The News
Modern slavery is at an all-time high in the UK, official statistics showed this week, with more than 19,000 victims referred to authorities in 2024, almost a third of them children.
The real number of victims in the UK could be closer to 130,000, NGO Anti-Slavery International suggested. Many of those exploited work in drug or sex trades, car washes, nail salons, or the social care sector, Reuters reported.
Modern slavery — which includes both forced labor and forced marriage — has been rising globally owing to a rise in conflict, migration, and the climate crisis, with more than 50 million estimated victims across the world.
SIGNALS
AI could aid modern slavery investigators
More than half of all forced labor occurs in wealthy countries, which still struggle to investigate human trafficking and exploitation, former UK Prime Minister Theresa May, who leads The Global Commission on Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking, told the World Economic Forum in January. This is because investigations operate across fragmented data systems that often see governments, NGOs, and law enforcement officials collect information in isolation, May told Davos. AI may offer a breakthrough, however: AI can help banks to monitor and analyze millions of transactions, noticing patterns beyond what is perceivable by humans or even lower-capacity tech, Foreign Policy wrote. “By understanding what is normal, AI will then very quickly tell you what’s not normal — and that thing that doesn’t look normal is potentially crime,” a financial crime compliance executive told the outlet.
Climate change, renewable supply chains both pose risk to victims
The knock-on effects of climate change are exacerbating modern slavery in Africa, where an estimated seven million people are believed to be exploited. Increased floods, drought, and wildfires across the region are damaging crops and ruining livelihoods, a slavery expert wrote in The Conversation, leaving vulnerable people at higher risk of exploitation from groups like Boko Haram. Meanwhile, new industries emerging through the green transition are adding to the crisis. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, miners of cobalt — a key component in batteries — toil in extremely dangerous conditions for just a few dollars a day, NPR reported. With renewable energy supply chains rapidly scaling up, “Now is a critical opportunity to shape [their] future direction,” an environmental policy director told The Guardian.