UK Modern Slavery Referrals Reach Record 23,000 in 2025, Up 22% from Prior Year

The Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner released a report on Monday revealing that over 23,000 potential victims of modern slavery were referred to the organization in 2025. This figure marks a 22 percent increase from the previous year and stands as the highest number ever recorded.

More than a fifth of these potential victims were from the UK, while 13 percent originated from Eritrea and 9 percent from Vietnam.

Sexual exploitation of girls in Britain has risen 54 percent over the last five years, according to the report. It identified hidden-economy labour exploitation as a key risk, with a particular focus on UK nail bars linked to organised criminal gangs in Vietnam.

The document also noted that artificial intelligence and digital platforms have become tools for criminal trafficking gangs, enabling exploitation through online grooming and pop-up brothels.

Eleanor Lyons, appointed as Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner in October 2023, said the report highlighted how exploitation is increasingly affecting people within the UK. Lyons further stated that the UK's response is not keeping pace with the scale and complexity of the threat, calling for mitigations across government bodies including the Foreign Office, Home Office, Police, Ministry of Justice, and HMRC.

The report pointed to economic pressures such as rising living costs, debt, and insecure work as factors driving people into modern slavery.

It presented scenarios where exploitation could adapt into harder-to-detect spaces, emphasizing that investing more in law enforcement alone is insufficient and that wider cultural change is needed. The report proposes measures like additional funding and training for specialist police units and fines for businesses breaching anti-exploitation rules.

Conflict and displacement worldwide are making vulnerable people easier targets for traffickers, the document warned.

It drew evidence from more than 50 organizations to analyze how exploitation may evolve. The Modern Slavery Act was introduced in 2015, bringing together existing anti-exploitation offences into law. The act also introduced a new defence for victims of slavery and trafficking who have been forced to break the law.

The spokesman added that the government is committed to reviewing the system to reduce misuse while ensuring protections for those in need, working with survivors to inform policy and addressing case backlogs for swift decisions and support.