If we want to prevent modern slavery, we must start with preventing homelessness

Every so often, a person’s story stays with you.

For us, one of those stories is Anna’s. She was just 18 when she became homeless, through no fault of her own. One day, she had a place to stay with a friend. The next, she didn’t. That’s how quickly it happened. She spent a few nights on the streets, frightened and invisible. Then someone approached her, offering work – no contract, no questions asked. In her desperation, she said yes.  What followed was months of exploitation, unpaid labour, and control so suffocating that leaving felt impossible.

“I was living with a friend, but that friend asked me to move out. So, I found myself not having anywhere else to go. That’s why I ended up being exploited.”

What happened to Anna wasn’t an accident. It was by design. Traffickers know who to target. They look for people who are isolated, desperate, and off the radar – common realities for people experiencing homelessness.

Read more:

• I didn’t know I was a human trafficking victim till I was in my 50s – why did nobody rescue me?
• How we define ‘sexual exploitation’ is fuelling violence against women and girls
• Modern slavery is still rife in the UK – where do we go from here?

At The Passage, nearly half of the survivors supported by our modern slavery service were homeless when they were recruited. That statistic alone should give us pause. But behind each number is a story like Anna’s, someone who deserved protection and instead found exploitation.

This week, our organisations released a joint report, highlighting the urgent need for a prevention-focused strategy to ensure that victims of modern slavery do not fall into the hands of traffickers.

Our report also brings survivor voices to the heart of policymaking, ensuring recommendations are grounded, effective and meaningful.

Modern slavery is a crisis we can no longer ignore

We’ve both seen time and again how the same vulnerabilities repeat across the modern slavery and homelessness sectors. When people fall through the cracks in housing, immigration or social care systems, exploitation becomes almost inevitable. The scale of this crisis demands structural change that prioritises those most at risk.

Yet prevention, as a strategy, remains underused and under-resourced. Our report reveals just 42% of current UK initiatives act to stop modern slavery before exploitation begins. And only 58% involve survivors in shaping their approach.

That’s simply not good enough.

Prevention is not an optional extra. It is the most humane, cost-effective and transformative thing we can do, reducing risk before traffickers have a chance to act.

We know what works, but it needs scaling

There is hope. Across the country, we found pockets of good practice. Projects that connect homelessness services and modern slavery support. Teams that involve survivors not just as clients but as co-creators of strategy. These are the models we need to build on.

Our report identifies two levels of prevention:

• Universal prevention tackles the root causes of exploitation: poverty, insecure housing, unsafe working conditions, and immigration barriers.
• Targeted prevention focuses on groups most at risk: those experiencing homelessness, insecure immigration status, or socially exclusion.

Local authorities play a vital role here. One recommendation is the appointment of modern slavery coordinators within every council to lead local responses. Right now, only nine of 339 local authorities in England and Wales have such a role.

This must change.

Alongside local authorities and charities such as The Passage provide critical outreach and frontline support protecting individuals before traffickers reach them.

We achieve more together

We believe in the power of change. But change requires courage – from government, from local leaders, and from all of us working in frontline roles. The Home Office’s recent action plan on modern slavery is a step forward but it lacks a cross-departmental approach. We need a new government modern slavery strategy – one that explicitly addresses housing, health, immigration and enforcement as interconnected risks.

Modern slavery is not inevitable. It is preventable. But only if we are willing to act, before someone like Anna says yes to an offer she should never have had to consider.

A call to act, not just reflect

Anna was able to escape exploitation because an outreach worker recognised the signs of trafficking and connected her with support services. But intervention cannot be left to chance. Prevention means ensuring no one falls into crisis in the first place.

It’s our hope that our report findings will help increase capacity to prevent modern slavery, as well as support those affected by both modern slavery and homelessness more effectively.

We already have the tools. We already have the knowledge. What we need now is the will, at every level, to act.

Because when someone loses their home, they should never have to lose their freedom too.

Mick Clarke is chief executive of The Passage, a homelessness charity based in Westminster. Eleanor Lyons is the UK independent anti-slavery commissioner.

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