A brief overview of Modern Slavery in the UK

When we think of modern slavery, we don’t think of it being on our doorstep, within our own communities or within our supply chains.  However, it’s often much closer than you think and hidden in plain sight. With modern slavery figures continuing to rise, its highly likely you have unknowingly witnessed people who are trapped in modern slavery or purchased goods, works and services through supply chains where modern slavery is a commonplace.

What is Modern Slavery

People currently suffering in modern slavery are enslaved to do things against their will usually making clothes, serving food, picking crops, working in factories or in homes as cooks and cleaners.

Most common forms of Modern Slavery

Human trafficking – Use of violence and threats to transport, recruit or harbour people in order to exploit them for a multitude of reasons; prostitution, labour, criminal activity, marriage or organ removal.

Domestic servitude – Domestic work and servitude are not always classed as modern slavery, and when properly regulated can be an important source of income for many people.  However, when victims of domestic servitude are working in other people’s homes, they may be particularly vulnerable to abuses, exploitation and slavery as they could be hidden from sight and therefore lack legal protection.

Debt bondage/bonded labour – A common and widespread form of slavery.  Victims of modern slavery trapped in poverty borrow money and are forced to work to pay off the debt and therefore lose control over their employment conditions and the debt.

Descent-based slavery – Where victims of modern slavery are born into slavery.  Although this is an old form of slavery, people are treated as property and they’re passed down the maternal line.

Child slavery – This includes child trafficking, child soldiers, child marriage and child domestic slavery.

Forced and early marriage – When someone is married against their will and unable to leave, most child marriages can be considered slavery.

Forced labour – Victims of modern slavery are forced to do work against their will, usually under threat of violence

E-commerce giant Shein was valued at $100 billion in October 2022, making it worth as much as Zara and H&M.  Shein has risen from relative obscurity to dominate fashion, and is a key driving brand in the issue of waste, with it’s “fash-fashion” model, taking revenue from $2 billion in 2018 to $15,7 billion in 2021.  Its model of manufacturing garments, plus the west’s demand for them, means it’s churning out 10,000 new products a day!  This is facilitated by the constant, timed mark-downs perpetuate the idea that you need to buy now and can’t wear anything twice.  Fast fashion is steeped in human rights and modern slavery as workers are working up to 18 hours a day without appropriate breaks, poor working conditions and sometimes paid up to 3pence an hour(which is not fair pay), not to mention the climate and environmental implications of fast fashion.

As it’s not frequently discussed, knowing how to spot the signs and preventing modern slavery is critical in fighting this crime and bringing the criminals to justice  The majority of crimes happen within supply chains so procurement professionals are at the forefront of ensuring processes are in place to ensure fair and legal worker conditions for all, and that their suppliers are equally as educated on the matter. This ensures you are  buying from ethical suppliers that can help to prevent and eradicate modern slavery from our supply chains.

Each year the scale of modern slavery continues to rise. Current statistics by the International Labour Organisation states that there are 49.6 million living in modern slavery conditions, 12% of all those in forced labour are children.  In the UK annual Modern Slavery Review it states “The number of NRM (National Referral Mechanisms) referrals provides a good indication of the scale of known victims in the UK but is not a good estimate of overall prevalence.  In 2019, 10,627 potential victims were referred to the NRM”.  Of course, the actual number of people within modern slavery will be considerably higher.

The potential for criminals to target victims is becoming more widespread today due to vulnerable people fleeing war torn countries, increased poverty, the ongoing impact of Covid and the high number of fleeing disaster areas such as flooding and earthquakes..  According to the European Commission, 89.9 million are currently forcibly displaced worldwide.

• 27.1 million refugees
• 53.2 million internally displaced
• 4.6 million asylum seekers
• 4.4 million Venezuelan refugees and migrants

People who are in vulnerable situations are more likely to be victims of modern slavery.  This is because they are more willing to take risks to find a better life elsewhere or better work to provide for their family.  For example, taking a job they know little about in a different country or taking a loan from traffickers getting them into debt.  The traffickers then use this debt bondage to force the victims into back breaking labour which is often dangerous with long hours.

We have previously written about modern slavery in Leicester textile supply chains.  Since 2020, a large-scale operation in Leicester responded to reports of exploitation and underpayment within their textile factories.  A recent report by Low Pay Commission details how textiles manufacturing in Leicester has been a focal point for substantial enforcement activity.  A fear of job insecurity and low expectations are amongst the factors for Leicester textile workers’ unwillingness to report their underpayments and working conditions as most are just being grateful to be employed whilst others are worried their hours would be reduced and therefore lose valuable income.

The BBC released a huge cache of data hacked from official servers in Xinjiang region of China.  The Uyghur people are being transferred to ‘re-education’ camps, systemically driving a state of ideology whilst orchestrating forced labour.  The first signs of Uyghur being detailed in these camps were in 2016.  The Chinese authorities released a statement stating that the camps were “vocational training centres” and were vital to tackle religious extremism, however there has been no credible evidence that these centres have had any impact on extremism or terrorism.  We explored further into what this looks like in China in this article.

How as procurement professionals can we do our bit to ensure modern slavery is tackled?  Since the “Tackling Modern Slavery in Government Supply Chains” guide for commercial and procurement professionals was realised in September 2019 we have seen both buyers and suppliers look to embed best practice into procurement to ensure we understand who we are doing business with, understand and identify any risks within supply chains and take appropriate action to address those risks with a particular emphasis on supporting the victims of modern slavery.

Additional support can also be found by using the Modern Slavery Assessment Tool which is a risk identification and management tool. This tool has been designed to help public sector organisations work in partnership with suppliers to improve protections and reduce the risk of exploitation of workers in their supply chains. It also aims to help public sector organisations understand where there may be risks of modern slavery in the supply chains of goods and services they have procured.

Stop the Traffik Global and Shiva Foundation published a very practical guide for SME’s to help raise awareness of modern slavery and support proactive management and identify modern slavery and related issues.  Download the PDF for free from our library.

To provide more context, here is an example of recent coverage of the Shein labour exploitation but there are many others.