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Identifying ‘modern slavery’ can damage asylum claims [1]

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Date: 2025-07 

The UK’s referral system for survivors of trafficking and modern slavery could be damaging people’s asylum claims. Referrals not only delay the asylum claim process, but mistrust of asylum seekers whose referral claims are rejected, or who refuse to be referred in the first place, can also negatively impact asylum claims.

Government mistrust of asylum seekers is no secret. That scepticism bleeds into the modern slavery support system. Politicians, especially the Tory home ministers of the last several governments, have repeatedly claimed that the UK’s modern slavery system is being abused by irregular migrants.

In 2021, for example, the former home secretary, Priti Patel, claimed that “child rapists, people who pose a threat to our national security, serious criminals and failed asylum seekers” were taking advantage of the modern slavery system. She said people were “posing as victims in order to prevent their removal” and to “enable them [to] stay in the country”.

Such statements were quickly shown to be baseless; the government’s own Office of Statistics Regulation admonished the Home Office for repeating them. But they also demonstrated that the Home Office fundamentally misunderstands or is deliberately misrepresenting the system over which it presides.

The National Referral Mechanism (NRM), the official system for identifying and supporting victims of modern slavery, is not an open door into the UK. The NRM cannot grant asylum or residency. But it can cause serious problems for people who are applying for asylum at the same time.

The NRM is not being abused – there is nothing to take advantage of

The NRM’s decision-making process is unlike that of other crimes. Those suspected of being victims are referred into the system by officially recognised “first responders” – self-referral is not possible. Within five days they receive an initial “reasonable grounds” decision, which simply states whether the case officer agrees that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the individual may be a victim.

Once past that hurdle, the individual must then await a “conclusive grounds” decision. This states whether, on the “balance of probabilities”, it “is more likely than not” that the individual is a victim of human trafficking or modern slavery. This can take months, if not years to receive. Between the temporary and final decision, some support services are made available, which are outsourced to the third sector.

The number of people entering the NRM has grown nearly every year since its creation in 2009. In 2024, 19,125 people were referred into the mechanism.

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[1] Url: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/beyond-trafficking-and-slavery/identifying-modern-slavery-can-damage-asylum-claims/

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