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UK Records 23,000 Modern Slavery Referrals in 2025, Up 22% from Prior Year
The Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner released a report showing over 23,000 potential modern slavery victims were referred in 2025, a 22 percent increase from the prior year and the highest number recorded. The report highlights rising exploitation within the UK, driven by factors like cost-of-living pressures and technology.
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Over 23,000 potential victims of modern slavery were referred to the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner in 2025, marking a 22 percent increase from the previous year and the highest number ever recorded. The report, released on Monday, detailed that more than a fifth of these potential victims were from the UK, with 13 percent from Eritrea and 9 percent from Vietnam.
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It also noted a 54 percent rise in sexual exploitation of girls in Britain over the last five years.
Eleanor Lyons, appointed as Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner in October 2023, said the findings showed exploitation increasingly affecting people within the UK. She stated: 'The most harrowing forms of exploitation are becoming more widespread in this country and evolving faster than we can respond.
Lyons added that behind these numbers are real people abused in severe ways, such as women forced into the sex trade, children coerced into drug gangs, or workers trapped in brutal conditions.
Lyons explained that it is predominantly British boys and girls who are being exploited by criminals. She said children can be exploited through chat functions in video games, where perpetrators gain trust by buying tokens and targeting vulnerable individuals, leading to grooming and blackmail.
Boys are typically exploited criminally by county lines and drug gangs, whereas girls more commonly face sexual exploitation, which has risen by over 50 percent in the last five years and is occurring at younger ages.
The report identified rising living costs, debt, and insecure work as factors driving people into modern slavery and human trafficking. It warned that artificial intelligence and digital platforms, including social media and encrypted services, are enabling traffickers to recruit, groom, and control victims at scale.
