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In September, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood joined a long line of ministers who have falsely accused people seeking asylum in the UK of exploiting modern slavery and trafficking protections to remain in the country. Mahmood claimed that they were making “vexatious, last-minute claims” to be victims of trafficking to avoid removal to France under the government’s “one in, one out” scheme. But the reality could not be more different.

Despite going through a complex two-stage system, in 2024 only 4% of non-British nationals who were confirmed to be victims of trafficking were given permission to stay in the UK on that basis. That’s only 176 out of 4,240 people. Over 4,000 adults were refused permission to stay (known as ‘leave to remain’), despite many needing to do so for their safety and recovery and to assist with the prosecution of their traffickers. The situation is no better for children. In the same year, there were 699 confirmed child victims who needed immigration leave, but fewer than five received permission to stay as trafficking victims. The claim that people are “misusing” modern slavery and trafficking protections to remain in the UK could not be further from the truth. 

A system in crisis 

These figures reveal a broken system. Many non-British victims of trafficking need to remain in the UK to access support services and begin recovery from trauma. Without a secure immigration status, they are pushed into poverty, destitution and isolation, leaving them even more vulnerable to abuse, exploitation and re-trafficking.  

This was not what was envisaged when the National Referral Mechanism (NRM), the UK framework for identifying and protecting victims of trafficking and modern slavery, was created. The NRM should be a comprehensive system of identification, protection and support that ensures every adult and child who has suffered human trafficking can recover and rebuild their lives in safety. But in recent years it has become increasingly bureaucratic and difficult to access, with the government introducing new laws and policies that make recognition under the NRM ever harder. Those who are finally formally recognised as victims, sometimes after months or even years, must then jump through further hoops to access support and immigration status.  

As our latest report with ATLEU and ECPAT UK shows, shockingly few survivors are granted leave to remain in this country. Where leave is granted, decisions often take months after a person has been conclusively recognised as a trafficking victim and require significant legal intervention and advocacy from charities like ours and other support organisations. Of the few granted leave in 2024, almost half were given less than 12 months. Many therefore rely on the asylum system as a route to secure immigration status. Even that, though, is under threat as the government has pledged to make settlement for recognised refugees harder.  

Many survivors also lack access to good quality legal advice, making it far more difficult (if not impossible) to meet the excessively high evidential requirements of these systems. This is on top of the trauma, fear of traffickers, and anxiety about repercussions that already make it extremely distressing for survivors to disclose their experiences in full. 

Damaging consequences 

The consequences of being denied leave to remain can be devastating. Take Kejsi’s case for example. After surviving years of domestic abuse, Kejsi (then just 14) left his home in Albania and arrived in the UK to work on a job arranged by friends of his father to repay his dad’s gambling debt. He arrived as an unaccompanied child, was referred to children’s services in a London Borough and was supported to claim asylum. His social workers became concerned when he frequently went missing for days. They suspected exploitation and Kejsi was later referred to the NRM. Eventually he disclosed that the ‘job’ that had been arranged for him was to transport and distribute class-A drugs.  

With support from an NGO, Kejsi began to feel safe, enrolled in school, and started to rebuild his life. But years later he was still waiting for decisions on both his cases. By the time he turned 17 and was confirmed as a victim of trafficking, his asylum claim had been refused, and he was not granted permission to stay in the UK. He was devastated and terrified. The men who had trafficked Kejsi had warned him that this would happen, that he would be detained and removed back to Albania. To Kejsi they appeared to be right, so he got back in touch with them to go underground and ‘work’ to pay off his father’s debts rather than return to violence at home. Shortly afterwards, Kejsi went missing.  

Kejsi is one of thousands of trafficking survivors for whom a grant of leave to remain could be life changing. In 2024, only 395 survivors, who had been refused leave, returned to their countries of origin (either voluntarily or by force) - the rest, like Kejsi, were left undocumented, in fear of removal and extremely vulnerable to re-exploitation.   

Ensuring a secure immigration pathway for confirmed victims is not only vital for the prosecution of traffickers, but also for the long-term safety of victims so they are not at risk of further exploitation and re-trafficking. 

The Home Secretary’s rhetoric and the realities faced by those referred into the NRM all reflect a system that is simply not functioning – one that is incompatible with the UK’s international obligations under the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings. If the UK genuinely wants to address human trafficking, we must move to a process where confirmed trafficking victims are automatically granted support and secure immigration status.