Year-on-year, the number of migrant fishers crewing UK vessels is increasing. Primarily from the Philippines, Ghana, and Indonesia with fewer numbers of fishers from Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Poland, India, and Sri Lanka, there have long been concerns and reports of systemic pay/wage inequalities, pervasive labor abuses, and exploitative immigration schemes. In January 2020, ILO C188, the Work in Fishing Convention, came into force in the UK. In conjunction with the Modern Slavery Act, on paper, the UK has one of the more stringent fisheries labor regulation environments; yet the abuse of migrants continues.

Taking an evidence-based micro-level approach, the research will aim to identify what enables (and precludes) effective international cooperation in the area of modern slavery between the countries of origin and those of destination. It will further attempt, employing an original mixed-methods research design, to “twin” together the main regions in the two jurisdictions, potentially providing a better foundation for the development of policy and practical measures. Given the changes generated by Brexit, the study will also attempt to explore the subsequent impact on the ability of the UK to cooperate with the EU Member States on modern slavery by benchmarking the findings against the pre-Brexit British-Romanian relationship. The research will be focused on collaboration between the UK and Romania, given their extensive collaboration efforts before Brexit and (or as a result) the high prevalence of Romanian victims identified in the UK.

 

The international development sector has increasingly shown commitment to ideals such as localisation, collaboration, and shifting of power. At the same time, the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement, has brought to the fore the issues of racism, oppression, and colonisation within international antislavery sub-sector. It is engrained in international development culture and exemplified in the practice of capacity “building” that expertise is centred in the global north, failing to acknowledge what can be learnt from peers from the Global South.

 Using Participatory Action Research, the objectives of this research are to critically review the literature on decolonisation and capacity “building” theories, to build the case for the decolonisation of global south and global north partnerships in the modern slavery sector. Secondly, study the challenges to decolonising capacity development in the antislavery sector and lastly, develop a model for decolonising capacity development in the antislavery sector to further the theoretical discourse, and to improve antislavery practice.

 

This project seeks to document the often-overlooked contribution of port chaplaincy in the fight against fisher labour abuse. With practical reach into many fishing ports via their ministry work, port chaplains are evidenced as important resilience assets against fisher labour abuse, and routinely serve as first responders who informally plug provision gaps in labour standard enforcement regimes. Their hidden capacities as actors of disclosure, grievance raising, support and intervention have all been shown to enhance fisher resilience against labour abuse, and they effectively cultivate important community amongst fishers, which generates trustful relations which enhances their efficacy as a disclosure and support route.  Through interviews and auto-photography, the project will work with Stella Maris, the world’s largest global network of port chaplains, to document the insights and ministry experiences of port chaplains fighting fisher labour abuse. The work will culminate in a written report compiling their insights and their organisational capacity as resilience assets against fisher labour abuse. The project will also produce a pop-up photo exhibition, using their auto-photography, which will provide a visual glimpse into their day-to-day working lives, their functional reach and their working capacities.   

Building on the in-depth analysis of anti-slavery legislation in five geographically diverse countries— Mexico, Peru, Qatar, Kenya, and Vietnam—this project aims to deploy a meaningful process of consultation and engagement to produce tools and strategies for reform. In partnership with Free the Slaves and working with cross-sectoral local stakeholders, this project will deliver detailed, context-responsive roadmaps for reform at key junctures in their respective antislavery journeys, providing a strong opportunity for advocacy in five countries ready and willing to accomplish change.   

Building on an earlier project to design a prevalence estimation methodology, we are implementing this methodology in the Philippines. Our data science method rooted in national surveys for estimating the prevalence of TCSEM (the trafficking of children to produce child sexual exploitation materials) will be implemented at two time points to enable shifts in prevalence to be monitored. It will also generate significant operational insights including high-accuracy municipality level prevalence estimates covering the whole country; key characteristics of TCSEM risk and vulnerability; and proxy indicators in secondary data that enable prevalence estimation for geographies in which survey data are lacking.  

Statistical methods are crucial for tackling the UN Sustainable Development Goals. This project brings together researchers and practitioners who are developing and implementing statistical methods to meet these goals. A workshop will address how to deal with unusual data sources, what inference methods are being developed to analyse such data, and what mathematical methods need to be developed to support future interventions in developing countries. The more mathematical/methodological focus of many anticipated participants will be complemented by contributions from applied researchers and practitioners, ensuring that theoretical work is inspired by and/or maintains links with its practical application. 

The International Criminal Court recognises forced marriage as a form of sexual slavery. This project quantifies the nature of the threat in the UK with the first ever risk profiles for forced marriage by linking machine learning analytic expertise with data. We are generating models linking risk of forced marriage to data derived indicators (from call centre data and legal databases) and ensuring this evidence is read by those working to end forced marriage. The project uses two large data sets of calls to two national forced marriage helplines. 

Fishers labour under deadly work conditions considered largely unacceptable if they were on land. There is growing awareness of egregious violations of human rights at sea, and growing evidence that fishers have acute vulnerabilities to labour exploitation and modern slavery. But fundamental questions of fish work and its workers remain underexplored. We still know very little of the micro-geography of the ship and its labourers. This project develops an explicit theorisation for how race, ethnicity, and socio-cultural demographics inform the discourses, vulnerabilities and practices of fisher labour abuse. The project is creating a labour market profile of the distinct dynamics of migrant vulnerabilities, focusing particularly on the structural racialisation of migrant fishers, and completing an ethnographically informed empirical study of a fishing community.  

Safeguarding tenants from modern slavery is a key task for Housing Associations. But there is growing evidence that insufficient research into everyday indebtedness and its knock-on effect for Housing Associations – in terms of their income and service-provision – is affecting the ability to 

innovate effective solutions. Nottingham has been the UK’s poorest city for five of the last seven years with extremely high levels of problem debt, yet in 2017 made the world’s first commitment to becoming a ‘slavery-free city’. This project therefore takes Nottingham as the ideal urban laboratory in which to explore the intersectional drivers of indebtedness, the vulnerability to modern slavery these cause, and the unique, yet unexamined role that Housing Associations can play in either inadvertently perpetuating or combatting modern slavery. 

This project reviews existing research methodologies used to measure the prevalence of trafficking in persons in order to make recommendations on what methodology should be adopted by International Justice Mission in its baseline and end-line prevalence studies of cross-border trafficking in Europe. The scope includes research methodologies used to measure the prevalence of trafficking in persons domestically or across borders, and an assessment of potential improvements as well as proposals of new methodologies. 

This project analyses the effectiveness of current mitigative measures for forced labour in tuna supply chains. It works with companies to understand how to design more effective measures to prevent forced labour from entering supply chains, analyses recruitment processes with on-the-ground partners, and identifies promising new tools and approaches. It forms part of the Ending Forced Labor in Fishing project, led by James Leape and funded by Stanford University. 

Working with the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), this project uses multiple data streams to build a supply chain map tracing the flow of Irish seafood (including geographical locations) from landing through retail (including export where relevant). The work focuses specifically on fishing vessels identified by ITF as having known occurrences of labour abuses, including payment and wage theft and human trafficking. Data streams include key informant interviews, input-output tables for export markets, and geospatial port mapping. Project stakeholders include retailers and restaurants selling seafood harvested by fishers subjected to labour abuses and human trafficking. 

This project focuses on the multi-directional relationships between climatic and environmental change and modern slavery activities. It will involve a virtual roundtable session convening exerts from academia, NGOs/CSOs, government, and the private sector and a case study using life cycle assessment to carbon footprint the invisibilized green house gas emissions generated under modern slavery. The project aims to build a committed network with a shared understanding of the problem. 

This Collaborative Studentship, supervised by Nicola Wright and Andrea Nicholson, is held by PhD student Holly Jones in collaboration with the NGO City Hearts. It addresses important evidence gaps and informs policy and organisational change in the area of modern slavery survivor support. There is an emerging evidence base in relation to the wide range of health and social needs that survivors of modern slavery have as a result of their experiences. It is acknowledged that some survivors may have dependents (e.g. children).  However, support for dependents is not funded through the UK’s official channels.  This means that some organisations have considered not providing support to families. The support needs of dependents and families and how best to meet  these are under-reported in the literature. The studentship is establishing the physical, mental and social support needs of dependents of modern slavery survivors, the factors that facilitate or hinder dependents in accessing support, and the strengths, coping strategies and resiliencies that dependents use to maintain their health and wellbeing. 

This Nottingham Research Fellowship is the first in-depth study into the role of online social spaces in the facilitation of modern slavery, including the role that platforms themselves can play in prevention and discovery. Online social spaces, or ‘online communities,’ increasingly play a role in modern slavery, providing a vector through which nefarious actors can lure, coerce, deceive and groom the vulnerable into a range of exploitative situations: from offers of employment and accommodation that result in labour exploitation, and offers of travel and companionship that result in forced sex work, to the grooming of children that results in criminal exploitation through ‘county lines’ child criminal exploitation. 

For decades, understandings of the state of antislavery laws globally have been driven by definitional confusion, misunderstandings, and unfounded assumptions. Antislavery actors, on the whole, overlooked the demands and nuances of States’ international legal commitments and neglected global legislative review because they believed that all States had already put in place the essential laws needed to address slavery. This Nottingham Research Fellowship study will provide the first comprehensive review of all States’ antislavery legislative efforts over time, and create the evidence base needed for effective antislavery governance around the world. Developing a new framework to assess antislavery legislation, it will interrogate the links and sequencing of factors that contribute to the development and implementation of effective laws—laws which not only satisfy States’ international obligations, but also meet the needs of victims and survivors. 

Natural hazards have long-term effects on the most vulnerable, increasing many types of exploitation for years after they occur, with all the negative effects on human capital and the economy. This negative impact is exacerbated by a knowledge gap. While we have a general understanding of these separate challenges, it is their concurrent impacts that we do not understand and to which we fail to respond. In this project we will co-produce a novel survey instrument with stakeholders to estimate a baseline prevalence of human trafficking in The Bahamas; study coping mechanisms; identify metrics for risk-readiness and risk-taking; and describe the relationship between intersecting emergencies and natural hazards and climate change preparedness, and their effects on human trafficking vulnerability.

We seek two significant outcomes:

1.  improved, inclusive, and equitable levels of resilience to concurrent shocks through improved individual/household knowledge, capacity, and skills;
2. improved anti-slavery policies through increased capacity of the local, national, and regional government, CSOs, NGOs, and the private sector.

Hestia and the Happy Baby Community (HBC) developed the Perinatal Support Programme for pregnant women and mothers with babies who are seeking international protection in the UK and who have experienced trafficking, violence, trauma or abuse. This programme has the potential to improve access to services, provide support (informational, practical, and emotional) on the journey through maternity and early parenthood, demonstrate how to avoid coercion after birth for the survivor-mother, instead supporting them emotionally and relationally through pregnancy, birth and postnatal experiences, with the aim of a dignified, autonomous, and empowered recovery, through and beyond the NRM process. Our evaluation focuses on how the programme contributes to improved health outcomes for 0-2 year olds. 

This Nottingham Research Fellowship will deliver the first systematic measurement of fisheries management policies’ impacts on forced labour in marine capture fisheries. Preliminary research suggests forced labour, an element of modern slavery, is a distal outcome of overfishing-induced marine fish stock declines in 60% of countries with coastline. Vulnerable populations facing extreme poverty disproportionately depend on marine fish for food, nutrition, and livelihood. Yet, the social justice dimensions of environmental policies to reduce overfishing are often not considered. 

There are an estimated 15.4 million people living in forced marriage today. These numbers include women and girls who are trafficked from Myanmar to China for the purpose of forced marriage and childbearing. Among a sample population of females on the Myanmar-China border, 39.8% experienced forced marriage, of which at least 65.6% were trafficked. This PhD project is the first in-depth academic analysis of the topic, and begins with the idea that, given the complexity of this trans-border exploitation of vulnerable women; a transnational response may be needed for effective intervention. The project aims to better understand how this problem is operating transnationally, and to establish what a successful transnational solution to this problem would be. The central research question is: What would an effective transnational response to the trafficking of Myanmar women and girls to China for the purpose of forced marriage and childbearing look like?

The sub-questions are:
a) How does this problem operate transnationally?
b) What are existing responses from national and international governance, NGOs and faith actors, and are they effective?
c) To what extent do these existing responses operate transnationally, and are they effective in responding transnationally? 

This project updates the evidence base on survivors’ access to psychological recovery assistance. Under law, survivors of modern slavery are entitled to assistance with ‘psychological recovery.’ In 2013, the Anti-Trafficking Monitoring Group reported that survivors were not receiving their entitlement. Eight years later, we will examine if that gap still remains and the impact of any remaining gap on the psychological recovery of survivors. In so doing, we will test, implement and evaluate a new process for engaging and collaborating with survivors as peer-researchers—towards increasing the capacity and capability of the anti-slavery research effort, and positively impacting the wellbeing of the collaborating survivors. 

Antislavery efforts suffer from a scarcity of data, including that held by those who have experienced slavery. Collaborating with survivors, and experts in statistics, politics, social sciences, art, linguistics, law, criminology and digital research, this study will deliver a transdisciplinary, challenge-led and survivor-informed research programme towards achieving SDG target 8.7. 

This Nottingham Research Fellowship aims to discover:

• In what way does the use and inclusion of survivor narratives enhance our understanding of modern slavery?
• In what way does the inclusion of survivor perspectives affect policy interventions that seek to end modern slavery? 
• How can survivor perspectives be employed to analyse the role of governments and NGOs?
• How can survivor perspectives offer a means for more accurate measurement?
• What do survivors suggest for the development of antislavery mechanisms and strategies to meet the global 2030 target? 

This project is developing and detailing a method to estimate the prevalence of trafficking to create child sexual exploitation materials (CSEM), including via livestreaming. The project focuses on the Philippines and measures proxy indicators of online sexual exploitation of children (OSEC). The prevalence plan developed will allow a future study to establish the estimated prevalence of trafficking to create CSEM, and will establish what data sources, partnerships and tools are needed to develop a comprehensive prevalence method. The development of a successful method will create opportunities to conduct similar studies of such offending in other countries. 

Building on our first project that developed a framework for mental health recovery based on the experiences of modern slavery survivors, this follow-on project is co-producing a survivor-informed definition of mental health recovery for use within a policy context and to support improved policy making in relation to modern slavery. Using a Delphi consultation and co-production with survivors, we will generate a consensus-based definition of recovery suitable for use across all policy areas and embed survivor expertise into policy decision-making.

This project uses ethical-storytelling and participatory-photography methods to amplify and empower the voices of survivors of human trafficking in Kenya. We are working with Kenyan government and survivor-researchers, to shape how participatory research is conducted even when affected by exogenous shocks like a global pandemic. We focus on survivors’ new policy proposals, their development as survivor-leaders, and their engagement with other survivors looking to play a role in anti-trafficking and anti-slavery research and action. 

We address three issues:

• the prevalence of exploitation;
• the associated need for a stronger anti-trafficking network of religious life to confront the problem;
• the need for a greater understanding and application of Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) by many sisters in networks of religious life globally.

We aim to improve the ability of women religious to demonstrate the impact of their work through the creation, adoption, and use of a bespoke multi-platform MEL tool. Our work includes designing and delivering workshops with women religious, and supporting content production, model analysis, and documentation and review of learning.

This project will provide decision-makers and labour inspection authorities the much-needed evidence to underpin action against modern slavery in fishing, and to monitor progress of the resulting impact. It brings together the largest global front-line response charity to modern slavery in fishing (Stella Maris), the UK’s largest fishers’ welfare charity (the Seafarers Charity), the maritime sector’s global union federation (International Transport Workers’ Federation), a leading private sector data partner (Airbus), and academics in a cross-sector challenge-led partnership. New knowledge and improved capacity will inform local and global data-driven antislavery action and practice leading to improved conditions for fishers.

This project uses a mixed methods approach to understand pre-existing factors that impact on vulnerability to exploitation in Leicester. It focuses on understanding what major retailers and government agencies can do in the area of garment factory owner provision of the best possible working environment for their staff, and what other actions businesses, government agencies, NGOs and communities can undertake to improve the lives of garment workers. It includes a focus on effective ways to ensure garment workers are aware of and able to exercise their workplace rights, and on how garment workers themselves would like to be represented. 

Pressures to identify modern slavery risks in supply chains are growing rapidly. However, businesses struggle to access reliable data and analytics tools. Our Modern Slavery Risk Barometer assesses exposure to modern slavery risk in global businesses and supply chains. It helps businesses to identify, disclose and manage the modern slavery risks associated with specific sectors, suppliers, worksites, products, investments and geographies; make efficient investments in risk mitigation strategies and systems; and discharge compliance obligations. The Barometer's data sources include Earth Observation data.

Hope at Home is a charity whose overarching objective is to relieve the needs of people who are at risk of, or who have been subject to, modern slavery or human trafficking by providing access to safe housing within the community and by assisting in the provision of all the necessary support designed to enable individuals to rebuild their lives and become independent individuals and members of society. They have commissioned the Rights Lab to conduct a scoping exercise to understand the accommodation options currently available to survivors, the accessibility and suitability of these options and to identify gaps in provision. This will then inform future activities and allocation of resources. 

Since 2017 the International Labour Organisation (ILO) has included forced marriage in its Global Estimates of Slavery (GES). The ILO estimates that 15 million of an estimated 40 million enslaved people are in forced marriage (as opposed to forced labour). The inclusion of forced marriage in the GES has not only greatly increased the number of people recognised as living in slavery, but revealed the gendered nature of modern slavery: though men are also victims of forced marriage, women and girls now account for 71% of all modern slavery victims (including forced marriage) according to the ILO’s estimates. This inclusion in the GES came after forced marriage was named as a form of sexual slavery at the International Criminal Court. Then in 2018, after the first successful English prosecution for forced marriage, the UK NGO Karma Nirvana called for similar cases to be prosecuted under the Modern Slavery Act. Forced marriage and slavery are thus being linked on the national and international stage. This raises questions about the relationship between forced marriage and slavery. The relationship is neither immediately obvious, nor made plain in international or domestic law. The SDGs treat forced marriage and modern slavery separately (SDG targets 5.3 and 8.7 respectively). The definition of slavery in the 1920 Slavery Convention is treatment of one person as property by another. With forced marriage, however, the focus is on lack of consent to the initial ceremony. Treatment as property and lack of consent may be connected, but they are not identical. 'Forced marriage', then, is not obviously a form of slavery, liable for inclusion in the GES. The project is the first attempt to explain why certain types of marriage should be seen as forms of modern slavery, rightly included in the GES. It is answering the questions: To what extent, if any, is forced marriage a form of modern slavery? Does forced marriage as currently defined in law really encapsulate the normative problem? What types of marriage, if any, ought to be seen as forms of modern slavery?

Contemporary slavery is a problem of society that is often addressed from a criminal justice and international legal perspective. We have very little information on what constitutes effective antislavery governance, or about the role that communities play in creating societies where slavery cannot flourish. This Nottingham Research Fellowship study advances the proposition that it is possible to identify a core set of factors promoting resilience against modern slavery at the local level, and to devise governance responses to support those factors.

This project will:

• provide trauma-informed care (TIC) services for female victims (7-17) of commercial sexual exploitation, and facilitate access to vocational, educational, and economic opportunities for girls to enable sustainable reintegration and livelihoods, and therefore reduce vulnerability to trafficking. Additionally, to ensure best practice in the field of CSEC/trafficking victim care, this project will
• develop nationwide evidence-based standards of care for survivors of trafficking to enable better support and navigation through the justice systems and referral services. The project will strengthen the Coalition Against Trafficking in Persons in Uganda (CATIPU) network to enable dissemination of knowledge and best practice between civil society organizations (CSOs), and with wider government structures. Finally, this project will
• support and build capacity for key practitioners and stakeholders through the provision of training and resources for TIC modelled programming, to ensure effective responses to victims of trafficking.

In alignment with Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Office priorities, this project aims to ensure that the most vulnerable have a decreased risk of being trafficked and access to preventative and protective services. The project is accomplishing this through addressing the impacts of Covid-19 on trafficking, and supporting government measures to combat transnational trafficking between West Bengal, India and the neighbouring districts of Nepal. The project is building evidence and the capacity of government and duty bearers in the area of prevention and protection, adapted for the pandemic context. 

Use of data and data science/machine learning methods is integral to understanding prevalence, risks and vulnerabilities, and prevention of modern slavery, human trafficking, exploitative behaviours, and serious organized crime. This project focuses on developing and using data science/AI methods to identify and uncover hidden populations, networks, and activity; prevent such activities by predicting risk of criminal activity and exploitation. This will include data fusion from multiple disparate sources, anomaly detection, geo-spatial temporal processes, networks, NLP, data visualisation, and managing uncertainty with missing data. The project will deliver new insights into the prevalence of modern slavery; provide new ways to identify victims and perpetrators and opportunities to intervene along different pathways and networks, predict risk of exploitation and support victims and pursuit of perpetrators. Developing innovative tools will allow policy makers and front line researchers to better target resources and assist in the prevention, pursuit, prosecution of perpetrators and support of victims. 

Thousands of religious sisters do anti-slavery work. In India alone there are at least 800 - double the size of the world’s largest anti-slavery NGO. Despite their numbers, the efforts of sisters may be the least understood of the many approaches to abolition. Unlike international groups and NGOs that self-publicise and monitor and evaluate their interventions, religious sisters practice a humility about their processes of liberation and reintegration that means the wider movement rarely learns of or from their unique and powerful approaches. We hypothesise that sisters make a distinctive contribution to efforts against modern slavery, and intend to investigate whether that hypothesis, and related hypotheses, are true or not. If it is true, we want to understand how religious sisters make that special contribution. 

This project will initiate an effective anti-modern slavery agenda at the highest levels of global policy, specifically, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). The project will identify the intersections between modern slavery and key agendas at the UNSC, for example, Women, Peace, and Security and Children in Armed Conflict. The research will lead to strengthened advocacy by project partner Free the Slaves and other anti-slavery advocates and provide a unified global anti-slavery agenda that is UNSC endorsed.

This  project  draws from  the stories  and  imagery  generated  in another Rights Lab project (Survivor-Led Empowerment Through Ethical Story-Telling and Participatory Photography in Kenya). It explores UK community responses to the artistic materials generated in Kenya, and applies this creative method with a local survivor community in the East Midlands. The project explores the value of ethical and participatory methods of artistic expression for survivors of  human trafficking, and how this influences the ways in which audiences perceive both the artistic works themselves, and the issue of human trafficking. In doing this, the project is establishing whether  ethical  and  participatory  methods  change  the  nature  of  artistic  material produced on the topic of human trafficking; the   impact   of   ethically   produced   artistic   material   on   audience understandings of human trafficking; and ways  that ethically-produced  artistic  materials  can be  used  to  improve understanding of survivors’ experiences. 

Small businesses account for 99% of businesses in the UK. Research shows that small businesses are more likely to engage in social responsibility issues when linked to their community. Businesses have an important role in our communities as employers, purchasers, neighbours, and suppliers and therefore can have a significant part to play in local anti-slavery action. We hosted an event with small local businesses to better understand their anti-slavery support needs. While most business leaders expressed a desire to help tackle this issue, concerns were raised around the lack of resources, capacity and knowledge. The project therefore co-produced a brief guide with small businesses to support them in progressing their understanding of modern slavery and how they can help address it in their businesses and communities. The guide is written for small businesses who would like to engage in anti-slavery action but do not know where to start, or who may not have the same level of resources or capacity as larger organisations. 

While the cases of forced labour and human trafficking documented on fishing vessels constitute egregious human rights violations, the rush to solutions without adequately understanding the problem risks hindering efforts to eliminate these atrocities. To ensure that these methodologically and conceptually flawed approaches do not misinform policy and practices, particularly inspection practices, this project synthesized and coded novel, worker-driven, data sources; statistically tested unfounded assumptions pervasive throughout the sector; explored relationships between human vulnerabilities and sector, vessel, and environmental risks; and worked with labour inspectors to identify promising new approaches. 

We completed an in-country needs evaluation of the Free the Slaves community liberation initiative toolkit, using a resilience framework developed by the Rights Lab to enable the toolkit to be utilised by grassroots development organisations to increase resilience during and after the Covid-19 pandemic. Structured evaluation of the toolkit with potential users and grassroots community development organisations enabled it to be localised for each context and tailored to their needs. This enhanced the community liberation model for the pandemic context, and operationalised the Rights Lab’s own community resilience framework.

Completed in collaboration with a placement student, this project reviewed existing evidence and literature on male and trans forced sexual exploitation. The project is the first step in a larger project to determine the degree to which male and trans individuals are generally excluded from the discourse on sex trafficking/modern slavery, and identify the challenges for these individuals in reaching appropriate support.

Completed in collaboration with a placement student, this project analysed the impacts of Brexit on modern slavery in five key areas: support for survivors; vulnerabilities of migrant workers; supply chain transparency; criminal justice; and international cooperation. The project mapped current evidence on the impacts of Brexit on modern slavery and synthesised policy recommendations, to produce outputs including a database and policy report.

Completed in collaboration with a placement student, this project mapped current evidence on the trafficking of people into sports to set priorities for future investigation and action. This included collating evidence on the types of sporting activities people are trafficked into and at-risk destination countries. The final report focused on identifying high-risk sporting activities, migration patterns, the nature of exploitation and recruitment, and gave recommendations for future investigation and policy action.

Covid-19 has highlighted the already precarious living conditions of Venezuelan migrants in Chile. The Chilean visa system leaves many migrants undocumented and unable to access safe jobs and state support. Forced to enter the unregulated labour market, migrants have started microenterprises to support their families. This has helped them build independence and a higher income but has also increased their vulnerability to Covid due to direct customer contact, and increased their risk to criminalization by police, the right-wing media and the populist government. In this context, a Chilean Non-Governmental Organisation, began a novel pilot programme to support Venezuelan migrants by strengthening their business skills and offering financial aid to start their micro-enterprise. We are exploring these undocumented entrepreneurs’ vulnerability to modern slavery through an interdisciplinary framework based on the intersection between an infectious disease, undocumented migration and an unregulated labour market.  

This project examines the tensions faced by firms in light of Covid-19 to identify patterns of risks for addressing modern slavery in corporate supply chains. Insight into (de)prioritisation of modern slavery will provide vital evidence on whether existing progress is being undermined. Our collaboration with government departments, non-government organisations, social enterprises, and professional bodies ensures that we are extensively connected to policy makers and practitioners seeking to combat modern slavery. Objective 1: To investigate the impact of Covid-19 on firms' prioritisation of addressing modern slavery in their supply chains. Objective 2: To identify effective methods for building commitment to addressing modern slavery when other commercial priorities predominate sourcing decisions.

We are exploring the factors that hinder effective prosecution of modern slavery and sexual gender-based violence crimes (SGBV), including sexual offences and gender-based hate crimes, by law enforcement agencies in Ireland and the UK, with a view to providing evidence-based and targeted recommendations adopting a victim/survivor centred approach. The project includes a literature review on the criminological aspects of modern slavery and SGBV offences, a qualitative study aimed at frontline officers to explore the hampering or facilitating factors, and further qualitative analysis aimed at key stakeholders to assess the impact of law enforcement approaches/decisions on survivors' ability to collaborate.

This project is developing training materials on modern slavery and human trafficking within and after armed conflict. US Army Civil Affairs (CA) Officers are deployed to all countries with a US Army presence. This training will help with their key assignment: to build stability, support peace, further human rights, and create opportunity for growth and education. The project will support the CA to achieve stabilisation and the rule of law in post-conflict societies.   

The Antislavery Knowledge Network offered the first extended effort to address modern slavery as a core development challenge in sub-Saharan Africa via innovative approaches from the arts and humanities that deliver community-engaged antislavery work. The project demonstrated that participatory arts-based strategies, rooted in heritage, can empower Global South communities to play a central role in tackling contemporary slavery. The project began with a programme of three pilots in African countries shaped by historical slavery that are also sites of contemporary enslavement (Ghana, Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of the Congo), then moved to a structured commissioning phase that invited new projects to continue pioneering new participatory approaches to knowledge partnership that use arts and humanities methods.

 

We are delivering a proof-of-concept case study using life cycle assessment for the first time to carbon footprint the invisibilized greenhouse gas emissions generated under modern slavery. Our case study focuses on Brazil and the intersection of agricultural and forestry supply chains. We are gathering and synthesizing disparate environment, labour, modern slavery, and trade data sets to calculate the global warming potential produced under conditions of modern slavery. The analysis will represent a replicable strategy for integrating modern slavery into carbon footprints and thus improving carbon estimations by accounting for a previously unknown factor.

 

We will review and understand evidence of criminality and exploitation amongst individuals in a local community, including the types of intelligence being gathered by local agencies, gaps in information, and barriers to developing effective evidence-based responses. We also are drawing on wider research undertaken on criminal exploitation and with anti-slavery partnerships across the UK to suggest different types of organisational models for gathering and sharing intelligence on potential cases of exploitation, and to enable a multi-agency response.

We are pioneering a Moral Capability Assessment Tool (MCAT) that puts women’s voice and agency at the centre of sustainable peace and development. We blend together digital technologies, social sciences and mental health studies in order to understand what works in the advancement of women’s rights and development in fragile contexts, and uncover the relationship between women’s awareness of their rights and women’s vulnerability to modern slavery and extreme forms of exploitation. The new toolkit assesses how the intersection between gender inequality and context fragility influences women’s awareness of being holder of rights, and so their agency.

To complete a risk analysis of the Public Works and Government Services Canada’s procurement supply chains, we first are analysing the human trafficking, forced labour and child labour risk in the goods procured. Then based on this analysis and the identification of goods with a high risk of human trafficking, forced labour and child labour, we will analyse the suppliers of the high-risk goods. Finally, in order to develop a series of recommendations, we will apply our prioritisation framework to the data.

The proposed EU Mandatory Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence (mHREDD) framework provides opportunities to improve transparency and increase engagement from businesses in the fight against modern slavery. We are extracting the essential and structural needs of civil society actors to better enable their access to mHREDD debates, and will propose specific factors that Anti-Slavery International and its partners can prioritise in advocacy work in this field. This work includes a focus on the legal and policy frameworks on human rights and environmental protection in India and Brazil, and semi-structured interviews and focus groups with key stakeholders in the two producing countries.

Following the success of a project with Boston College to embed the subject of modern slavery and labour exploitation across its range of academic and vocational courses, the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority is now taking forward the next stage of this programme of work. The Rights Lab will evaluate a new Level 1 Award in Workers’ Rights and Labour Exploitation, including surveys of students and a final report.  

We developed a geospatial approach to assessing exploitation in cotton, then designed and trialled a cotton supplier risk model in order demonstrate the potential of a geospatial approach to risk assessment for buyers sourcing cotton products. Our research review flagged evidence of exploitation to build a suite of indicators, extracted from satellite and geospatial data, into a multi-criteria risk evaluation. The multi-criteria risk evaluation was run over a case study area to trail the cotton supplier risk model, and outputs were evaluated and assessed for future model application. Our stakeholder analysis revealed the current perception of exploitation in cotton and built engagement with businesses.

The objectives of this project are: to create a two-year programme of knowledge-exchange connecting academic partners, law enforcement, local government, NGOs and faith organisations working at city level, with the aim of building and improving place-based antislavery interventions; to establish the infrastructure for a wider global slavery-free cities network; to develop and test a slavery-free communities audit tool, which will assist in reviewing and comparing resilience against slavery on a locality basis; to build an interactive online platform, that will facilitate the sharing of information, policy and practice between local policymakers and practitioners in the network; to review local policy and practice in at least four participating cities, with the aim of promoting the prevention of slavery, facilitating discovery of victims, improving opportunities for respite and recovery, and creating strategies to promote long-term resilience; to improve capacity for engaging communities as co-producers of slavery-free cities, through action-research and improved use of social media (working alongside Freedom United); to develop future research and wider network-development to underpin the concept and practice of slavery-free communities as a lever for sustainable development and improving personal and community security.

Bull’s Trench brick kilns occur across the so-called Brick Belt region of south Asia (India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh). They have never before been mapped, yet are objects of material risk for a number of United Nations SDG Targets (3 (Health), 5 (Gender), 8 (Decent Work), 15 (Life on Land) and 16 (Peace)). Our research has previously used satellite Earth observation data to map every single kiln across the Brick Belt, revealing the location of ~66, 000 kilns. Of these ~28, 000 were in northern India. This mapping was used by UNDP India to develop a mobile app (GeoAI) which is being used by the Indian Environmental Inspectorate to visit kilns for the purpose of environmental compliance. The mapping is also being used by VSJ (a NGO) to increase operational efficiency in the organisation for interventions aimed at supporting exploited workers. This project builds on our existing partnership UNDP India Accelerator Lab and the VSJ to now deploy our data fully to address the exploitative labour practices commonplace in these kilns.  

This project will develop an understanding of to what extent, and why certain nationalities (in this case Moldovans) are under- and mis- represented in the UK’s National Referral Mechanism, and to explore how authorities can identify pockets of diaspora from countries where under- and mis- representation commonly occurs. The newly created knowledge resulting from the research will help to inform future government anti-slavery programming in both the UK and Moldova, enabling interventions that aid prevention, identification, investigation, prosecution, respite, recovery, victim return and reintegration and collaboration between both UK and Moldovan authorities and relevant NGOs. 

This project will deliver an evidence review on the benefits of work and harm caused by not working, for victims of modern slavery and trafficking. Many victims are facing unacceptably long delays for decisions about their trafficking status. Those claiming asylum then face a further wait. Many are prevented from working by immigration bail and structured employment opportunities are dependent on immigration status. Organisations supporting these individuals have expressed concerns about the impact this has on individuals and their ability to achieve sustainable independence. For those that have previously worked, there are concerns that they may become de-skilled and de-motivated. For others who have no previous work experience, more needs to be done to improve their employability. Without the ability to access legitimate employment, the system risks unintentionally pushing victims into illegal or precarious work to meet their financial needs, especially where they have debts or a need to support dependent family members. The review will focus primarily on the benefits of work to an individual’s wellbeing, however, broader economic and societal benefits will be considered. The review may include mental health and research on other vulnerable populations, will focus on victims of modern slavery and survey the broader literature on vulnerability to modern slavery, where lack of access to work may be a contributing factor. The review aims to inform the response of the sector and improve longer term outcomes for victims. 

We are seeking to understand labour abuse risks in the road freight transport (RFT) and warehousing sectors in the UK, focusing on the East Midlands as a key location for transport and logistics. The research is identifying and analysing risks related to business models and labour and employment practices. While RFT and warehousing make a significant contribution to the UK economy, investigations have identified these sectors as vulnerable to unlawful working practices. We will analyse health, safety and work conditions and key trends that contribute to exploitative labour and employment practices. The project includes wide-ranging and detailed semi-structured interviews and questionnaires for HGV drivers and warehouse operators. We will identify potential solutions that companies can implement for the effective prevention of labour exploitation. 

This project will identify and implement mechanisms to prevent and remediate modern slavery in the recruitment and employment of workers in the medical gloves sector in Malaysia, where demand for gloves has more than doubled during the Covid-19 pandemic, whilst endemic abuse of worker rights has either continued or become worse.In 2019 Malaysia was the source of two-thirds of gloves supplied to the world by volume, and also the main source of gloves to the UK's National Health Service (NHS). The UK NHS Supply Chain is the single largest purchaser of gloves in the world, responsible for procuring up to 80% of medical goods in England and Wales. The research will employ a whole-systems approach to understand structures and processes affecting workers and modern slavery in the Malaysian gloves sector during the pandemic. Through interviews with actors at all tiers in the supply chain, we aim to identify pathways of change and communicate these so that procurement policy can be made sensitive to the realities of global supply chain issues, including providing appropriate logistical support, commercial and contractual terms, and pricing to enable the changes needed, and incorporating mechanisms to enable real and sustained worker voice and representation. Most importantly, the project will support demonstrable outcomes for the victims and survivors of modern slavery in the Malaysian gloves sector, including education and the reimbursement of recruitment fees, and will produce recommendations for policy-makers and NHS procurement on incentivising and implementing improvement. 

We developed antislavery guidelines for public sector construction procurement, for distribution by the Local Government Association and embedding in all local councils’ procurement processes. This project built on our past work with Action Sustainability to develop antislavery procurement guidelines for the construction sector, and responds to the Government’s announcement in 2020 that the terms of the Modern Slavery Act now apply to the public sector.  

We completed an independent review of the Co-op's Modern Slavery Campaign activities that took place from 2017-2020, to summarise the achievements, determine impacts and reflect on the learnings. The review covered multiple aspects of the Co-op's campaign, including its Bright Future Programme and its legislative lobbying. It set the Co-op's work in the context of an asset-based approach and used the concept of the Freedom Dividend to understand the campaign's importance and success.

The project evaluated the impact of modern slavery guidelines on the policies and practices of a selection of UK construction businesses. It identified the unfulfilled needs that UK construction businesses are still facing in their responses to modern slavery and created an advanced agenda on modern slavery for the UK construction sector. In its second stage, it is adapting and rolling out the guidelines for the UK’s local councils, including mapping out necessary amendments of private sector guidelines to fit the local authority context, identifying relevant processes within the local authority construction procurement process and modern slavery measures, and identifying learning material to support local authority construction buyers.

The power of this project comes from the exciting, new, and powerful platform it will create for survivors, and the lessons which can be learned for future antislavery work with survivors. Trafficking denied these women a voice: this project will give them multiple ways to speak and be heard around the world. The stories of women who have experienced modern slavery and forced marriage in sub-Saharan Africa are often not heard. Although governments are concerned with modern slavery, important stories are being lost, alienating survivors from participating in anti-slavery efforts. Where survivor stories are used, this is often for a ‘shock-factor’, which risks re-traumatisation or otherwise exploiting survivors. Yet survivor voices belong at the heart of the antislavery project: the goal, then, is to create impact for these voices via ethical means. This project will build on work being done by HAART Kenya to empower survivors to express their experiences via a process of ethical storytelling and participatory photography. By partnering with World Reader, who provide a platform for digital reading materials, the Rights Lab will work with HAART Kenya to create a new way of disseminating ethically-produced narratives and imagery. Through a series of supported workshops with survivors, we will explore ethical story-telling and image-making techniques to encourage survivors to tell their own stories in their own ways. Through World Reader’s digital platform, photographic exhibitions, and co-authored publications, we will bring these stories to a global audience. Analysis of uptake will measure the impact of ethical storytelling and image-creation. 

The overarching objective for this project is to understand how sustained liberation can best be fostered among survivors of slavery in India and Ethiopia. A key output will revolve around the development of a framework for conceptualising survivors’ reintegration journeys, based on the diverse experiences of approximately 100 survivors in each country. In mapping the major successes and challenges experienced in survivor journeys, the purpose of this framework will be to highlight the points of significance that mark the difference between liberation and return to exploitation.

We will interrogate identified deficiencies in the provision of legal advice and support for victims of modern slavery, explore the causes and consequences of these failures, situate access to legal services within the context of the UK’s international obligations, and investigate the impact of representation by qualified legal practitioners on outcomes for victims. In its efforts to develop a needs-based system for survivor support, this project will assist the Home Office in understanding the legal support needs of survivors, and support better decision making by the Legal Aid Authority. 

In 2015, States made a global commitment to take immediate and effective measures to end modern slavery by 2030 (SDG8.7). States are increasingly reforming domestic laws in the hopes of meeting this goal. Yet, exactly what SDG8.7 requires of them remains unclear. International stakeholders have highlighted the critical need for a new framework to overcome these challenges, engaging the Rights Lab in a global conversation around measuring progress in the fight against modern slavery. Working with strategic global partners, this project will translate the Rights Lab’s world-leading research mapping antislavery legislation into a new roadmap for effective antislavery governance. 

This project focuses on CSE in India and Bangladesh. It involves:

1. (1) an extensive literature review;
2. (2) an analysis of the law and policy frameworks in the target countries, including cross-border mechanisms;
3. (3) structured interviews with representatives of NGOs, government agencies, and UN agencies in Maharashtra, and West Bengal (India) and other locations, and providing research support to Justice and Care (Bangladesh). 

The study adopts a qualitative approach, which is the most appropriate approach for answering the following key research questions.

Rehabilitation:

• What are evidence-based practices in trauma-informed care and rehabilitation, related specifically to victims of trafficking and CSE?
• To what extent are and can these practices be used in intervention areas?
• How is effectiveness/success evaluated?
• What are specific barriers to the practical/actual use of these practices?
• What type of changes in management techniques would be useful in implementing and sustaining these practices in organizations with limited capacity?
• What tools exist to measure improvement and how effective are they?

Livelihoods:

• What core/soft skills are needed prior to survivors seeking employment?
• Are certain skills particularly challenging for survivors (e.g. managing trauma triggers)?
• How are these skills best taught to survivors?
• What tools exist—or could be developed—to measure the readiness (of the survivors) and how effective are these?

Cross border repatriation:

• What are the steps involved in facilitating cross border repatriation and where are the greatest challenges/bottlenecks?
• What are potential options and ways to mitigate the challenges?
• Which factors during the repatriation process have the greatest effect (positive or negative) on a survivor’s rehabilitation (e.g. a single case worker supporting the survivor throughout, trauma informed training for institutional stakeholders, etc.).

This project developed a theoretically informed understanding of what mental health recovery means to modern slavery survivors within the UK. We explored with modern slavery survivors the concept of mental health recovery; what it means to them; and how it could be promoted, then constructed a theoretically informed framework for mental health recovery based on the experiences of modern slavery survivors which can inform a future intervention. The project provided the first theoretically informed understanding of mental health recovery based on the experiences of modern slavery survivors.

We are mapping thousands of survivor narratives—over 2 million words of testimony—from our VOICES database against the 169 Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets. This shows the possibilities for a systematic design of new antislavery strategies based on the accounts of formerly enslaved people. The results will let us answer a key question from the point of view of survivors themselves: which SDG target achievements (beyond 8.7 on slavery and 5.3 on forced marriage) are more likely to prevent or end enslavement? Our coding for risk factors that led to the initial experience of enslavement or perpetuated slavery includes environmental destruction, gender, ethnic or cultural discrimination, family debt, lack of access to financial services, moderate or severe food insecurity, lack of birth registration, local corruption and organised crime, loss of family members due to poor health, lack of access to education, and poorly managed migration processes. We have matched risk factors with the 169 SDG targets. Most narratives reveal at least three primary SDG targets and some as many as five. So far our most common SDG codings against 8.7/5.3 include 4.5 (eliminate gender disparities in education); 5.1 (end discrimination against women); 8.8 (protect labour rights); 10.2 (promote social inclusion); and 11.1 (safe housing for all).

As a member of Code 8.7, the initiative led by the United Nations, to combine AI and modern slavery research, the Rights Lab is working with Experian to develop a Code 8.7 Data Sandbox in Brazil. The Data Sandbox will house relevant policy-level and other information, and facilitate analysis through use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, and will be used to identify effective measures to end modern slavery, human trafficking and forced labour.

This project is a transparent drafting process that combines rigorous scientific review and evidence with policy acumen, to produce three “Policy Guides” that provide a snapshot of “what works” to achieve SDG 8.7. These Policy Guides will be published by March 2021, each seeking to identify the mix of multilateral and national policies needed to accelerate progress towards SDG 8.7 in one of three broad policy domains: Justice – including criminal and civil justice, survivor engagement and support, and the role of the health sector; Markets – including all aspects of economic, trade and financial policy, supply chains and development policy; Crisis – including conflict, humanitarian and crisis response, and migration. The Rights Lab is serving on the Steering Group, on all three of the working groups, and has provided three comprehensive literature reviews to underpin each policy guide. 

The database, corresponding report, and accompanying briefing (which includes recommendations for how different actors can benefit from using the database in their work) were launched at the UN in February. The database contains the domestic legislation and international obligations of all 193 UN Member States relating to slavery, servitude, institutions and practices similar to slavery, forced labour and human trafficking. For each of the 193 countries, this includes: dates of ratification for a range of relevant international treaties; a set of relevant descriptive variables on each country (e.g. type of legal system, geographic region, membership in relevant international organisations, membership in human rights courts, Global Slavery Index rankings over time, and US State Department TIP rankings over time); the country’s domestic legislative provisions relating to each of the different forms of exploitation; the full text of each statute; and a summary of the country’s compliance with its international obligations. The database has already revealed, for example, that nearly half of all countries have no provisions criminalising slavery or the slave trade in any form. The database allows States to learn from global practice and comparative analyses in order to develop robust governance frameworks that respond to the changing dynamics of slavery. We will now begin to expand the database to include new areas of law, national policies, international and regional frameworks, and information on implementation.

This was developed to assist States in giving effect to their international obligations to prohibit slavery, the slave trade, servitude, forced or compulsory labour, and institutions and practice similar to slavery. The Model Legislation fills a gap in existing domestic legal frameworks not covered by States’ current legislation: a guide meant to facilitate the process of reviewing and amending existing domestic legislation, or adopting new legislation, to ensure the internationally recognised requirement of effectivité. The Model Legislation is designed to ensure ease of adaptability to the legislative requirements of a State, whatever its legal tradition, geographical region, or social or economic condition. In ensuring that domestic legislation is effectively implemented, the Model Legislation is supplemented by a number of Guiding Principles for Antislavery Legislation to assist in ensuring that legislative action undertaken is consistent with a State’s current domestic law and with its international obligations.

Recent research indicates that forced labour and human trafficking in the fisheries sector are a severe problem. Reports suggests that fishers may be vulnerable to severe forms of human rights abuse on board fishing vessels. Migrant workers are vulnerable to being deceived and coerced by brokers and recruitment agencies and forced to work on board vessels. Fishers may be forced to work for long hours at very low pay, and the work is intense, hazardous and difficult. However, and unlike other labour issues, slavery is universally illegal, with prohibitions enshrined in global agreements including the 1926 Slavery Convention and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. This project aims to identify the modern slavery risk factors in the Chilean fishing sector and develop mitigation strategies. 

We are designing behavioural change resources for SME business leaders to move them through a phased process of awareness-building towards practical and achievable action to tackle modern slavery. This work will provide appropriate guidance for CHAS to offer to their 35,000 members, many of who are SMEs working in the construction and manufacturing sectors—recognised high-risk sectors for labour exploitation and modern slavery. 

We extended novel advances in mathematical sciences to identify, measure and rectify human rights violations including forced marriage as a form of modern slavery. The innovations supported health and education interventions in Tanzania. We developed a methodology for probabilistic data assembly, made key extensions to Object Oriented and Topological Data Analysis that handle multi-view and temporally unaligned datasets, then integrated these developments into full predictive models. We deployed the models in educational interventions led by Hope for Girls and Women and the Tanzania Development Trust.

The International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) new c.188 guidelines went into force in the UK on January 8th 2020. However, there is no baseline data to measure its efficacy. In order to understand the scope of knowledge around fishers rights and exploitation within UK fisheries a mix-methods approach will be undertaken with our partner organisation Human Rights at Sea (HRAS) to provide a nationwide baseline needs assessment for the UK fisheries sector. Geospatial satellite data will be used to provide context and analysis of surveyed port locations around the UK and boat activity occurring in UK waters. 

We piloted a ‘buddying scheme’ (April-October 2020) that paired Rights Lab researchers with civil servants in the Home Office Modern Slavery Unit and the Department for International Development. The pairs were matched based on their areas of research/policy interest. The scheme sought to transform policy officials’ understanding of how to work with academia and make best use of research, and to provide researchers with an understanding of the policy environment and how best to craft and pitch research papers for use by Government. Our evaluation of the scheme, published in March 2021, found clear and tangible benefits to allowing researchers and policy officials to connect and learn from each other. We are now taking forward these recommendations into our ‘buddying’ initiative, and intend that the findings from this pilot will be of use to others looking to implement similar schemes.

The project evaluated and documented the impact of our academic work on labour practices in hand car washes in the UK and on related law enforcement and business conduct in this sector. The Gangmaster and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA) used our findings to engage with UK supermarkets on the risk of modern slavery in hand car washes operating in their forecourts. This resulted in reviews and execution of company policies and the closure of some high-risk businesses. The project included work with GLAA to further the impact of this supermarket engagement in ways that lead to improved enforcement and outcomes for currently exploited workers. 

This PhD project used Q methodology to answer the question, “What is freedom from slavery?” The project was based on the notion that the logical end of extensive antislavery efforts around the world is a growing number of people stepping into freedom, yet the antislavery field does not have a shared conception of freedom. It aims to help unite the field around  an understanding of freedom for the good of survivors. 

This PhD project aimed to reveal whether survivors’ lived experience of wellbeing match current measures of wellbeing.  It elevated the knowledge and expertise of survivors of slavery. Because survivors lived without freedom, they possess understanding about the phenomena of slavery and freedom that is inherently unavailable to non-survivors. The project gathered data about the lived experiences of survivors in order to inform definitions of slavery and freedom, and provided a survivor-informed definition of well-being that can guide antislavery policies and help ensure that public resources are directed to improving the lives of survivors. 

This project responded the fact there is very little economic literature investigating the likely effects of commonly proposed anti-slavery policies and whether the incidence of slavery is affected by trade globalization. We filled this gap by studying the effect of anti-slavery policies and international trade both theoretically and empirically. The first part of the project looked at several anti-slavery policies in a general equilibrium framework for a given level of trade openness. The second part of the project provided a systematic theoretical and empirical analysis of the link between international trade liberalization and modern slavery.

We developed a range of workshops on modern slavery for the UK's local modern slavery partnerships. The workshops and accompanying materials addressed current gaps and shortfalls in provision, and aimed to improve prevention and victim care. They equipped modern slavery partnerships with the tools they needed to be able to run successful and impactful exercises for a range of organisations associated with their partnerships: businesses, recruitment agencies, police, adult and child safeguarding teams, housing teams, fire and rescue, health services and local support charities. The workshops included innovative learning and training tools, enabling communities of practice to share knowledge and experience, and identify gaps in provision relating to various aspects of modern slavery.

Partnership is essential to effective action against modern slavery. Throughout the UK many different organisations are working hard to prevent slavery, promote identification of victims, provide support services to survivors, and ensure that slavery cannot flourish. In 2017 research from the Rights Lab and Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner demonstrated that although multi-agency anti-slavery partnership work was developing across the UK, it lacked consistency and resources.  In October 2020, an updated report showed progress to date. In addition, very little monitoring and evaluation of partnership activity was occurring by 2017, and it was unclear what constituted ‘good’ practice. The toolkit is an attempt to fill that gap, by providing a checklist to assist in reviewing partnership activity, a governance library to improve accountability and performance, access to the UK Training Library, plus a range of information, web-links and case studies to assist with other important aspects of anti-slavery activity. 

We analysed 12,000 surveys with domestic workers across India completed during a 4-year period by a network of Sisters, to quantify the proportion of workers who are in decent vs. poor quality employment and geospatially map the distribution of individuals. The analysis revealed key factors associated with decent and poor working conditions, including geography, demographic characteristics (such as age, gender, and educational status), and cultural factors (such as caste, religion and ethnic background). We estimated and mapped the prevalence of child labour in the sample, analysed how gender and ethnicity shape this form of labour, and revealed indicators for vulnerability. The next stage of the project will work with the Sisters on new survey instruments. 

This project developed an identification tool for slavery in a specific industry. Around 90% of Greek strawberries are produced in Nea Manolada, Greece. The industry has expanded ten-fold since the European migrant crisis of 2015 onward. Using satellite imagery, we located hundreds of forced labour camps. We completed field visits and interviews with victims of forced labour in the camps in order to establish the number of people residing in camps, health and safety conditions, and the reintegration needs of victims. The monitoring tool is enabling the observation of new camps that appear in the region and estimations of migrant workers in the area. 

This project delivered a rapid learning synthesis on the impact of Covid-19 on modern slavery over a two-month period during the crisis itself. As part of this we delivered a rapid learning synthesis on the impact of Covid-19 across three sectors (the ready-made garment sector, overseas labour recruitment and commercial sexual exploitation of children) and a deep dive focus on two countries (India and Bangladesh). It synthesised and analysed emerging immediate impacts and responses to Covid-19 across key stakeholder groups in India and Bangladesh within the three priority sectors; identify potential longer-term risk and resilience impacts of Covid-19 for vulnerable groups and possible key stakeholder responses; and generate useful evidence-informed learning and recommendations for policy and programming activities to respond to the immediate and longer-term impacts of Covid-19. 

Forced labour has been found in textile supply chains all over the world. Despite these supply chains operating in different jurisdictions, cultural settings and supply chain structures, a high risk for exploitation – particularly of women workers - is a common feature whether in developing countries or in the UK. This project created a network of researchers from four developing countries (Brazil, Thailand, Indonesia and Pakistan) with significant textile sectors and the UK. In each partner country we identified an NGO initiative that has successfully worked against labour exploitation in the textile supply chain and map all relevant actors in and around their initiatives. We then identified commonalities and differences between them. These provided the basis for simulation studies on the initiatives' transferability into other settings and provide knowledge about the actors and institutions that must be in place for an initiative to be effective. This knowledge is a crucial enabler for the transfer and upscaling of solutions against labour exploitation. The project also strengthened research capacity on labour exploitation in key developing countries and provided a basis for larger scale investigations into other supply chains and effective initiatives against labour exploitation in them. 

Councils have the opportunity to provide guidance to local businesses about modern slavery and how they might manage it, and should also take responsibility for eliminating modern slavery in its own supply chains. Accordingly, this project presents an initial modern slavery risk assessment of Bradford City Council to support them in meeting such goals. It is a preliminary, independent analysis of the modern slavery risks that the Council may be exposed to in its tier 1 suppliers. The analysis is based on an evaluation of the procurement portfolio of the Council’s spend from April-December 2019. It looks at the spend categories in detail, and breaks down and explains key modern slavery risks. The final report includes the steps that we advise any purchasing organisation to take in order to understand and address the risk of modern slavery in its business and supply chains. It includes recommendations for managing modern slavery in procurement, and makes a number of recommendations on next steps for the Council to consider in their journey towards addressing the risk of modern slavery in their supply chains. 

Outland Denim was founded as an avenue for the training, employment, and career progression for women who had experienced exploitation. As part of these efforts, Outland employs, at their cut and sew facility in Cambodia, a number of survivors of modern slavery as well as other people who have faced exploitation and severe adversity. The Rights Lab explored and tested the interface between the goals and outcomes of Outland Denim, between its intentions and ambitions, and how those ambitions are realised alongside existing and emerging operational realities. The findings show that offering basic human rights, job and life skills training, and access to medical and psychological care has a positive domino effect on both the individual and the surrounding society: The study’s participants showed measurable change in education, health, housing, socio-economic standing, low debt load and higher savings frequency. They also reported feeling more empowered and ambitious for their children, and had detailed plans for the future. 

This systematic review of existing knowledge around modern slavery perpetration in the UK identified evidence gaps and highlighted ongoing research needs. It looked across the available literature and data sets on perpetrator demographics, motives, methods of recruitment and communication between perpetrators and victims, including online communication. We combined knowledge from publicly available reports, existing academic outputs and previously untapped data-sources, including police case reports, arrest and conviction data, police interviews, survivor narratives and data collected by the NCA, Home Office and MSPTU. The review focused in particular on online communities and the role they play in facilitating modern slavery, including the interactions between potential victims and perpetrators that take place online. 

Organisations engaged in the Nottinghamshire anti-slavery partnership contributed to a multi-agency intelligence picture, revealing insights into previously untapped and ‘hard to reach’ communities, enabling them to identify new areas of vulnerability and specific sites of risk. This newly-collated knowledge resulting from the problem profile is informing local place-based responses across Nottinghamshire: interventions that aid prevention, discovery, respite, recovery and the development of sustainable resilience. The next stage of the project expands the method to other localities 

We completed a pilot project to provide free travel to 100 survivors in London. The purpose of the project was to understand more about the travel needs of people in the NRM in London, and the benefits of funded travel for people in the NRM. The survivor participants could use the funding (£50/fortnight, for three months) to travel for any purpose on the Transport for London rail/bus/tram/and riverboat network. We conducted aggregate (total) analysis of the Oyster card travel data of all the study participants, including the average costs of study participants’ travel journeys, the time of day of journeys, the frequency of travel, methods of travel (e.g. bus, train), and the zones of travel. 

This project increased awareness of critical modern slavery issues amongst key stakeholders in eight target LATAC countries (Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Haiti, Dominican Republic) in a contextually-responsive manner. Evidence and network review mapped the state of knowledge. We identified key actors at multiple levels, challenges and obstacles in modern slavery awareness and action, and gaps in knowledge and appropriate mechanisms for engagement with each of these groups. This provided the foundation for the development of targeted resources tailored specifically to the different audiences identified, and bespoke dissemination and engagement plans that capitalise on existing channels and modes of communication used by the stakeholder groups, to maximise project impact. By increasing awareness, engagement, and uptake, this project increased the capacity of key stakeholders to identify and respond to modern slavery. Creating a roadmap for awareness and advocacy built from local engagement, this project also provided the foundation for broader advocacy and awareness raising across the LATAC region, and highlighted lessons learned for antislavery globally. 

The Clewer Initiative was created to enable Church of England dioceses to respond to modern slavery, by stimulating faith and community-led action to address exploitation. The project was funded for an initial three-year term to raise awareness of all forms of modern slavery, to increase detection and reporting, and improve victim support and care in the UK. The project was founded on the belief that ‘the tools to end modern slavery already exist within the local community and that the Church, which is present in all communities and at the heart of many, has a primary responsibility in leading these efforts.’ This evaluation presented a summary of the impact of the first three years of the Clewer Initiative, set against the dynamic and rapidly-developing context of anti-slavery work in the UK. As funding has recently been extended to enable work for up to ten further years, the report also identifies a number of challenges and opportunities for the project to consider as it moves forward. The report unfolds some of the issues and challenges in ways that can enable Clewer's work to grow in reach and in appropriate response. 

We evaluated if and how the survivor-led NGO Survivor Alliance has influenced its key stakeholders and partners, including whether stakeholders have made any changes to their organisational culture, policy and practice as a result of engagement with Survivor Alliance; if and how the working relationship with Survivor Alliance can be strengthened going forward; and organisational aspirations for becoming more survivor-informed and survivor-led. 19 individuals responded to our inquiry. The ways in which Survivor Alliance had worked with respondents ranged from collaborating on research design and delivery, programme design, advising on campaigns, delivering training to event planning. When asked whether they had benefited from engaging with Survivor Alliance, participants were united in their positive response, and described improved individual and organisational knowledge regarding survivor involvement and survivor leadership, and increased confidence in undertaking this work; improved research, projects and programme design as a result of Survivor Alliance input; access to timely resources and a trusted source of knowledge and support for the antislavery sector; increased credibility and buy-in from NGO partners and funders for specific projects and for survivor involvement more generally.

This study examined the impact of the Sustainable Freedom Support Structure - a programme developed by a Rights Lab PhD candidate in collaboration with the Salvation Army to support survivors of slavery. The programme supports survivors in their self-identified needs or goals related to sustained freedom and community integration as they exit NRM support.

Completed in collaboration with student interns, this research explored how discourses around the issue of labour are communicated and constructed by large corporations. It examined how companies in the fashion, food, cosmetics and electronics industries represent labour in their supply chains through their own visual material. It also considered the implications of this representation. The resulting report highlighted how the corporations seek to ‘other’ workers in the supply chain to justify poorer working conditions than workers in office spaces, or do not refer to the supply chain at all. The report pointed to an inconsistency between the corporations’ narratives on their labour practices and their actions, and showed how corporations attempt to construct their own identities as a business or brand through visual sources.  

We worked with Office of the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner during a PhD student placement to undertake a review of research being carried out into slavery and trafficking to establish to what extent research has had an impact, and suggest ways to obtain more impact from research. The work included discussions with relevant stakeholders; scoping of academic and non-academic literature; and writing report that has been used by the Commissioner to inform policy thinking.

This report focused on the key elements of the UK’s legal framework to protect workers against labour exploitation that have derived from EU Law and examining the impact of Brexit on these measures. It showed that the UK’s domestic implementation of various EU directives that aim to reduce the vulnerability of workers to exploitative labour practices forms an important part of the domestic legal anti-slavery framework. These include legal protections for seasonal, part-time and agency workers who are particularly vulnerable to exploitation. The report highlighted two key ways in which the legal framework in the UK will change post-Brexit. Firstly, the requirement under EU Law for the UK to maintain protections will lapse. Parliament will have the power to amend, repeal and replace the existing provisions, but weakening of the existing legal protections will leave workers more vulnerable to exploitation. And secondly, the UK’s post-Brexit relationship with the Court of Justice of the European Union will not guarantee the same positive influence on rights protection in national courts. 

This Faculty Fellowship focused on developing a book manuscript that compares new paired interviews with contemporary enslaved people and slaveholders to show how significant changes are experienced differently by parties at opposite ends of status hierarchies. This perpetrator-survivor dyad data is unique in scholarship on contemporary slavery and the book project aims to transform how we think about human rights violations and collective action struggles, and to shift public policy approaches to contemporary slavery and human trafficking.

This project provided a quantitative analysis of Transparentem’s (TTEM) work with a group of garment production factories in Malaysia. In late 2016 and 2017, TTEM investigated and documented labour abuses across a number of Malaysian garment production factories. The investigations revealed that 23 global brands have direct or indirect business connections with these factories. Starting in April 2018, Primary Intelligence Notes (PINs) detailing the specific abuses uncovered, and sets of recommendations aimed at addressing them, were shared with those 23 brands, and shared in some form with the five factories at which the abuses had been documented. The unique aspect of this intervention, compared to ‘naming and shaming’ interventions that have been used to tackle labour abuses in other commercial settings, was the granting of a ‘grace period’ to PIN recipients: temporary nondisclosure agreements were intended to allow time for remediation by brands and factories to begin and to be reported back to TTEM. PIN recipients were informed that, after this grace period, details of their responses to the PINs would be presented to investors, regulators and journalists, highlighting the potential reputational and commercial consequences of failure to remediate. A Consolidated Intelligence Report (CIR) qualitatively detailing and summarising the responses of all brands and factories to the PINs, as well as written communications received by TTEM in response to them, was then shared with key stakeholders. In 2019, the CIR was shared with the Rights Lab in order to undertake a quantitative analysis to produce an overview of brand responsivity to TTEM’s intervention. The specific focus of the analysis was on which categories of recommendation, and which specific recommendations within those categories, elicited stronger vs. weaker responsivity. The analysis also facilitated a comparative assessment of which brands responded most strongly vs. most weakly to the intervention. The final report made series of key recommendations for future interventions and for evaluations of TTEM projects.

This project completed an analysis of the relationship between trafficking and environmental degradation, in order to recommend interventions that will mitigate worker vulnerability to trafficking in contexts affected by deforestation. The project focused on Mozambique, used tree cover loss prediction mapping to calculate past tree loss/gains, and linked trends in tree to ground intelligence (a process of “satelligence”) to enhance evidence of what is occurring in two particular areas of interest in the country (Tete Province and Niassa Province). The next stage of this project will look at tree loss due to modern slavery in additional countries.

The OSCE commissioned the University of Nottingham’s Rights Lab to undertake an independent analysis of Trafficking in Human Beings (THB) risks that the OSCE Mission to Serbia might have in its Tier 1 suppliers. It was the first time such an evaluation was undertaken for the procurement portfolio of an inter-governmental organisation and set a pioneering milestone for procurement in inter-governmental organisations. It was explicitly produced to provide a basis for further debate, analysis and action on procurement practices and how THB risks can be addressed, and provided recommendations for managing risks of THB in supply chains.

We produced guidance to support local and national policy makers in government, business and public services who wish to involve survivors of modern slavery in their work, whether  in developing policy, legislation and guidance, or shaping and delivering services. The guidance provides an overview of some of the key questions to consider before involving survivors, practical tips to ensure your consultation meetings with survivors run smoothly,  and ideas for consultation follow-up. It offers a useful starting point for policy makers to help them develop an anti-slavery response that is truly survivor-informed. Although the guidance was produced in the UK and has a UK focus, it is intended for adaptation and use in other country contexts.

We reviewed and analysed the process of drafting and adoption of district level by-laws, related to Child Domestic Workers (CDW) in Mwanza, Tanzania, and the intervention’s scalability and impact. This included identifying the critical components of the process of district level by-law drafting and adoption, and the enablers and inhibitors that may affect its replication and scalability to other Tanzanian districts and states. We also assessed the impact of the by-law process on CDW in two districts in Mwanza, and its replication and scalability to other Tanzanian districts and states.

We delivered training commissioned by one of the world’s leading social auditing and verification bodies and the global certifier for Fairtrade. The training included an introduction to business and human rights, a deep dive on human rights due diligence, legislative developments on corporate accountability, and specific issues and roles for businesses within the anti-slavery agenda.

To inform the development of Anti-Slavery International's 2020-2025 strategy, we delivered research that identified the strategic challenges facing the global endeavour to end slavery; what needs to change to overcome those challenges; key actors already working or planning work to bring those changes about; key recommendations on which of the challenges Anti-Slavery International may wish to prioritise; and how Anti-Slavery International can add value as a global campaigning charity working in partnership with others

This project provided the contemporary global antislavery movement with a usable past of history's antislavery examples and methods. We brought to the present the important lessons from antislavery movements and policies of the past, and helped translate those lessons into effective tools for policy makers, civil society, and citizens. We identified, theorised and embedded antislavery as a protest memory for contemporary abolitionism, focusing in particular on how antislavery organisations deploy survivors' voices and imagery.

The first project aim was to establish the meaning of modern slavery, bringing usability and clarity to the different needed types of definitions; specifically legal, operational, and popular definitions. We brought the perspectives and participation of contemporary survivors of slavery into the study through collecting survivor narratives first hand and introducing topics of definition into new interviews with survivors. The second project aim was to advance the measurement of modern slavery. We further tested the application of Multiple Systems Estimation techniques to the hidden population of slavery and trafficking victims, this time in the regional setting of Central Florida, USA, as a case study.

We completed a cost-benefit analysis (CBA) of the Modern Slavery (Victim Support) Bill proposed by Lord McColl that would extend support for modern slavery survivors from 45 days to one year. Launched in Parliament in July 2019, the CBA challenged assumptions that the Bill would impose costs. We found that if the Bill had been passed in 2017 there would have been a net overall benefit (direct and indirect) of between £10.4m and £25.1m. The CBA also helped to transform how the UK Government supports slavery victims. It was used by Duncan Lewis Solicitors in a judicial review claim that challenged the Home Office policy of limiting victim support to 45 days. Upon receipt of the evidence, the Home Office settled the challenge, conceded that the 45-day policy was incompatible with the European Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings, and agreed to introduce a needs-based system.

We compared UK-Brazil supply chains in the timber and the beef sectors, in order to understand the impact of key differences on the implementation of anti-slavery measures: the fact that global business supply chains span over different countries with differing legal systems and distinct market features, and the fact that structures of supply chains vary drastically across sectors, as do their market characteristics. We found that where modern slavery legislation carries punitive sanctions, it is effective in incentivising companies to comply with anti-slavery rules. We also found that major market players’ leadership on the implementation of anti-slavery measures is crucial to the effective spread of these measures across the industry sector, as is commercial pressure from large UK buyers and the inclusion of social sustainability criteria in investment indices – rather than consumer pressure. Finally, we highlighted that features of the goods and the sectors, and whether the products are produced for lesser controlled domestic markets or foreign markets in a more transparent way, could fundamentally shape the overall implementation of anti-slavery policies.

We designed and delivered pilot workshops and associated training materials for SMEs, helping them to meet emerging obligations under the Modern Slavery Act. The project raised awareness of modern slavery and the role of SME businesses in addressing the issue, designed and tested a training offer to assist Nottinghamshire SMEs to support their customers’ compliance under the Modern Slavery Act, encouraged businesses to engage with local community anti-slavery initiatives beyond their basic compliance with the legislation, and provided a model for a knowledge exchange business network on modern slavery.

We built and tested a new risk evaluation tool using private sector data as a part of a key industry collaboration. Our industry partner identified a market to provide their clients with evaluations of their exposure to modern slavery, and contributed data from their global risk databases. The prototype tool analysed risk exposure in operations and supply chains, as part of a wider management process that helps to prevent, mitigate against and respond to the risk of modern slavery.

We completed a pilot antislavery monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) project with sector input, tested our approach with our NGO partner, and delivered an overall antislavery MEL framework for future use. The work included framework design, test within an existing City Hearts project, and a final report on the intervention and MEL design. 

We completed data collection and analysis for the Walk Free “Measurement, Action, Freedom” report, launched in July 2019 at the United Nations. This report analysed how governments from across the globe are responding to the problem of 40.3 million people living in modern slavery and is the world’s most comprehensive assessment of government action on the issue of modern slavery. The Rights Lab completed data collection for 159 countries across a large number of datapoints and against a conceptual framework. The research involved two stages: data collection through a recommended hierarchy of sources, and outreach to NGOs.

This project established a clear case for the global development community to prioritize anti-slavery and anti-trafficking in development programming and policies. The Rights Lab delivered research for a report by the United Nations University Centre for Policy Research that answers the question: how can fighting slavery contribute to sustainable development? This included a case study on the fisheries sector: slavery issues in the sector globally and how they relate to development challenges; development interventions to address modern slavery; and new ways to think about modern slavery in the fisheries sector from a development perspective, with the identification of possible development intervention points.

This project established a clear case for the global development community to prioritize anti-slavery and anti-trafficking in development programming and policies. The Rights Lab delivered research for a report by the United Nations University Centre for Policy Research that answers the question: how can fighting slavery contribute to sustainable development? This included an evidence gap map, covering relevant grey and academic literature, showing what we know about the impacts of slavery and anti-slavery programming on public revenues; corruption; improved productivity; costs of capital; terms of trade; social protection; public health; and inequality.

The Rights Lab and the Office of the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner analysed agricultural companies’ compliance with the Modern Slavery Act (MSA), and produced two reports: a baseline assessment in October 2018, and a follow-up and updated analysis of progress across the sector in October 2019. This research found poor reporting and low levels of action by the UK agricultural sector on modern slavery. For example, in 2018, only 50% of agricultural companies which should be reporting under the Act had done so one year after the requirements came into force. Only 38% of these statements were compliant with the requirements of the law, meaning overall only 19% of the agricultural sector was abiding by the terms of the Act. In 2019, 89% of agricultural companies had published a modern slavery statement, but only 46% of these statements were compliant with the requirements of the law, meaning overall only 41% of the agricultural sector was abiding by the terms of the Act. The quality of content in agricultural companies’ modern slavery statements declined from 2017 to 2018, and declined again in 2019. The reports included key recommendations for action from businesses and government.

We analysed child slavery from a human rights perspective and provided practical measures for States and other stakeholders on how to end it. This research included definitions of child slavery, an analysis of its root causes and characteristics, an assessment of which countries and economic sectors child slavery continues to manifest itself and what action States haven taken to prevent and address it, a mapping of current initiatives against child slavery, an assessment of good practices and lessons learnt, and recommendations on how to end child slavery in policy and practice.

Funding from the ESRC Outstanding International Impact Prize for 2018 recognised Professor Bales' work to adapt and deploy Multiple Systems Estimation (MSE) to provide reliable estimates of modern slavery, including his further applications of MSE in a regional US context. The Impact Prize award enabled further development and validation of the MSE approach, producing estimates that can serve as the basis for a reconsideration of policy and enforcement in numerous countries.

Completed in collaboration with a student intern, our evaluation of a GLAA project found it was an effective intervention. In 2018-19, Boston College was the first college in the UK to work with the GLAA in embedding the subject of modern slavery and labour exploitation across its range of academic and vocational courses. The year-long course saw all 1,500 college students given a tutorial on workers’ rights and a guide to spotting the signs of modern slavery. An Employment Rights and Responsibilities Week provided students with practical sessions designed to equip them with knowledge about how to protect themselves from exploitation. The intervention was effective in achieving the intended outcome of increasing awareness of labour exploitation. We also found that independent research and engagement in applied projects resulted in the strongest understanding of the mechanisms of labour exploitation, and that some students became advocates of fair treatment at work, and more aware of indicators of vulnerability in their community. Our report included recommendations for future development of the intervention, particularly in relation to course materials, teaching methods and content, and ensuring that students are supported to report potential labour abuses.

We analysed the data from a new app launched by the Church of England, after also helping to design and launch the app in June 2018. The app enables drivers to respond to a checklist of key factors that may suggest modern slavery or labour exploitation in hand car washes. Our research into the app's data, published in April 2019, looked at reports of potential cases from June-December 2018: there was 2271 completed entries using the app, and 41%, or 930 reports, revealed a likelihood of modern slavery at the hand car wash. Half of all reports showed that workers did not have access to suitable protective clothing, and one in 10 logged that children were working on site. We found that the Safe Car Wash app shows the potential value of using technology in raising public awareness and leveraging the insight of the community to gather the necessary intelligence for effective investigations.

We analysed predictive factors for child labour in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, India. Different predictive geographical data were layered to identify priority areas and create a combined vulnerability score to map. This included work to identify predictors of child labour within a household survey, use proxy datasets for the predictors identified to create a map of child labour vulnerability, identify the significance of geographical differences in the prevalence of child labour, Identify village amenities that might predict child labour vulnerability. Results included that distances to the nearest drinking water and the nearest town are highly significant predictors. The project supported the Freedom Fund's scoping study for a renewal of its programme in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, which began in 2014, in order to focus future interventions within targeted districts more effectively.

 

We completed a global scoping of the market for a new slavery risk assessment tool in countries that are about to, or have recently, legislated against modern slavery. We also sought insight into the potential uptake of our risk assessment tool with corporate partners. The project let us understand the applicability and utility of this tool for businesses, and how to support businesses to go beyond minimal compliance to become global leaders in slavery-free practice.

We examined true extent and nature of modern slavery and human trafficking in hand car washes in the UK. A research report provided a better understanding of the type and prevalence of labour exploitation in hand car washes and the challenges and approaches to tackling it. We used new surveys of police forces and other agencies in combination with an analysis of existing research and data. Among other findings, we identified that labour violations are widespread in hand car washes across the UK; conditions of work, accommodation and methods of control vary significantly; and stricter enforcement of current regulations are required.

We synthesised, reviewed and assessed the current state of research on the nexus between modern slavery, environmental destruction and climate change, and brought together previously disparate literature as part of a holistic framework. The research offered insight into existing trends in the extant literature and highlighted potential future research directions. We conceptualised a cyclical, two-way nexus between modern slavery, climate change and environmental destruction: modern slavery practices contribute to further multiscalar environmental destruction and perpetuate climate change, while the increasing environmental pressures associated with climate change in the Global South exacerbate existing vulnerabilities to exploitative labour practices. The nexus emerged in the literature sectorally and in relation to specific geographic locations and the review was accordingly structured around four main sectors: fisheries, fields, forests and factories. 

We examined what research is being undertaken about modern slavery in the UK and what research we still need. We released a call for submissions on recent and current research about slavery and slavery-related practices. The call focused on slavery in the UK and/or research by UK researchers. A report used the 59 submissions provided by researchers as well as additional desk-based research to map the UK’s current research landscape for modern slavery. It identified a significant evidence base in the areas of prevalence estimation, supply chains, and legislation, for example, and particular gaps in areas that included of risks and vulnerabilities, offenders, and international interventions. The project included a report and companion website.  

A Rights Lab researcher was seconded with funding to work with the satellite data company DigitalGlobe on developing machine learning analytics of its imagery of brick kilns across Asia. This included research into crowdsourcing technologies and the integration of machine learning and crowd-sourcing approaches to the analysis of geospatial data, as well as establishing a training dataset for further machine learning development. 

We produced maps of sites associated with modern slavery across a large area and estimates of the sites’ impact on atmospheric properties (aerosols/black soot and carbon that impact negatively on health and contribute to global warming). The pilot focused on kilns used in the manufacture of bricks in the Brick Belt area across Pakistan, India, Nepal and Bangladesh, and generated information on where slavery occurs and its impacts on atmospheric chemistry.

This British Academy Visiting Fellowship used a set of remote sensing imagery to map brick kilns, which are strongly associated with slavery, across the ‘Brick Belt’ of India. A key feature was the use of deep learning methods. First we mapped the location of brick kilns using Google Earth high spatial resolution satellite imagery. Then we calculated the age of each brick kiln using the time series of medium spatial resolution satellite imagery, and generated maps showing the spatial distribution of kilns over time.

Slavery poses a challenge to strategic purchasing and supply chain management. Solutions for detecting and eliminating slavery within  supply chains must leverage capabilities on a firm, supply chain, and business-non-business partnership level, while accounting for institutional conditions related to the industry as well as socio-cultural, regulatory and geographic context. The length, complexity, and fragmented nature of international supply chains mean that conventional compliance-based approaches are unlikely to be effective. Developing knowledge and conceptual understanding of slavery in supply chains, this project used a two-step qualitative empirical research approach comprising three rounds of Delphi study and three focus groups. The results served decision-makers in business, politics and society.

Working with key industry collaborators, we scoped a range of risk assessment tools for businesses in the area of modern slavery risk, including mechanisms for establishing industry-wide approaches to eliminating slavery from consortium members’ supply chains. We then developed an initial concept for risk assessment aimed at supplier selection in particular, with multiple and weighted criteria. This formed the basis for different tailored versions of our risk assessment tool that we continue to deploy with a range of partners.