Modern slaves end up in prison en masse: they were forced to break the law

New research shows survivors of modern slavery are being jailed for crimes they were forced to commit without seeking help, reports The Independent.

Scientists surveyed prison workers and more than half said the prison death toll was likely underestimated. Around a fifth of foreign offenders convicted in the UK sought modern slavery support, according to data from January to September 2022.

A forensic psychologist, who wished to remain anonymous and was interviewed for the report, said he estimated he and his colleagues had encountered 100 slavery victims over the past few years and warned that “that number is growing exponentially.”

One survivor of modern slavery imprisoned told researchers that while in prison, “nobody wanted to listen,” adding: “For so many years I was too scared to speak.”

Another source said it was easier for authorities to jail victims than to offer support. Vulnerable people smuggled into the UK can often be forced to work on farms in drug networks or in organized pickpocket gangs, researchers say.

Another survivor of modern slavery said he pleaded guilty in court so he wouldn’t have to go back to slave owners. The immigration lawyer then gave a speech that freed the prisoner: “this is so wrong, you shouldn’t be here, you shouldn’t be in jail for something you didn’t do.”

One victim told researchers that traffickers end up going free, “while the people who were forced to do it end up getting sentences of three years.” He recalls: “I was a small child who was given into the hands of a predator without knowing it.”

In some cases, children seeking asylum are taken from Home Office hotels and “disappeared”, according to a report by The Observer earlier in 2023.

Fifty people who worked as dedicated points of contact on modern slavery issues were interviewed for the report. Twenty said they knew of at least one prisoner who had been approached by officials for help as an alleged victim of modern slavery.

Dr Maria Jovanovic from the University of Essex, who led the study, told The Independent: “We like to think that countries are tackling modern slavery by identifying and protecting survivors, while at the same time sending criminals to prison. The reality is much more complex: Many survivors are sent to prison, sometimes for crimes they were forced to commit by traffickers rather than protected. “The shocking data we found is that given how few convictions there are on modern slavery charges, it is possible that there may be more surviving slaves than criminals in British prisons.”

Jakub Sobik of the Center for the Study of Modern Slavery, which funded the research, acknowledged that much remains to be done to “improve the identification and support of people affected by modern slavery.”

Sky news reports that between July 2020 and June 2021, more than 2.5 thousand people in slavery were rescued. It is noted that 470 of them were forced to commit crimes such as growing or selling illegal drugs, begging and shoplifting.

“Unfortunately, as a result of the pandemic, we have seen a significant increase in the number of people begging and being forced into begging,” said Emily Martin, from a charity for people rescued from slavery.

The charity filmed an interview with a young man in his 20s, “Dan”, who they helped after he was forced into modern slavery by the man who had initially befriended him.

The man started by buying him food and giving him cash, but suddenly announced that “Dan” owed him £50,000 and would have to start doing whatever he told him. “He took money from me all the time,” the victim says in an interview, “there was no end to it. He beat me. He threatened my mother. He forced me to sell drugs. It got so bad that I tried to commit suicide.”

It only ended when “Dan” was arrested and the police quickly discovered he was a victim of modern slavery and freed him.

The pandemic may have changed circumstances for many people, but it appears criminal gangs have used it as an opportunity to continue making money from the suffering of others.