Potential victims of modern slavery at record high, latest figures show
Data published earlier this year showed a record high for the whole of 2024, when a total of 19,125 potential victims in the UK were referred to the Home Office, up from 16,990 the previous year.
The latest Government data, published on Thursday, gives figures for the three months from April to June 2025.
The Home Office said the 5,690 potential victims of modern slavery referred in the latest three-month period is the highest in a single quarter since the national referral mechanism (NRM) began in 2009.
To access support and have recognition of their circumstances in the UK, victims of slavery and human trafficking have to be assessed under the NRM.
People of UK nationality were the most commonly referred to the NRM, the Government said, accounting for 23% of referrals.
The figure – 1,286 – was the highest number of referrals for UK nationals in a quarter since the NRM began.
The next most common nationalities were Eritrean (accounting for 11% or 641 people) and Vietnamese (also making up 11% or 599 people).
Almost three-quarters of all referrals were male – 74% – while 26% were female.
Among child referrals, 79% (or 1,364) were boys while 20% (or 351) were girls.
The Home Office said in the latest quarter males most often reported criminal or labour exploitation while females most often reported sexual exploitation.
For the most recent period, 457 county lines referrals were flagged, of which the majority were for boys.
There were 11,547 cases which had been issued a positive initial decision, known as a reasonable grounds decision, but were awaiting a final conclusive grounds decision.
This was down from 14,075 at the end of the previous quarter and 23,586 cases at the end of June 2024.
The Government has vowed to clear the backlog of cases awaiting a conclusive grounds decision by December 2026.
The average (median) time cases had to await a conclusive grounds decision once the initial reasonable grounds decision was issued stood at 304 days at the end of June, down from a 474-day wait at the end of the previous quarter.
Independent anti-slavery commissioner Eleanor Lyons argued the system as it stands is not working for victims.
She said: 'Today's figures show that a record numbers of victims of modern slavery are being exploited on our streets and in our communities.
'Shockingly, a record number of young boys are being exploited and more UK nationals are victims of modern slavery than ever before.
'Against this backdrop of rising exploitation, the system that should identify and support victims is not working, victims have lost trust in it, there are long delays for victims, and there is poor decision-making.
'This must change. Government must act to making tackling modern slavery a priority, supported with proper funding and a strategy. Victims of modern slavery deserve more, we must act now to support the increasing number of victims, children and UK nationals being exploited.'
The Home Office has been contacted for comment.
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The Guardian
6 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Anger, fear and a total rejection of politics: the Palestine Action protest was a snapshot of Britain today
In the third month of this tense, parched summer, the British state is under severe strain. Stripped of resources by 14 years of reckless rightwing government, contorting itself to maintain relations with ever more extreme regimes abroad, expanding its security powers at home through ever more tortured logic, regarded by ever more voters with contempt, a once broadly respected institution is increasingly struggling to maintain its authority. You could see the strain on the faces of some of the police officers, reddening with exertion in the sun, as they arrested 521 people in Parliament Square on Saturday for displaying pieces of paper or cardboard with a seven-word message supporting the proscribed group Palestine Action. It was one of the biggest mass arrests in London's history. The many protesters who refused to be led away had to be lifted off the ground, one by one, without the exercise looking too coercive in front of the cameras. Then their floppy, uncooperative forms had to be carried by clusters of officers through the hostile crowd – to chants of 'genocide police!', 'shame on you!' and 'fascist scum!' – to a ring of police vans at the square's perimeter, which were then sometimes obstructed by further protesters, before they eventually drove away. So many officers were needed that some had come from Wales. When Tony Blair's Labour government introduced Welsh devolution 26 years ago, in times of more harmony and less scarcity, cooperation between the nations was probably not envisaged in this form. On Saturday, so that the capital's police custody system was not overwhelmed, those arrested were taken to 'makeshift outdoor processing centres', the Observer reported – as if during a general breakdown of law and order. Some of those released on bail then reportedly went back to the protest. 'Given the numbers of people arrested,' said the Metropolitan police, 'it would have been entirely unrealistic for officers to recognise individuals who returned to [the square].' 'Entirely unrealistic' is not a reassuring phrase for those who believe that the government's approach to Palestine Action is practical and based on sound law. If charged, those arrested will enter the overburdened criminal justice system and then, if found guilty, Britain's bursting jails. It's likely that further supporters of Palestine Action will follow. The organiser of Saturday's protest, Defend Our Juries, has promised a sustained campaign of 'mass, public defiance', to make the proscription of Palestine Action 'unworkable'. This amendment to the 2000 Terrorism Act – a less benign legacy of Blair than devolution – states that anyone who 'wears, carries or displays an article' publicly, 'in such a way… as to arouse reasonable suspicion that he is a member or supporter of' Palestine Action could be jailed for up to six months; and anyone who 'invites support for' the organisation could be jailed for up to 14 years. Authoritarianism and austerity have risen together in Britain, as the relatively generous public spending of the Blair years has receded and new waves of radical activism have formed over the climate crisis and the destruction of Palestine. Yet the possibility that austerity will make authoritarianism unaffordable, with too much of the government's funds swallowed up by the security state, does not seem prominent in Labour's thinking. The fact that Keir Starmer is a former director of public prosecutions and that the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, has for many years been one of parliament's leading authorities on national security, has given them a lot of faith in law-and-order solutions to political problems. The Parliament Square protesters took a different view. They had been advised by Defend Our Juries not to give quotes to journalists, to avoid distracting from the protest's focus on the Palestine Action proscription and the genocide in Gaza. Yet the dozen protesters I spoke to informally all talked about Britain's police and politicians without the slightest deference, as part of a system that was failing, practically and ethically, to address our era's escalating crises. As the arrests went on and on, through the hot afternoon and into the evening, many of the protesters barely moved, but kept facing the same way, sitting on the ground with their placards carefully displayed and their backs to the Houses of Parliament. Partly, this was to provide a globally resonant image, but it was also to dramatise their rejection of the will of the Commons, where only 26 MPs voted against Palestine Action's proscription last month. Parliament likes to see itself as a historic defender of freedom and liberty, yet when panics about subversive groups are under way, its liberalism often evaporates. While the Commons narrows its views in times of crisis, the electorate sometimes does the opposite. Half of those arrested in the square were aged 60 or older – usually the most politically conservative demographic. Many had had middle-class careers in public service. Chatting among themselves on the grass in the quieter moments between police surges, they could almost have been taking a break between events at a book festival. One woman sat on a camping stool, wearing a panama hat. When I introduced myself, she said: 'I don't like the Guardian, I read the Telegraph.' The last time Labour was in office, opposition to its more draconian and militaristic policies also emerged across the political spectrum. The more rightwing members of this opposition can be questioned: are they as outraged when Tory governments support wars or suspend civil liberties? My sense is not. But either way, broad opposition erodes a government's legitimacy. At the 2005 election, after the Terrorism Act and the Iraq war, Blair still won, yet with almost a third fewer votes than when he came to power. With Labour more unpopular now, Starmer can less afford to alienate anti-war voters – much as his most illiberal subordinates might want to. Yet any electoral consequences from the scenes in Parliament Square, and from likely sequels, are hardly the only things at stake in the Palestine Action controversy. At mid-afternoon on Saturday, with the police cordon tightening around us, I got talking to two elderly protesters who had watched people being arrested beside them. 'I'm in two minds about carrying on with this,' one of them said, opening and closing her piece of cardboard with its illegal message. Defiant earlier, she now seemed frightened. The legally safe space for protest in Britain is shrinking again. Meanwhile in Gaza, there's no safe space for anything at all. Andy Beckett is a Guardian columnist
The National
20 minutes ago
- The National
Palestine Action founder attacks 'false' Labour claims about group
Huda Ammori rejected allegations from the top of the Labour Government, made after more than 500 people were arrested under terrorism laws on suspicion of supporting the proscribed group. Asked on Monday whether the UK Government was reconsidering its decision to designate the group as a terrorist organisation following mass arrests on Saturday, the Prime Minister's official spokesperson said they were not. READ MORE: Wikipedia loses Online Safety Act legal challenge 'Palestine Action was proscribed based on strong security advice following serious attacks the group has committed involving violence, significant injury and extensive criminal damage,' the spokesperson said. Downing Street said the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre – an independent authority based within MI5 – had found the organisation had carried out three separate acts of terrorism. The UK Government further said it is unable to provide 'all of the detail at this stage' but the proscription has been made through a 'robust, evidence-based process'. 'We've said that many people may not yet know the reality of this organisation, but the assessments are very clear: this is a violent organisation that has committed violence, significant injury and extensive criminal damage,' Keir Starmer's spokesperson said. Justice Minister Alex Davies-Jones (above) said on Monday that the UK Government had 'credible reports of them targeting Jewish-owned businesses here in the United Kingdom, and there are other reasons, which we can't disclose because of national security'. Ammori said the claims Palestine Action is a violent organisation were 'false and defamatory'. She said: 'Yvette Cooper and No 10's claim that Palestine Action is a violent organisation is false and defamatory, and even disproven by the Government's own intelligence assessment of Palestine Action's activities and the Home Office spokesperson's statement outside court just a few weeks ago.' Ammori said the group does not advocate for violence against persons and the majority of its activities would not be classified as terrorism. 'Spraying red paint on war planes is not terrorism. Disrupting Israel's largest weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems by trespassing on their sites in Britain is not terrorism,' she said. 'It is the Israeli Defence Force and all those who arm and enable their war crimes who are the terrorists.' READ MORE: Labour 'must back probe into Israel's blatant killing of journalists', union says She claimed the reason the UK Government has banned the group is 'because they capitulated to the Israeli embassy, arms manufacturers, and pro-Israeli groups who lobbied them to ban us'. Meanwhile, officers from the Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism Command will be working over the coming weeks to put together case files in relation to the 532 arrests made at a protest in London in Saturday, the force has said. The demonstration, organised by Defend Our Juries, was held in Parliament Square, with the Metropolitan Police warning it would detain anyone expressing support for Palestine Action. The majority of those arrested, 348, were aged 50 or over, according to a breakdown published by the Met on Sunday. Amnesty International claimed that arrests 'for the type of peaceful activity that took place in London over the weekend would violate international human rights law'. Liz Thomson, the charity's acting Scotland director, urged Police Scotland and the Lord Advocate not to follow the London police force's lead. 'Similar scenes should never be replicated in Scotland,' she said. 'Some arrests have been made by Police Scotland in recent weeks, reportedly of individuals displaying messages deemed to be in support of Palestine Action without any incitement to violence. 'Police Scotland and the Lord Advocate must be clear that they have obligations under the Human Rights Act and international law to uphold the right to peaceful protest – and that carrying out arrests for peaceful expression on this issue will be a violation of international human rights law.'
Rhyl Journal
35 minutes ago
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No 10 defended the move to ban the organisation under counter-terror laws, saying evidence and security assessments shared in closed court supported its proscription. Scotland Yard has said some 522 people were held over the weekend for displaying an item in support of a proscribed group, out of the total 532 arrests made during the policing operation at a march in central London. Asked on Monday whether the Government was reconsidering its decision to designate the group as a terrorist organisation following mass arrests on Saturday, the Prime Minister's official spokesman said: 'No. Palestine Action was proscribed based on strong security advice following serious attacks the group has committed involving violence, significant injury and extensive criminal damage.' Downing Street said the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre – an independent authority based within MI5 – had found the organisation had carried out three separate acts of terrorism. The Government is unable to provide 'all of the detail at this stage' but the proscription has been made through a 'robust, evidence-based process', it said. 'We've said that many people may not yet know the reality of this organisation, but the assessments are very clear: this is a violent organisation that has committed violence, significant injury and extensive criminal damage,' Sir Keir Starmer's spokesman said. Speaking to broadcasters earlier on Monday, justice minister Alex Davies-Jones said supporters of the group would face 'the full force of the law'. 'We have credible reports of them targeting Jewish-owned businesses here in the United Kingdom, and there are other reasons, which we can't disclose because of national security,' she told BBC Breakfast. Meanwhile, officers from the Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism Command will be working over the coming weeks to put together case files in relation to arrests made at a protest in London in Saturday, the force has said. The demonstration was held in Parliament Square on Saturday, organised by Defend Our Juries, with the Metropolitan Police warning it would detain anyone expressing support for Palestine Action. The majority of those arrested, 348, were aged 50 or over, according to a breakdown published by the Met on Sunday. Detained protesters were taken to prisoner processing points in the Westminster area. Those whose details could be confirmed were released on bail to appear at a police station at a future date. There were a further 10 arrests, six for assaults on officers, two for breaching Public Order Act conditions, one arrest for obstructing a constable in the execution of their duty, and one for a racially aggravated public order offence, the force said.
