The Labour Exploitation Advisory Group (LEAG) submitted a response to the Home Affairs Committee (HASC) on Human Trafficking.

The submission highlights that the most common type of exploitation experienced by those referred into the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) is labour exploitation. It outlines the usefulness of a Continuum of Exploitation approach which looks at exploitation on a scale from lower level labour abuse to human trafficking on the severe end of the scale.

It also looks at the gendered nature of abuse and exploitation and how this plays out in different sectors such as domestic work.

The submission discusses the UK’s immigration enforcement approach to labour exploitation and the limitations of this approach for tackling the drivers of exploitation, as well as the consequences this method has for victim identification and support.

The submission submitted in March 2023 and subsequently accepted and published by the Committee.