Every era reduces complex injustice to a single image. In recent years, in the UK, that image has become the ‘small boat’ in the Channel. Public discourse too often frames people crossing borders as a problem to be solved: stop the boats, smash the gangs, tighten asylum rules, make refugee status temporary.
But the evidence tells a different story, and the danger people face does not end when they reach safety. Far too many are pulled into exploitation, forced labour, debt bondage and trafficking.
The Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner’s latest report warns that “strict migration systems can push people toward unsafe routes and criminal intermediaries”, shifting risk rather than reducing it. Harsher borders do not stop people fleeing danger, climate collapse and economic precarity. Instead, they hand more power to intermediary agents and exploitative employers.
Exploitation also runs through legal visa routes, including care homes, building sites, soft fruit and poultry farms, along with the supply chains we all depend on.
In 2025, 23,411 potential victims were referred to the National Referral Mechanism, the highest annual figure since records began in 2009 and a 22% rise on the year before.
Which raises the real question: who profits, and why are they so seldom made to pay? The same report makes a point that sits at the heart of our work: financial tools such as asset seizure remain underused. People who profit from exploitation too often keep their gains, even when they are caught.
This is precisely the gap FIND exists to close. We build evidence that helps survivors secure compensation and holds those responsible to account.
Solidarity means refusing the easy narrative. The question is not about who is arriving, but who is profiting.
#WorldRefugeeDay #MordernSlavery #HumanTrafficking #FollowTheMoney #SocialJustice #FairLabour
