Over 60 anti-trafficking organisations urge election candidates to prioritise modern slavery

The anti-trafficking sector has joined forces to make some key recommendations to prospective candidates in the upcoming UK general election and to the future government.

ATLEU is one of more than 60s NGOs calling for a renewed commitment to ending modern slavery in the UK and around the world.

A future government must commit to a survivor centred and human-rights based approach to tackling trafficking and modern slavery, which ensures that survivors can access support and safety. 

The joint open letter, published in full here, highlights three key priorities:

Prevent Modern Slavery: Hostile immigration policies, the lack of meaningful protection for workers, restrictive visas, and many other intersecting policies create vulnerability to exploitation and abuse. We need policies and systems that prevent exploitation rather than driving it. 

Prioritise Sustainable Recovery: Survivors must be able to realise their entitlements to support, protection and justice. This includes financial support, safe accommodation, quality and timely legal advice and representation, long-term independent advocacy and support, compensation, and leave to remain. 

Uphold Justice: Modern slavery remains a low-risk, high-profit crime: relatively few traffickers are convicted,  sentences are lenient, and survivors rarely receive compensation from those who exploit them. A future government should take action to hold perpetrators to account and ensure their victims are compensated.