GLAA Intelligence Picture Q4 (October - December 2023)
Introduction
Purpose
This is a Quarterly report providing an update on the GLAA intelligence picture of forced and compulsory labour in the UK, defined as “All work or service which is exacted from any person under the threat of a penalty and for which the person has not offered themselves voluntarily” ILO definition.
The report concerns MSHT for labour exploitation only. It does not cover MSHT for other purposes such as sexual exploitation, criminal exploitation (drug cultivation, drug dealing / county lines) or forced begging.
The report is intended to describe the intelligence picture of forced and compulsory labour as reported to and investigated by the GLAA, rather than an all-encompassing national picture of MSHT. Some of the GLAA findings therefore may differ to those of other government departments tackling modern slavery.
Neither is the report an analysis of labour market non-compliances where MSHT indicators are absent.
This report covers the period 1st October to 31st December 2023.
Victim Profile
Demographic
Gender of potential victims was reported in 29% of the cases analysed.
As expected, most reports suggested exclusively male (or groups of male) victims. Where gender is reported, the number of cases reporting exclusively male victims was 43% in this Quarter. Exclusively female victims were present in 25% of cases.
Age of potential victims was reported in just 4% of reports/referrals during this Quarter, resulting in no meaningful conclusions being able to be drawn.
Nationality (or at least a vague geographical area) of potential victims was reported in 43% of the reports/referrals.
For this reporting period most potential victims were of Indian nationality. Indian nationality was present in 15 reports/referrals, with 12 of those relating to the care sector. The second most common victim nationality group was Nigerian, which was recorded in 7 reports/referrals each. All of these reports/referrals were related to the care sector.
This quarter saw the following nationalities as new additions;
- Iranian
- Gambian
- Syrian
Table 1.0: forced labour reports/referrals by victim nationality -Q1-Q4 (Top 9)
Indian Q1 10 Q2 6 Q3 8 Q4 15
Romanian Q1 6 Q2 1 Q4 6
Nigerian Q1 2 Q3 4 Q4 7
Zimbabwean Q1 4 Q2 2 Q3 4
Ghanian Q1 2 Q3 3 Q4 1
Eastern European Q1 4 Q4 2
Bulgarian Q1 4 Q2 1 Q3 1
Asian Q1 5 Q2 1
African Q1 3 Q3 3
Some reports have identified ‘Africa’ as a nationality as opposed to a specific area. This is reflected in the nationality table above and should be considered when reading the data.
Vulnerability
70% of the reports/referrals in the reporting period indicated that potential victims displayed some kind of vulnerability to exploitation.
The most common vulnerability was the potential victim being tied into a certificate of sponsorship or visa. This on occasions led to workers being forced to work for the employer even if the conditions were unacceptable and the employer using the threat of cancelling the sponsorship if the worker complained.
The second most common vulnerability was the potential victims’ status as an irregular migrant, which often lead to threats of being handed over to the authorities by the exploiter if they challenged their poor working conditions.
Table 2.0: forced labour reports/referrals by victim vulnerability-Q1-Q4 (Top 5)
Tied into sponsorship Q1 11 Q2 10 Q3 29 Q4 33
Immigration status Q1 18 Q2 4 Q3 7 Q4 14
Limited/No English Q1 12 Q2 8 Q3 4 Q4 8
Debt bonded Q1 1 Q2 3 Q3 6 Q4 7
Minors involved Q2 2 Q3 4 Q4 4
Student Q1 3 Q2 1 Q3 2 Q4 3
Exploiter Profile
Demographic
Gender of potential exploiters was reported in 41% of reports/referrals during this reporting period.
As with previous GLAA intelligence pictures, most reports/referrals suggested exclusively male exploiters. In this Quarter the number of cases reporting exclusively male exploiters was 68%.
Cases of exclusively female exploiters totalled 5% in this Quarter, which is a significant decrease since the last Quarter (30%).
Age of potential exploiters was reported in 7% of reports/referrals in this Quarter, resulting in no meaningful conclusions being able to be drawn.
Nationality (or at least a vague geographical area) of potential exploiters was reported or implied in only 19% of reports/referrals during this reporting period.
For this reporting period the majority of potential exploiters were British, which was recorded in 6 cases. The second most reported nationality was Indian, which was recorded in 4 cases.
This quarter saw the following nationalities as new additions;
- Gambian
- Jamaican
- Moroccan
- Syrian
Table 3.0: forced labour reports/referrals by exploiter nationality -Q1-Q4 (Top 5)
British Q1 7 Q3 2 Q4 6
Indian Q1 2 Q2 1 Q3 1 Q4 4
Romanian Q1 3 Q2 1 Q3 2 Q4 1
Zimbabwean Q1 2 Q2 1
Albanian Q1 1 Q4 2
Sectors
The GLAA intelligence picture identified possible labour exploitation in 16 different industry sectors during Quarter 4.
The top three reported sectors for this Quarter were care home/social care, car wash and agriculture. These sectors are profiled in more detail below.
Care home/social care has remained the most reported sector not only this quarter but throughout 2023. It was the most reported sector this Quarter by a wide margin (47 reports/referrals) and has increased since last month (38 reports/referrals). This is almost certainly due to the GLAA’s ongoing involvement with Op TOPAZ, the GLAA continuing to serve as signpost for intelligence and information moving to / from / between partner agencies and departments, and to assist in developing the GLAA's intelligence picture the care sector.
Referrals/reports from the agriculture and car wash sectors remained consistent since the last Quarter, whilst hotels and restaurants have seen a decrease, moving it out of the top 3.
Referrals and reports with forced labour indicators in the GLAA-regulated sectors amounted to 12% of reporting in Quarter 4.
Table 4.0: forced labour reports/referrals by sector -Q1-Q4 (Top 5)
Care Q1 23 Q2 15 Q3 38 Q4 47
Car wash Q1 20 Q2 7 Q3 6 Q4 8
Agriculture Q1 5 Q2 6 Q3 6 Q4 7
Construction Q1 6 Q2 3 Q3 6 Q4 5
Hotels and restaurants Q1 6 Q2 2 Q3 7 Q4 2
Overview of top sectors with forced labour indicators (Q4 2023)
1. Care Homes/Social Care
Background: There has been an increase of reports and referrals from the care home/social care sector over the last year. Since Q3 there has been an increase from 38 reports/referrals to 47. It is highly likely that the number of reports/referrals will continue to increase due to it being a GLAA control strategy priority and the development of our intelligence picture.
Share: Care homes/social care was the most reported sector for this Quarter, accounting for 48% of all referrals/reports with forced labour indicators.
Victims: Where the gender of victims was reported, victims were mostly female. The top nationality recorded was Indian.
Exploiters: Where the gender of exploiters was recorded, exploiters were predominantly male. The top nationality reported was Indian.
Offending model: In 93% of the cases, it was reported or implied that the Employer End User Model was in use, where the exploiter was the owner /manager of the care company.
Exploitation type: The most common means of exploiting the victims was being made to work long hours. This was followed by issues with pay and the payment of inflated fees.
Location: There were no conclusive patterns in terms of location. However, counties that had 3 reports linked to them were Cambridgeshire, Oxfordshire, Nottinghamshire, Cheshire, Derbyshire, and West Yorkshire.
Accommodation: Accommodation type was recorded in 13% of cases, with house of multiple occupation being the most common. In 31% of cases the accommodation was provided by the exploiter and in 40% of these cases the accommodation was described as substandard.
Recruitment: The method of recruitment remains a large intelligence gap for the GLAA.
2. Car Wash
Background: From Q1 to Q4 car wash reporting has decreased by 60%. This decrease is highly likely to be a result of the GLAA holding talks with the key referrer of car wash intelligence to improve data quality.
Share: Car wash was the second most common sector in this Quarter, accounting for 8% of cases reported.
Victims: Where the gender of victims was reported, the victim was predominantly male. Nationality was recorded in only 2 reports/referrals, both Romanian. 50% of cases implied victims showed signs of vulnerability such as speaking limited English or their immigration status.
Exploiters: Where gender is recorded, most cases showed that exploiters were male. Nationality was recorded in only 3 reports/referrals. Nationalities noted were Albanian and Indian.
Offending model: Where recorded, in all cases the exploitation was carried out using the Employer End User model, where the exploiter was the owner/manager of the business.
Exploitation type: The most common exploitation types were inadequate pay, working long hours and living at the work premises.
Location: The most common region with potential forced labour offences in car washes was Yorkshire and Humber.
Accommodation: In 25% of the reports the accommodation had been organised by the exploiter and was most likely to be on the site of the car wash and substandard.
Recruitment: The method of recruitment as in most sectors, remains a large intelligence gap.
3. Agriculture
Background: Reporting from the agriculture sector has remained consistent throughout 2023. The agriculture sector is a regulated sector and remains part of the GLAA control strategy priorities through the focus on exploitation of seasonal workers in the agriculture sector.
Share: This was the third most common reported sector for forced labour in this Quarter, accounting for 7% of reports.
Victims: Gender of the victim was recorded in 57% of cases and victims were predominately male. Nationality was reported in 29% of the cases, the nationalities recorded were Kurdistan and Romanian.
Exploiter: Gender was recorded in 50% of cases, with an equal split between male and female exploiters. Nationality was reported in 29% of the cases and the nationalities recorded were Romanian and British.
Offending model: Where recorded, in all but one case the Employer – End User model was used. The one other case was the Employer (Intermediary) Model where a recruitment agency was supplying temporary workers. They were paying the workers inadequately, forcing them to become homeless due to charging high rent for caravans and withholding their documents.
Exploitation type: The most common exploitation types were working long hours, inadequate pay, and poor accommodation.
Location: The most common county for forced labour reports in the agriculture sector was Hampshire.
Accommodation: In 86% of the reports the accommodation had been organised by the exploiter. The accommodation was mostly a caravan which was of substandard condition.
Recruitment: The method of recruitment as in most sectors, remains a large intelligence gap.
Location
The GLAA forced and compulsory labour intelligence picture for this Quarter shows a varied spread of locations across the UK.
West Midlands was the most reported county in Quarter 4 with 6% of the reports/referrals coming from this area . There were no common trends within sectors or victims in the West Midlands. The second most reported counties were London, Nottinghamshire, and West Yorkshire, each with 5% of the reports. The most common sector in these three counties was care.
London Q1 11 Q2 9 Q3 10 Q4 5
West Yorkshire Q1 4 Q2 2 Q3 5 Q4 5
South Yorkshire Q1 5 Q2 4 Q3 2 Q4 4
Kent Q1 4 Q2 2 Q3 4 Q4 4
Norfolk Q1 5 Q2 3 Q3 3 Q4 2
Table 5.0 forced labour reports referrals by county Q1 to Q4 Top 5
Recruitment
The recruitment method of victims remains an extremely large intelligence gap for the GLAA. In this Quarter, the recruitment method was recorded in just 2 cases. The method recorded in both cases was trafficked into the country. Recruitment location was explicitly recorded in only 1 referral, which was South Africa.
Transport to the UK
This is another large intelligence gap for the GLAA. However, it is also not always relevant as not all potential victims are trafficked into the UK by an exploiter.
In this Quarter the method of transport was clearly recorded in only 1 referral. The referral states that the workers were transported to the UK in minibuses and were taught what to say to customs in order to get into the UK.
Accommodation
Accommodation type was recorded in 27% of the reports this Quarter, with the most common being described as on site. Other types of accommodation recorded were caravan, house, house of multiple occupation, shed, and flat.
The data shows that accommodation continues to be a factor in the exploitation of victims of forced and compulsory labour, with accommodation provided or controlled by potential exploiters in 39% of reports in this Quarter. In most of these cases, there was suggestion of the accommodation being substandard.
On site Q1 9 Q2 7 Q3 5 Q4 2
Caravan Q1 4 Q2 4 Q3 3 Q4 4
HMO Q1 3 Q2 1 Q4 6
House Q2 4 Q3 2 Q4 2
Flat Q2 3 Q4 1
Table 7.0 forced labour reports referrals by accommodation type Q1 Q4 Top 5
Exploitation type
There was a wide range of exploitation types reported this Quarter. The most common was pay issues, which featured in 43% of reports/referrals. This included not receiving an adequate wage, having wages withheld and unexplained deductions from their wages.
The next most common exploitation type was being made to work long hours. This exploitation type was most likely to be linked to the care sector.
Pay issues Q1 37 Q2 19 Q3 32 Q4 42
Long working hours Q1 18 Q2 19 Q3 19 Q4 39
Inflated fees Q1 11 Q2 4 Q3 19 Q4 19
Live on site Q1 9 Q2 8 Q3 9 Q4 9
Threat of revocation of sponsorship/visa Q2 5 Q3 12 Q4 14
Table 8.0 forced labour reports by exploitation type Q1to Q4 Top 5
Horizon Scanning
Cost of living crisis
The cost-of-living crisis is likely to increase the harm on victims of modern slavery as exploiters look to cut costs and workers may be willing to accept less favourable work and working conditions.
War in Ukraine
Evidence provided by the NCA showed that the Ukraine conflict has disrupted the supply of seasonal workers, with Ukrainians representing the largest proportion of workers since 2019. A shortage of workers may lead to increased employment of irregular migrants and the MSHT risks that it brings.
Points-Based Immigration System
Employers are more likely to hire illegal workers to gain cheap labour as exploiters look to cut costs, and if they were to hire skilled workers the costs would add up.
However, this system allows for the employer to sponsor workers, such as seasonal agricultural workers, to come to the UK. This means that workers are likely to come to the UK legally and therefore, without being exploited or trafficked. Yet, it is still a possibility of modern slavery and/or labour exploitation due to the time-consuming nature of the system.
Stop the Boats Bill March 2023 and The Legal Immigration Bill 2023
Victims of modern slavery arriving on small boats may still be recognised as victims, however they will not be able to access the NRM system, associated support or prevent deportation unless assisting police or prosecutors with criminal proceeding related to their exploitation. These victims will be detained and either sent back home or to a safe country (e.g., Rwanda) where they are able to claim asylum. Once removed, they will not be able to re-enter the UK. This could deter irregular migrants from reporting incidences of forced labour/ exploitation and increase their vulnerability.
Seasonal Worker Scheme
An immigration visa route means that workers must meet eligibility requirements or be sponsored. They must apply to work in horticulture for up to 6 months, and poultry from the 2nd of October to the 31st of December (within the same year). This means that workers have to go through a more legalised route to enter the UK for a seasonal worker opportunity, thus minimising the risk for MSHT and labour exploitation. Nevertheless, this may lead to a shortage of workers in the UK.