UK must act now to end ‘low risk, high reward’ modern slavery, major new report warns
Human trafficking and modern slavery are grave violations of human rights. The UK’s current response is creating a low-risk, high-reward environment for perpetrators while creating significant barriers for survivors to access support and protection.
Harmful immigration policies, alongside the normalisation of racism and xenophobia in politics and the media, have fostered a climate that enables exploitation and denies survivors the security and protection they need. Failings in legal aid funding, woefully low grants of leave to remain, and huge obstacles to accessing compensation mean that too many survivors cannot access justice or rebuild their lives.
Produced by a coalition of the leading anti-slavery organisations, including ATLEU, the ‘Decade of Dignity’ report is a strategic roadmap to eradicate modern slavery in the UK by 2036. It is our collective commitment to dismantling the systems of exploitation and replacing them with a society where every individual is seen and every person is free.
We move beyond fragmented responses to provide a unified, systemic vision built on four pillars: mandatory corporate accountability, a tougher criminal justice response, survivor-centred recovery, and a national strategy for child protection. The report emphasises that people with lived experience must play a central role in shaping policy, moving beyond consultation to meaningful co-production.
ATLEU has been supporting survivors to access safety and justice for over a decade. We welcome this collective strategic roadmap that calls for needed reforms to ensure that survivors can access legal advice, support, secure status and compensation, including:
All foreign nationals recognised as survivors of human trafficking and modern slavery are to receive five years' leave to remain with a clear pathway to settlement, granting them access to public funds and the right to work
The establishment in law of a civil remedy of trafficking and modern slavery
Reforms to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme, including the recognition of modern slavery as a crime of violence
Survivors to have an automatic entitlement to legal aid, in line with domestic abuse survivors.
Decade of Dignity: A Strategic Vision for Eradicating Modern Slavery in the UK, April 2026