In 2022 the former U.K. government made a ministerial change with supporting legislation that seemed on paper quite minor. However, Open Democracy reports that this “minor” change wrongly equated modern slavery to migration. Two years later, there have been horrifying consequences for migrants and modern slavery survivors.  

“I wasn’t guilty, but I was in prison anyway” 

It didn’t seem like a huge change when the Home Office stripped the safeguarding minister of the modern slavery brief and moved it into the portfolio of the illegal immigration and asylum minister. But the effects have been life changing for many.  

Samyar Bani is an Iranian refugee who travelled to the U.K. in a dinghy. He is just one of many who found themselves criminalized for activities which should be protected. Samyar and the others he was traveling with couldn’t afford smugglers fees so they pooled their money to buy their own dinghy. They each took turns to steer the craft to England’s shores. But as they approached land the police rounded them up, took them to a hotel and later that night came back to arrest Samyar for people smuggling.  

Samyar said: 

“I thought my human rights would be respected here…but they put my hands behind my back and arrested me. Prison is bad for everybody. But for people who are not guilty, it’s so much worse. All the time, you’re thinking, why am I here?” 

The shift to equate modern slavery with migration has had a major devastating impact. One of the biggest is that refugees and potential slavery victims born outside of the U.K. are struggling to access support. That means some end up wrongly imprisoned, like Samyar. While others become trapped in modern slavery on arrival as they get pushed into criminal exploitation, often followed by deportation.  

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