Resources

For many survivors of human trafficking, recovery does not begin

This study finds that immigration detention has negative mental health consequences across a variety of immigration detention facilities and detainee characteristics. Recommendations based on findings are presented, including eliminating child detention, imposing upper limits to the duration of adult detention, improving mental health screening pre-detention, and providing evidence-based psychological care during detention.

Survivors of human trafficking are victims of serious crime and grave human rights abuses. Yet in the United Kingdom many survivors - particularly non-British nationals - are instead treated as offenders. Rather than receiving protection, they are frequently arrested, prosecuted, imprisoned, detained under immigration powers and excluded from support because of offences that are directly linked to their trafficking and exploitation.

Over the past decade, the UK has introduced new immigration or asylum legislation almost every year. Yet people seeking safety are still left waiting years for final asylum decisions, forced into poverty while they wait, and too often falling through the gaps of a failing system. Survivors of trafficking are too often not identified and denied the support they need to recover and reduce the risk of further exploitation. The Immigration and Asylum Bill does not address these fundamental problems – it worsens them.

The Immigration and Asylum Bill published yesterday will significantly weaken the UK’s response to trafficking and modern slavery. It will deny protection, support and recovery to many survivors. It penalises survivors for their trauma by setting arbitrary deadlines for disclosure of painful experiences. This approach punishes survivors, will embolden traffickers and in doing so enable exploitation to thrive.

In a new editorial, Professor Cornelius Katona (Honorary Director of Medical and Research at the Helen Bamber Foundation) and colleagues raise two vital questions: Can a GP have sufficient expertise to give an opinion in the context of post-traumatic stress disorder and specifically on the impact of detention? And, can a doctor working for a charity be independent, objective, and impartial?

Alongside Freedom from Torture (FfT), we have succeeded in our legal challenge to the changes made by the Home Office to its 'Allocation of Asylum Accommodation' policy. These changes, introduced in February 2024, forced survivors of trafficking, torture and other serious forms of violence to share rooms with strangers.

A new research study explores the impact of short-term grants of leave on former unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. Conducted by University College London, Helen Bamber Foundation and Baobab Centre for Young Survivors in Exile, this research is the first to document the lived experience of receiving temporary status in the UK.

After years of campaigning, the Home Office has for the first time published its own data confirming that hundreds of child refugees arriving in UK alone are being wrongly treated as adults, with devastating consequences. These children are routinely placed in adult accommodation, immigration detention and even adult prisons.

Today's King's Speech confirmed what we feared: another Immigration and Asylum Bill, another year of policies that will make life harder for the people who need protection the most. Over the past decade, the UK has introduced new immigration or asylum legislation almost every year, yet fundamental problems remain unresolved.

The Home Office has updated its Modern Slavery guidance to clarify how decision makers in the National Referral Mechanism should consider ‘disclosure’ when and how a potential victim first reveals or reports experiences of exploitation or abuse) when assessing the credibility of a trafficking or modern slavery claim. HBF is extremely concerned about these changes.

People seeking asylum in the UK are often placed in unsuitable Home Office accommodation that harms their physical and mental health. Requests to move are frequently denied, even when supported by strong medical evidence. Decisions rely heavily on desk-based assessments, raising serious concerns about the treatment, safety, and dignity of people fleeing violence and persecution.