sModern slavery reclassified as "immigration issue" by the Home Office

Concerns have been raised after the UK Home Office reclassified modern slavery as an immigration issue.

Yesterday, it emerged that the modern slavery brief had been taken away from the safeguarding Minister and re-classed as a "illegal immigration and asylum" issue in Cabinet.

The move has been seen as a doubling down on Home Secretary Suella Braverman's claims that "many people" are "gaming" modern slavery legislation to avoid being deported.

After Ms Braverman's comments, at the Tory Party conference last weekend, CARE highlighted official data showing that false or spurious claims are not a significant problem in the UK.

Responding to the reclassification of modern slavery, shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said that modern slavery affects many Brits:

“The largest single group of modern slavery victims under the referral system last year were British children – including those who were exploited through county lines", she said.

“The evidence shows the majority of exploitation takes place in the UK rather than across borders. The government should be treating this as an enforcement and safeguarding issue and taking stronger action against the crime of modern slavery wherever it takes place.”

New analysis of government data by CARE shows that between 2020 and 2021 3864 victims (2889 of whom were children) got referred to the modern slavery National Referral Mechanism.