To trample over the intentions of the Modern Slavery Act is reprehensible
The new Nationality and Borders Bill goes against the experience of anyone working with victims of modern slavery, writes Caroline Haughey
An underlying principle of the UK’s justice system is the concept that – apart from minor offences – there is no time limit to bring someone to justice.
Yet, in a new piece of legislation, we are creating a time bar for complaints from potential victims of modern slavery. The government’s Nationality and Borders Bill makes it clear that, if a victim of such a crime does not disclose their exploitation when they first connect with authorities, there will be an assumption that they are lying.
This assumption determines the care offered to an individual. Under the current system, someone claiming to be a slavery victim enters the National Referral Mechanism (NRM). Support is given and evidence built as to whether there are reasonable grounds to accept that the person is telling the truth.
But the new bill places an emphasis on credibility determined by how quickly an individual reports that they may be a modern slavery victim. In practice, it is saying that if you do not claim to be a victim of slavery from the outset, you are likely to be lying.
The bill not only undermines a legal principle, but it goes against the experience of anyone working with victims of modern slavery that it takes time for people to disclose exploitation. This is also the case, for example, with victims of sex abuse and domestic violence. It was this understanding that helped shape the UK’s Modern Slavery Act.
Evidence of slavery reflects that victims are exploited because a perpetrator has preyed on their vulnerability – due to age, addiction or a myriad of other reasons. This often impedes the victim’s ability to recognise that they are one through fear, shame, or lack of understanding.
But the government is now endeavouring to use its power to say that it can be too late to complain that you are a victim.
By the nature of the potential new legislation, it seems like within the government there is a belief that most people who claim to be victims of modern slavery are lying. A presumption that they are trying to navigate the asylum system. Yes, a small percentage of people do, but the evidence shows that the vast majority who enter the NRM are telling the truth.
These victims are people like Pawel, who I worked with in Operation Fort, the largest modern slavery case in Europe to date. Lured to the UK, he was promised a better life but instead controlled, intimidated, abused, threatened, and exploited. The traffickers made millions of pounds from him and others, including through large scale benefit fraud. Should these provisions come into force, victims like Pawel would be automatically disbelieved, making already challenging cases all the more difficult to prosecute and wholly undermining the intentions of the Modern Slavery Act.
Assumptions cannot feature in our evidence-based legal system. Perhaps letting genuine victims slip through our hands is a price that is acceptable if we can stop those abusing the system from getting away with it. But to get to the real abusers, we need to identify their victims so they can tell us what happened and who is responsible. Without that knowledge, how can we protect the vulnerable or prosecute the perpetrators?
The government’s bill profoundly impacts genuine victims of slavery and, in doing so, creates an environment in which traffickers will flourish. It will catastrophically undo all that has been achieved in the 10 years since the first modern slavery prosecution.
For successful prosecutions, survivors must be willing to engage. Typically, only one in three will do so at the moment, but with the right support offered to them, engagement could be much higher. The charity Justice and Care, for example, embeds its aftercare workers within police forces to help survivors. As a result, it is seeing nine in 10 of those survivors engaging with police investigations, leading to more traffickers being charged. We need more of this innovation.
This bill does the opposite. Telling victims that it is too late to make their complaint, assuming they are lying or telling them they are less credible than other victims of crime is misguided; indeed, it is morally wrong. It is by default exploiting them again – this is not something I am prepared to do. Our responsibility as a civilized society is to return victims’ dignity, not deprive them of it.
To trample over the intentions of the Modern Slavery Act is reprehensible. It does a disservice to the extraordinary efforts of so many to combat this nefarious crime and mocks the respect the UK has gained internationally as a leader in this field. It must be amended.
Caroline Haughey OBE QC is a criminal barrister specialising in prosecuting modern slavery and trafficking cases. She prosecuted the first modern slavery case in the UK and helped draft the Modern Slavery Act 2015.