Modern slavery and human trafficking: identifying and reporting … – GOV.UK

About this guidance

This guidance tells Home Office staff about how to identify suspected perpetrators of modern slavery related criminal offences.

It covers the main principles around the identification of perpetrators of modern slavery related offences as outlined in:

It is important for all Home Office staff to adhere to the modern slavery referral procedures for their area, to ensure the appropriate modern slavery identification and referral procedures are applied and are consistent with those agreed with the law enforcement partners, local police forces and other modern slavery (anti-trafficking) network partners and organisations.

The Home Office has a duty to safeguard vulnerable people and promote the welfare of children. For more information see: Vulnerable adults and children

Criminal Investigators in Immigration Enforcement must be aware of their obligations under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Part 3 of the Data Protection Act 2018 see: Data Protection CFI Policy and Data protection

If you have any specific questions or queries about the content of this guidance you can email:

If you have any general questions about the guidance and your line manager cannot help you or you think that the guidance has factual errors, then you can email: CFI Operational Capability and Compliance Enquiries.

If you notice any formatting errors in this guidance (broken links, spelling mistakes and so on) or have any comments about the layout or navigability of the guidance then you can email the Guidance Rules and Forms Team (GRaFT).

Below is information on when this version of the guidance was published:

This is new guidance.

This section tells Home Office staff about the different definitions of modern slavery related offences, as outlined in the College of Policing guidance on Modern Slavery (Definitions).

The Modern Slavery Act 2015 consolidated existing criminal offences and increased sentences for these offences from 14 years to maximum sentences of life imprisonment. The act also introduced a statutory defence for slavery or trafficking victims who are compelled (in the case of an adult) or forced (in the case of a child) to commit certain criminal offences:

section 1 slavery, servitude and forced or compulsory labour

section 2 human trafficking

section 4 committing an offence with intent to commit offence under section 2 (human trafficking)

section 45 - Defence for slavery or trafficking victims who commit an offence

The section 1 and 2 offences have maximum sentences of life imprisonment, and the section 4 offence has a maximum sentence of 10 years imprisonment.

The 2015 act also introduced Slavery and Trafficking Prevention and Risk orders (STPO) (STRO)

For more information see: Modern Slavery, Human Trafficking and Smuggling

For relevant legislation and guidance in Scotland see section 1 of the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015 and the Human Trafficking and Exploitation Strategy (Scotland).

For relevant legislation and guidance in Northern Ireland see sections 1 and 2 of Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Criminal Justice and Support for Victims) Act (Northern Ireland) 2015 and the Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Strategy 2022

The Modern Slavery Act 2015 came into force on 31 July 2015.

For modern slavery related offences prior to this date, slavery, servitude and forced labour are primarily covered under the:

Offences of trafficking prior to this date were primarily covered by the:

Below are a number of offences that are commonly associated with slavery and trafficking and may be considered if there is insufficient evidence to support a charge under the Modern Slavery Act 2015:

Section 3 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 defines a person as a victim of exploitation if one or more of the following apply to them:

slavery, servitude and forced or compulsory labour

sexual exploitation

removal of organs

securing services and such like by force, threats or deception

securing services and such like from children and vulnerable persons

For more information on the above definitions see: Home office Modern slavery statutory guidance

If a person acts with the intention of committing one or more of the above offences, including by aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring, they are guilty of perpetrating modern slavery.

The consent of a person (whether an adult or a child) to exploitation is not relevant in determining whether or not a person has been exploited.

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.

Servitude is linked to slavery but is much broader than slavery. In Siliadin-v-France- 2006-43-EHRR-16. the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) reaffirmed that servitude is a particularly serious form of denial of freedom. It includes, in addition to the obligation to provide certain services to another, the obligation on the serf to live on the others property and the perceived impossibility of changing his or her status. Domestic servitude can be characterised as a form of forced labour within a residential setting.

Section 1 of the Forced Labour Convention 1930 (No.29) defined forced or compulsory labour as being all work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself voluntarily. Case law suggests that indicators of forced or compulsory labour include recruitment by deception, coercion and/or abuse, exploitation at work, and coercion at destination.

This is defined in Article 3 of the United Nations Palermo Protocol (applicable to 117 signatories of the Protocol) and in the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings and, for the purposes of the provisions of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, section 2 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (applicable to England and Wales).

Section 2 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 states that a person commits an offence if they arrange or facilitate the travel of another person, with a view to that other person being exploited.

Human smuggling (also called people smuggling) is not human trafficking or a form of modern slavery.

Human smuggling occurs when an individual seeks the help of a facilitator to enter a country illegally, and the relationship between both parties ends once the transaction ends. Many of those who enter the UK illegally do so by this route. Human smuggling is not a form of modern slavery.

The purpose of human smuggling is to move a person across a border illegally, and it is regarded as a violation of state sovereignty.

The purpose of human trafficking is to exploit the victim for financial gain or other benefit and is regarded as a violation of that persons freedom and integrity.

Human smuggling occurs when a person seeks the help of a facilitator to enter the UK illegally, and the relationship between both parties ends when the transaction is complete. It is a consensual agreement.

A smuggled person is, however, a potential victim who may be vulnerable to being trafficked at any point in their journey, and the distinction can be blurred.

Perpetrators may smuggle people with the intention of exploiting them, or with the intention of facilitating exploitation. Alternatively, the smuggled can become vulnerable to traffickers upon arrival at their destination and subsequently be exploited and/or harmed.

Perpetrators of human smuggling can be charged under Section 25 of the Immigration Act 1971 for assisting unlawful immigration to the UK or under Section 25A for knowingly helping asylum seekers to enter or arrive in the UK depending on the circumstances of the attempted facilitation.

For more information on the above see:

This section tells Home Office staff about how to identify the suspected perpetrators of modern slavery related offences, as outlined in the College of Policing guidance for Modern Slavery (risk and identification).

For information regarding the identification of victims and exploitation indicators, see the College of Policing guidance for Modern Slavery (risk and identification - Victim profile and Exploitation indicators)

Perpetrators use the control methods shown below to engage or coerce vulnerable individuals, who often fit the victim profile, in exploitative work or into becoming perpetrators:

abducting or kidnapping victims

committing verbal, physical, sexual and/or psychological abuse against the victim, their family or someone they know, in private or in public

charging unreasonable fines (fees)

using threats and intimidation

withdrawing basic provisions, for example, food, accommodation, sanitation, mobility

increasing workload

plying vulnerable victims with free alcohol and/or drugs

being the only source for free food and accommodation

guarding victim identities and legal documentation so that their mobility and access to state services is controlled, for example, hospitals; they are unable to leave and seek work elsewhere; and they are at risk of trouble with the police in other countries if they report an offence without presenting legal identification

through a relationship

presenting a false scenario in which the potential victim is convinced that they can improve the quality of their life and that of their family

recruiting for non-existent jobs and education placements

misrepresenting the job and work conditions, for example, women going abroad and believing they will be employed as domestic workers but ending up in prostitution

offering refuge with the intent to exploit

threatening to harm or intimidate the victim, the victims family or someone they know in the UK or in the victims home country unless they comply with the perpetrators demands

making victims believe they are colluding in illegal activities with perpetrators and are complicit in the offence

reinforcing to victims that they will not be believed if they approach the UK authorities to make a report, engendering fear and suspicion - victims may have been deceived previously by corrupt authorities in their home country - those who have no experience of the UK police may have been convinced that a similar or worse culture prevails in the UK

instilling in victims a fear of possible deportation or imprisonment in the UK

developing a romantic or intimate relationship with a victim in order to exert more control over them and, in some cases the victim can become pregnant, creating a greater emotional hold between the victim and the offender - this is known as the loverboy model and is often found in cases of sexual exploitation

making victims feel attached to the family of perpetrators and adopting them as a member of the family, so that they feel unable to make a complaint against the family (victims may call the mother and father figures Ma and Pa to reinforce familial attachment)

indoctrination

false claims over victim earnings

removal of basic human rights including sanitation, food, freedom to choose

faced with debt claims from perpetrators, victims feel morally bound to work until debts are paid off

perpetrators may marry brides from their home countries and transport them to the UK - on arrival, husbands and their families may threaten the brides with divorce and deportation if they do not comply with demands, making them victims of exploitation

perpetrators may perform spiritual practices, for example, witchcraft, to coerce victims into exploitation

perpetrators may threaten to disclose information about the victim engaging in pre-marital sexual activity unless they comply with the perpetrators demands, leading to sexual exploitation and/or prostitution - the victim may have been raped

managing victims into debt by charging them excessive fines (fees) for visas and other travel documents, food, accommodation, tools and transport

giving victims a loan that is hard to pay back because the amount of the loan and the interest on it are inflated

controlling access to victims bank accounts

managing wages so that victims are not sure what they are being paid and what fees are being deducted

claiming hereditary debt bondage

developing inappropriate friendships or intimate relationships with victims

offering gifts

praising victims by affirming what a good worker they are and that they are working longer hours than any other person

reassuring victims that they will be paid a lump sum wage in the future

locking victims into rooms

forcing victims to work and live in the same accommodation

allowing very limited or no contact at all with victims families, other victims, the local community or those in the locality from the same nationality

frequently changing the victims location

removing privacy

denying victims access to a telephone, mobile phone or the internet

This section tells Home Office staff about some of the possible scenarios where suspected perpetrators of modern slavery related offences could be present.

There will be a number of scenarios and potential indicators which could identify a suspected perpetrator, either in action or close to their potential victim or victims.

Whether at the border, in a residential or commercial address, in a vehicle or on a vessel, often perpetrators will go unnoticed and undetected whilst victims can often be unaware of their exploitation and being under duress and control.

A perpetrator will try to submerge themselves amongst the natural environment and do their best to be hidden, discreet and inconspicuous.

One trait which can often be detected and linked to a suspected perpetrator is their determination to control and coach their victim, either by speaking on their behalf, providing their victim with a rehearsed script or using digital or other concealed methods to direct and control their victim to act and say what is instructed of them.

Conversely, potential victims will often appear subdued, silent, withdrawn and disengaged.

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