Policy & Research

The National Referral Mechanism (NRM) is the Home Office process for identifying victims of modern slavery. Since it was established in 2009 the number of people known as ‘potential victims’ identified and referred for support has been continuously increasing. In 2024, 19,125 potential victims were referred to the NRM by…

The Modern Slavery Act 2015 was a significant step forward in the fight against modern slavery. However, ten years since the Act was passed there remains much to do to prevent modern slavery, protect victims and pursue offenders. At the time the Modern Slavery Act was world-leading in respect of…

The Modern Slavery Act 2015 was a significant step forward in the fight against modern slavery. However, ten years since the Act was passed there remains much to do to prevent modern slavery, protect victims and pursue offenders. The number of victims being identified has multiplied since 2015 and the…

The Modern Slavery Act 2015 was a significant step forward in the fight against modern slavery. However, modern slavery remains a low risk—high reward crime with criminals continuing to abuse victims with impunity. Bringing offenders to justice is essential to breaking the business model of organised crime groups, bringing individual…

Justice and Care’s ‘Hidden Chains and Missing Links – Child Trafficking in Romania: A Comprehensive Study’ provides a detailed investigation of the hidden scale of child trafficking in Romania. Comprehensive research, conducted by the University of Greenwich (London), exposes alarming gaps in prevention, awareness, and resources. It highlights how vulnerable…

Often, the term forced or compulsory labour conjures up images of child labour in cocoa farmsin Africa or the state-imposed exploitation of the Uyghur people in Xinjiang Province, China. However, the recent high profile case of victims exploited by a Czech crime family in a CambridgeshireMcDonald’s fast food restaurant and…

The introduction of the Modern Slavery Act in 2015 established the UK as a clear global leader in the fight against modern slavery. Nearly ten years on, despite some initial progress, overall, we are moving in the wrong direction. This report sets out six priority recommendations for how the…

New analysis from a study conducted by Justice and Care, with Dublin City University, and De La Salle University, Manila shows that the trafficking of children through Online Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of Children (OSAEC) in the Philippines, has reached epidemic levels, sustained by global demand and a – ‘cottage industry’…

New analysis from the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) and Justice and Care reveals that almost half (45 per cent) of those suffering from criminal exploitation are British boys aged 17 and under. The new report, “Criminal Exploitation: Modern slavery by another name”, found that criminal exploitation is the most…

In 2020 the UN declared that, ‘Trafficking in persons remains one of the largest human rights violations exacerbated in times of crises where the humanitarian community does not have a predictable, at-scale way to respond.’ Today – when the world is experiencing multiple crises with devastating humanitarian consequences, and a…