1. An Overview of Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking in London
Lead Intelligence Analyst Gemma Charge
Regional Modern Slavery Analyst Monika Tymanowska

2. Slavery and servitude
Slavery is described as the status or condition of a person over whom any, or all, of the powers attaching the right of ownership are exercised. In essence, characteristics of ownership and indoctrination need to be present for a state of slavery to exist.
The term servitude is broader than slavery and includes, in addition to the obligation to provide certain services to another, the obligation on the ‘serf’ to live on the other’s property and the perceived impossibility of changing his or her status.
Human trafficking
This is defined in section 2 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, which states:
A person commits an offence if they arrange or facilitate the travel of another person, to exploit them. It is irrelevant whether the exploited person, adult or child, consents to the travel.
A person may arrange or facilitate the exploitation of another by recruiting them, transporting or transferring them, harbouring or receiving them, or transferring or exchanging control over them.
‘Travel’ means arriving in, or entering, any country; departing from any country; and travelling within any country.

3. Modern Slavery Current Scale (National & London)
It is somewhat problematic to ascertain the true scale of modern slavery due to its clandestine nature and high levels of under-reporting.
The Global Slavery Index for 2016 indicates that there are approximately 45.8 million people worldwide that are being exposed to one of many forms of Modern Slavery.
The UK is currently ranked at 52 out of 167 countries that feature on the index.
It is suspected that total illicit profits from modern slavery amount to US$ billion per year.
The UK Government has estimated that, in 2013, between 10,000 and 13,000 people might have been victims of modern slavery in the UK.
Economic inequality remains as the main driver of illegal migration and exploitation of human beings.

4. Types of Modern Slavery & Exploitation
Domestic Servitude
Victims carry out household tasks and movement may be restricted
Victims are a reusable commodity and can be exploited across multiple exploitation types.
Crime
Victims are forced or coerced into criminal activities
Types of Modern Slavery & Exploitation
Labour
Victims may work for offenders directly or work for others and have their wages 'taxed' for living expenses by an offender
Organ Harvesting
Victim's organs, blood or eggs may be taken to be sold.
Sexual
Victims can be forced, or appear willing, to work in the sex industry in a variety of locations.

5. The National Referral Mechanism (NRM)
Two official data sources currently used nationwide are Police crime figures and National Crime Agency Statistics on NRM Referrals.
National Referral Mechanism (NRM) has been introduced in 2009 as a way of victim identification, as well as to offer the relevant support.
Any potential victim of modern slavery should be offered an opportunity to be referred to NRM process; if they do they will receive government funded accommodation in the safe house for the period of up to 45 days as well as access to victim services.
Frontline staff employed by the police, local authority and National Crime Agency have a duty to notify the Home Office when they encounter a potential victim of slavery.
NRM statistics used in this profile do not represent the true scale and extent of modern slavery, due to level of underreporting. They should be seen as a good indication, but not the true picture.

6. Budget Airline Flights Last minute cash purchase tickets
How are they entering the UK?
Budget Airline Flights
Last minute cash purchase tickets
International coaches
Minibus service
Lorry
Car

7. Sexual Exploitation
Recent data sets indicate that trafficking for purposes of sexual exploitation remains the most prevalent type of modern slavery in the London.
Victims continue to be targeted because of their personal or financial vulnerabilities and traffickers often tend to share the ethnic origin with the victims.
Some of the recruitment methods utilised in sex trafficking are:
False promises of legitimate work
“Boyfriend model”
Debt bondage
Religious/cultural bondage
Shame, cultural expectation to provide financial support for the family
Kidnapping
Victim has links to a member of criminal organisation

8. Many victims enter the UK willingly with the intention of working in the sex industry.
Some travel with counterfeit documents on budget airlines to regional airports with perceived reduced immigration and security checks.
We also see the purchase of last minute, high value cash tickets by crime groups.
After arrival into the UK, victims are likely to have incurred financial debt which they are
required to pay off, the debt bondage ranges between 15,000 – 50,000 GBP.
The level of control exerted can vary with some sex workers being kept imprisoned with earnings withheld, while others can exercise some level of movement but hand over part of their earnings to whoever is controlling them.
The sex industry can be very transient with trafficked victims either having no understanding of where they are in London or are moved around frequently.
The prevalence of services such as Air BnB has led to an increase in pop-up brothels.
Sex workers can have a limited shelf life for traffickers, particularly if they get pregnant; many are discarded in this instance and will subsequently present at hospitals or immigration centres in advanced stages of pregnancy.

9. Case Study

10. Labour Exploitation
Forced labour is currently the most prevalent form of modern slavery across the UK and is rapidly increasing in London.
It varies from sexual exploitation because it operates mostly in the legal open market where various corporations and smaller businesses employ cheap labour.
Labour exploitation has been associated with construction, industrial and agricultural sectors, nail bars, car washes, the paving industry, recycling, scrap metal and catering.
Our data indicates that the majority of labour exploitation is being carried out by Irish Travellers and Polish or Romanian Gypsies from Eastern Europe.
Irish travellers will tend to exploit those already in the UK whereas those from Eastern Europe will bring individuals to the UK, utilising their own forms or transport.
The construction industry is suspected to be the main area of labour exploitation in London although there is also a high prevalence of nail bars and car washes.
Many victims come to the UK on the promise of work with good wages and accommodation; but the reality is often that they are kept in poor condition, overcrowded multi-occupancy houses and they are often moved in between properties, some are also imprisoned.
Many workers also do not see the full amount of money; some aren’t allowed to have their wages paid directly to them.
The HR department of one construction company discovered that the wages of 5 different employees were being paid into one bank account. It has later transpired that the account holder was controlling the other 4 workers and taking all their wages.

11. Labour Exploitation in the Homeless Sector – Irish Travellers
Nationally and within London Irish Travellers are currently active in labour exploitation within the homeless sector.
They will approach the homeless at soup kitchens, offering cigarettes and wages.
Victims are mostly either British or from Eastern European countries.; many of the victims will not speak English and may have a mistrust in authorities stemming back from their home country.
These victims can be kept for long periods (up to 20 years) in squalid, unsanitary conditions without washing facilities on site where the travellers live.
They are forced to work long hours on construction jobs such as paving or tarmacking; often without breaks or food. Some are also forced to carry out domestic chores around the site or possibly crimes such as theft.
This can lucrative for their exploiters as they tend not to pay the victims for any of their work.

12. Case Study

13. Domestic Servitude
Domestic work is a sector which is particularly vulnerable to exploitation and domestic slavery because of the unique circumstances of working inside a private household combined with a lack of legal protection.
The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that at least 52.6 million men and women work as domestic workers across the world, as well as 7.4 million children below the age of 15.
This work becomes slavery when employers stop domestic workers from leaving the house, don’t pay wages, use violence or threats, withhold their identity documents, limit their contact with family and force them to work.
This type of slavery is particularly prevalent with victims from Northern Africa and South Asia.
Nigerian victims seem to be vulnerable through cultural and familial connections and then taken to the UK with a promise of a better life.
Many come to UK on visas tied to their employers and so do not have the option to leave.
The victims of domestic servitude are hard to identify, they do not wear a label, some work as nannies, au pairs and maids, often in middle class households.

14. The use of Oath Rituals and Juju as a method of control
Oath rituals, juju and witchcraft have the potential to be used in trafficking and exploitation.
They are an exceptionally powerful tool to control and coerce people who believe in such practices.
Oath rituals are commonly used in Nigeria, China and Vietnam; Witchcraft is common in many African countries including Congo, Tanzania, Nigeria, Rwanda and Uganda.
An oath ritual or juju is generally a contract that is made between the victim and the trafficker (who may be referred to as an ‘auntie’ or ‘uncle’).
They may have to take oaths of allegiance, confidentiality and the repayment of all costs incurred for the journey to the UK.
Oath rituals are not necessarily anything unusual in parts of Africa, but the victim has now subjected themselves to the complete bidding of the trafficker.
The ritual generates an aura of fear for the victim and so when they realise that the situation abroad isn’t what they expected, they fear the consequence of breaking the oath more than staying in an exploitative situation.
Victims often feel so obligated to their traffickers that they do not disclose their suffering to anyone else.

15. Criminal Exploitation
Criminal exploitation is a derivative of labour exploitation that involves some type of illicit activities.
Some victims are subjected to many criminal and non-criminal types of exploitation by the same group of traffickers.
Cannabis Factories
Benefit Fraud
Begging
Theft / Pickpocketing
Shoplifting
Sale of counterfeit DVD’s
Sham marriages
Burglary
County Lines drug dealing – increasingly common phenomenon

16. Case Study

17. Organ Harvesting
To date there have not been any recorded cases of organ harvesting in the UK.
However it is worth mentioning that there is a constant global demand for organs,
especially kidneys for which traffickers are likely to receive between $1000 and $5000 US Dollars.
Countries such as Moldova, Brazil and India have been known as the source
countries for donors (World Health Organisation, 2004).

18. Child Victims of Trafficking
The number of trafficked minors has increased significantly in the past two years; in ,245 unaccompanied children applied for asylum in the EU, including 3,045 in the UK.
Their main method of entering the UK is through lorry drops, however some minors have reported to have been smuggled in the hidden compartments in the vehicles.
The London Region is the largest contributor of NRM referrals of children and it accounts for 28% of all UK referrals.
Many trafficked minors are likely to be involved in petty crime offending such as shop lifting and pick pocketing.
Romanian minors are far more likely to be arrested for shop lifting offences than any other nationality (apart from British).
Domestic servitude is very common amongst Vietnamese minors (more so than nail bars).
Albanian minors are increasingly found to be involved in the running of cannabis farms and drug dealing on county lines. Many of those arrested claim that they need to pay off the debt bondage incurred for the travel into the UK.
It is suspected that underage sex workers recruited in Russia, Moldova or Albania are likely to arrive in the UK using false EU adult passports.

19. Who are the Victims?
According to the NRM, the most common nationality of trafficking victims are Albanian (for sexual exploitation) and Vietnamese (for labour exploitation).
Generally victims are trafficked from the economically deprived or politically unstable states.
Once in the UK they are often moved from place to place, especially those who work in brothels; London can also act as a transit point for travel to secondary locations.
A large part of the trafficking recruitment process seems to be technology driven; many victims have reported to have been recruited via social media and online apps.
In some regions however the traditional face to face approach is still quite prevalent; Nigerian victims for instance have reported to have been recruited by someone from within their local community.
Many Romanian and Albanian victims are likely to be recruited by someone known to them, often a new boyfriend or partner.
There are however instances where victims are being exploited by individuals not previously known to them.
Overall, it could be inferred that recruitment methods are dependant on the political, social and
cultural landscape, as well as the level of technical sophistication of the traffickers.

20. Who are the Perpetrators?
Historically it was believed that trafficking was carried out by large organised crime groups, however the networks can actually be quite small and not very organised.
Organised Criminal Groups involved in modern slavery can either manage all aspects, or facilitate specific phases such as recruitment, transportation, exploitation.
Criminal groups with links to modern slavery are also commonly involved in other illicit activities such as drug and people smuggling, as well as firearm importation and large scale money laundering.
Criminal groups tend to be formed by a collection of like-minded individuals linked by:
The majority of the offenders are male, but female offenders are also known, particularly in the cases of sexual exploitation.
Little is known about the socio-economic background of the offenders, but it is suspected that some have had criminal history prior to entering the UK.
Since EU membership expansion in 2007 there has been a large influx of Romanian and Albanian criminal networks.

21. Money Flows
Financial gain continues to be the over-arching motive for Modern Slavery.
The UK generates high demand for sex workers and cheap labour, which provides long term
revenue streams for the traffickers.
According to the International Labour Office the annual profit generated by Modern Slavery reaches 150 billion US Dollars, which exceeds GDP of many countries.
The UK is also an attractive place to launder funds.
We currently know little about the money flows of the proceeds from modern slavery.
The traffickers that get detected by the police are often not the ones receiving the substantial financial rewards, it is therefore problematic to trace and seize the assets.
The traffickers often require the victim’s participation in the cash flow / money laundering
apparatus.
The most common methods are the use of direct bank deposits, cash couriers, MSBs or informal banking systems.

22. Use of Technology
There is a lack of research and understanding of the relationship between technology and modern slavery.
We do know that technology is being deployed at all stages of trafficking, from recruitment down to the exploitation phase, but this doesn’t necessarily mean that the technology only has a harmful effect.
A smart phone in the hands of the sex trafficking victim might be viewed as means of
control and connection to the traffickers, but it is also means of connecting with friends,
family, online support, services and assistance.
Open Source research indicates that new emerging technologies have become an
integral part of crime groups involved in modern slavery.
The technology is often cheap, readily available and it allows the offenders to operate with a scope and scale which is disproportionate to their capabilities.
Many victims have reportedly been recruited via social media ads and Facebook groups, yet the isolation from social media platforms is likely to pose even bigger risks due to lack of access to support services.

23. Any Questions?