A Misguided Approach to Ending Modern Slavery: An Analysis of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (original) (raw)
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The UK Modern Slavery Act 2015 Three Years On
The Modern Law Review
This article provides a critical assessment of the UK Modern Slavery Act 2015 (MSA) three years after its enactment. It puts forward the following claims: first, that while criminalisation of individuals who engage in severe labour exploitation is welcome, the legislation has failed to increase prosecutions and provide adequate remedies to victims; second, that heavy reliance on criminal law for the regulation of severe labour exploitation is insufficient, because the broader political and legislative context suggests that there is no political will to address structural factors, including legal structures, that create vulnerability to exploitation; and third, that the MSA is too weak in tackling modern slavery by businesses in their supply chains, as existing evidence from business responses to the MSA indicates. The article concludes that despite the passing of the Act, there is much scope for improvement in measures for eliminating labour exploitation, even with regard to its most severe forms.
From Human Trafficking to Modern Slavery: The Development of Anti-Trafficking Policy in the UK
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The UK Modern Slavery Act 2015 is the first national legislation to use the term 'modern slavery' and to explicitly target 'slavery' as opposed to 'human trafficking', 'forced labour', or other terms. This article explains the development of UK modern slavery policy, which did not arise as a rational response to a defined problem, but has gradually emerged from the policy process as a moderately structured problem. Problem structuring took place in two phases. The first phase was marked by a series of problematisations and policy responses, with disjunctions between the constructed policy problem and the social problem. Elite problematisations excluded alternatives, although the final shape of policy remained open. Policy built up incrementally, running ahead of research so that the policy frame was limited to sexual exploitation while marginalising labour exploitation concerns. In the second phase, unresolved problems of legislation were questioned under the influence of a new moralistic policy frame, an international discourse on slavery, supported by elite political actors. Campaign groups and licit industry also became more influential, increasing the policy scope to take in more types of exploitation. This generated a second round of legislative problematisation, ultimately embedded in the Modern Slavery Act 2015. The two-phase process and prevailing top-down policy direction worked against human rights discourses and victim protection. Modern slavery remains a moderately structured problem, with more work necessary to address unintended consequences and implementation difficulties, including enhancing multi-agency working.
Modern Slavery: The UK Response
Industrial Law Journal, 2010
This article looks at section 71 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 entitled ‘Slavery, Servitude and Forced or Compulsory Labour’, which criminalises modern forms of slavery in the United Kingdom. It discusses the landmark case Siliadin v France of the European Court of Human Rights, examines the possible interpretation of the new UK legislation in light of the case law, and explores the challenges that lie ahead. The paper argues that section 71 of the new Act is a useful reminder that courts and legislatures can work in tandem to establish and promote human rights principles. With the support of groups of civil society, they can take positive steps in addressing gross injustices that affect the most vulnerable amongst us: abusive working conditions produced by a market economy.
No abstract - but extract Slavery occupies a prominent place on the political agenda today. Home Secretary Theresa May’s Modern Slavery Bill was announced in the Queen’s Speech in June 2014; in the United States, President Barack Obama proclaimed January 2014 as National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month. This interlacing of the terms ‘trafficking’ and ‘modern slavery’ produces an extremely broad appeal to humanitarian feeling. Those involved in campaigns against trafficking and modern slavery include politicians from across the political spectrum, and religious leaders from across the faiths. Trades unions are there, but so too are big businesses. The Global Business Coalition Against Human Trafficking (gBCAT), includes Coca-Cola, ExxonMobil, Ford, Microsoft and ManpowerGroup amongst its members. As its co-founder David Arkless put it, ‘When you get involved in something like this your employees will love it, the public will love it and your shareholders will love it.’3 Famous actors and rock stars are also there ‘lovin’ it’, contributing to what Dina Haynes terms, ‘the celebrification of human trafficking’,4 and lending their support to the many NGOs that exhort ‘ordinary’ folk, especially the young, to join the struggle against modern slavery.
The modern slavery regime: a critical evaluation
2019
This article sets the context to this special issue: it discusses the background to the UK Modern Slavery Act 2015 and related legislative and policy instruments and sets out a methodology for comparing modern slavery in a global context. Developing the findings of a joint British Academy-DFID programme, 'Tackling Slavery, Human Trafficking and Child Labour in Modern Business', it describes a modern slavery regime defined by the production and implementation of laws and policies at both the international and the domestic level that specifically seeks to address a series of abuses associated with the term 'modern slavery'. The article interrogates the effectiveness of law and policy in curbing abuse and considers the impacts of cultural and societal norms on conceptualising modern slavery. It also suggests ways in which contributions to this special issue may advance our understandings of the modern slavery regime and where it falls short of meeting its objectives.
It Happens Here: equipping the UK to fight modern slavery
2012
The CSJ’s seminal new report, It Happens Here: Equipping the United Kingdom to fight modern slavery highlights the horrific reality of human trafficking and modern slavery in the UK. Adults and children from the UK and abroad are enslaved in the sex industry, in forced labour and criminality, and behind closed doors as domestic servants. The report makes evidence-led recommendations for the UK to radically improve its approach to this appalling crime. The report contains shocking findings of the woefully low awareness of the problem of modern slavery amongst frontline agencies such as the police, social services and the UK Border Agency, and recommends effective and sustainable training for those whose responsibility it is to identify and protect victims of modern slavery. The report calls for the appointment of an Anti-Slavery Commissioner to bring the essential leadership and accountability that is currently lacking. It also calls for a major new Modern Slavery Act to bring clarity to modern slavery offences and ensure that victims are more effectively identified and are not prosecuted for crimes they may be forced to commit as a result of being enslaved. The report contains shocking evidence of victims of modern slavery who have been wrongfully imprisoned or detained. Highlighting the critical role of the private sector in tackling modern slavery the report calls for businesses to make public the efforts they are making to develop more transparent supply chains, and to recognise their responsibility in stamping out this crime.