendation from the Low Pay Commission today that it is not fit for purpose.

At the age of just 14, Rebecca was groomed, physically assaulted and raped, then forced to sell drugs by organised crime groups. Although she was identified as a potential victim of trafficking, Rebecca was forced to report to the Home Office throughout lockdown. She contracted Covid in December, quickly followed by her father and sister. Her sister was heavily pregnant and had to be put into an induced coma while her baby was delivered prematurely. She was unconscious for almost three weeks as her baby began life in intensive care. Rebecca is still required to report each week.

A new report released today by the Anti Trafficking and Labour Exploitation Unit, reveals how reporting in person directly threatens survivors’ physical safety and sense of security.

Ileara was born in Nigeria. She was approached by someone who promised they could find her work in the UK as a hairdresser. On arriving, she was taken to a flat and told she would have to work as a prostitute to repay the debt she owed them for bringing her here. The traffickers made threats to kill members of her family back home. She was forced into sex work in the UK for nearly a year before escaping.

Before coming to ATLEU, the Home Office decided she was not a victim of trafficking.

Modern slavery has no place in the New Plan for Immigration and risks creating policy which overlooks the needs of survivors who are first and foremost, victims of crime. Based on the limited information the government has provided, we fear that these proposals, if implemented, will put survivors at a higher risk of detention, exploitation and re-trafficking.

We are calling for all potential survivors of slavery or trafficking who are in the National Referral Mechanism to have access to work. This access must not be restricted and should be granted automatically once a person is identified as a potential victim of trafficking.

ATLEU have now launched their new online referral system to improve survivors’ access to free legal advice.

Trafficking survivors have died before receiving a single penny of compensation because of the length of time it takes to successfully get through the government’s Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) process, according to a new report from ATLEU.

Legal advice is an essential part of the support needed by survivors of trafficking and slavery to escape, recover and rebuild their lives. Survivors need advice and assistance to navigate and engage with the complex systems through which they are identified, access accommodation and support, regularise their immigration status and recover compensation.

Our response to this review is informed by our day to day experience of practising public law and advising survivors of trafficking and slavery and those who help them.

Four barristers previously instructed by ATLEU have now been appointed as fee paid employment judges. Niran de Silva, Anna Beale, Akua Reindorf and Louise Price have all represented our clients in some of our most influential cases.

ATLEU are calling for an immediate change to the way legal aid payments are structured on trafficking cases.

ATLEU supports Black Lives Matter. We support the fight for racial justice and equality in the US, in the UK and around the globe. We recognise that racial oppression and murder cannot exist without the complicity and active support of the state and the very institutions that should be there to protect us all. We reject the idea that the protests we see happening here and around the world are in response to American racism alone - this is our enduring global crisis.