This year marks a decade since the UK passed the Modern Slavery Act 2015. At the time, former Prime Minister Theresa May described modern slavery as “the great human rights issue of our time”, with the Act positioning the UK as a global leader against exploitation.

But a decade later, justice remains out of reach for too many survivors. At Hibiscus Initiatives, we see firsthand how escaping trafficking and modern slavery does not automatically mean freedom and recovery. Too often victim/survivors are criminalised and become trapped in the UK’s legal system, facing arrest, imprisonment or deportation for acts they were forced to commit.

Protection under Section 45

When the Act was passed, it introduced Section 45 – a statutory defence intended to protect victim/survivors from being prosecuted for offences committed under coercion. In theory, it should stop unjust prosecutions, however, in practice, this often does not happen. More than 100 offences are excluded from protection under Section 45, many of which are linked to forced criminality. In addition, we often see victim/survivors who were not advised of their right to use the defence, leading to them being convicted.

Without full and effective protection under the law, victim/survivors who engage in these offences under duress are still criminalised. A lack of specialist training for police, solicitors, judges and magistrates means they are likely to be arrested, charged and convicted. No data is collected on how often Section 45 is used in practice, despite calls for this data to be published.

The evidence is, however, abundantly clear. Research by After Exploitation and openDemocracy found that between March 2023 and June 2024, 368 people identified as potential victims of modern slavery were held in UK prisons. From the experience of our frontline staff, we believe this figure likely underestimates the true scale of the problem.

Deportation of migrant victim/survivors

The UK’s approach does not just criminalise victim/survivors, it deports them. The Nationality and Borders Act 2022 introduced Public Order Disqualifications (PODs), allowing the Home Office to deny trafficking victim/survivors support if they have a criminal record. This contradicts international law, which upholds the non-punishment principle ensuring that survivors are not penalised for crimes committed under coercion. In 2023 alone, 443 potential victim/survivors of trafficking were disqualified from protection under this policy.

For migrant victim/survivors, this means facing both imprisonment followed by the additional punishment of deportation. They are locked in detention centres or removed from the UK, often back to unsafe conditions and in some instances back to their traffickers. Instead of offering justice, the system traps victim/survivors in a cycle of criminalisation and expulsion, increasing their vulnerability by taking away their rights.

Disproportionality

Criminalisation is also a racialised and gendered issue. Black, minoritised and migrant women are disproportionately targeted, with Black women more likely to be arrested than white women but less likely to receive victim support. Many women in prison were coerced into drug importation due to poverty and exploitation, yet courts rarely recognise this as a mitigating factor. Victim/survivors in prison also experience widespread racial and intersectional discrimination, abuse and neglect. More than half of Black and mixed-ethnicity women reported a form of verbal intimidation, physical or sexual assault, theft, and other types of victimisations from staff in prisons. Asian women have faced this treatment at an even higher rate. At Hibiscus, we provide crucial support services to Black and minoritised migrant women who face issues within the criminal justice and immigration system. One woman supported by us recalled:

“During my stay in prison, three Black women committed suicide. They killed themselves because no one was listening to them… Staff members were telling them to ‘do whatever they feel like’ …Finally, the worst happened.”

This is not simply about wrongful prosecutions – it reflects a deeper crisis of institutional racism, neglect, and dehumanisation within the justice system.

Data shows that the growing length of prison sentences disproportionately affects women and minoritised groups, alongside a surge in custodial sentences for minor offences in recent years. It is clear that reform is needed, particularly around sentencing decisions. Despite this, new Sentencing Council guidelines intended to make pre-sentence reports (PSRs) standard practice – helping judges and magistrates understand crucial background factors such as immigration status, ethnicity, and experiences of exploitation – have been delayed following political pressure. This is a missed opportunity to address these issues and ensure fairer, more proportionate sentencing for those most at risk of injustice.

Recommendations

The government must take urgent action to end the criminalisation of trafficking victim/survivors and ensure they are treated with dignity and compassion. This requires repealing harmful policies such as Public Order Disqualifications, which deny protection to survivors with criminal convictions, and fully upholding the non-punishment principle in practice. Crucially, the government must invest in and guarantee long-term funding for specialist, trauma-informed organisations that are best equipped to support survivors through recovery and towards justice. Access to specialist support is especially critical for those with no recourse to public funds, who are often left without the housing and financial assistance needed to rebuild their lives. Without it, the root causes that led to their exploitation and offending remain unchanged. All criminal justice agencies must improve training and refer to guidance for professionals encountering victim/survivors, including judges and magistrates. Without urgent reform, the UK will continue to fail the very people the Modern Slavery Act was created to protect.

To find out more, read this briefing by Hibiscus and After Exploitation on the criminalisation of modern slavery survivors.