Preventing labour exploitation: evidence summary

Introduction

The offence of human trafficking is defined in the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015 Act as ‘the recruitment, transportation or transfer, harboring or receiving or exchange or transfer or control of another person for the purposes of exploiting them.’ People may be trafficked for the purpose of labour exploitation.

Labour exploitation is the abuse of people in the workplace for profit.

It takes many forms with people exploited in different ways:

• Having wages being deducted at source
• Having wages and paperwork being controlled by another person
• Being kept in isolation and/or being fed misinformation
• Through psychological and physical abuse
• Being subjected to threats of physical violence or other forms of bullying
• Being forced to work long hours without breaks
• Being subjected to poor workplace health and safety, working conditions and an absence of legally required personal protective equipment
• Being made to use poorly maintained or faulty equipment
• Where accommodation is provided, being overcharged for cramped and unsanitary living quarters
• Their movement between employers being prevented, restricted or tightly controlled
• Having their liberty restricted in obvious or more subtle ways.

(Police Scotland, End Labour Exploitation website)

Labour exploitation is a substantial yet often concealed issue within Scotland (Police Scotland, 2021). It can occur in many different industries such as agriculture, social care, cleaning, hospitality and construction amongst others (Focus On Labour Exploitation^[1], 2021). The term 'labour exploitation' can cover a spectrum of abuses from minor labour violations to extreme harm, and often overlaps with other forms of trafficking and exploitation such as criminal exploitation. This complexity creates challenges in defining and responding to labour exploitation (International Labour Organization, 2022).

Child labour exploitation is a pervasive issue worldwide (Children’s society, 2021). Child labour exploitation refers to the exploitation of children (aged 18 and under in the UK) through labour for another person’s benefit. Typically, child victims are forced or coerced to work long hours, surrendering most or even all of their earnings. This can disrupt children’s education and may endanger their health (ECPAT, 2017). Certain industries in the UK, such as manufacturing, catering, beauty, entertainment, agriculture, and construction, frequently appear in reported cases of forced labour of children (ECPAT, 2017). Child labour exploitation is closely linked to poverty, poor educational outcomes, and gender inequality (Ibrahim et al., 2019).

Methodology and the evidence base

A rapid literature review was conducted over 3-4 months in 2024 (alongside three other reviews^[2] undertaken during the same period). It was guided by the following research question: “what is the current understanding of prevention strategies and interventions aimed at addressing human trafficking and labour exploitation in the UK?”

A total of 41 sources were considered for this paper including academic papers, grey literature^[3] and relevant websites. The literature search was undertaken via the Scottish Government’s Knowledge and Evidence database and the Government Social Research’s EBSCO databases, as well as key websites e.g. WHO, Council of Europe, UNODC, GRETA, Modern Slavery & Human Rights Policy & Evidence Centre. Key word searches included some of the following words: “labour exploitation, forced labour, debt bondage, wage theft, worker exploitation, child labour exploitation; prevent*, interven*, treat*, program*, effective*, evaluat*”. The review included literature written in English, published since 2017, when the first Scottish Government Human Trafficking and Exploitation was published. Whilst it focuses primarily on UK based literature, it does include some evidence where human trafficking is discussed in an international or global context or covers the UK alongside other countries.

Given the time constraints, this summary does not include an exhaustive coverage of the available literature but instead summarises the key findings from the evidence sourced in the time available. In line with literature review methodology, the review did not include a critical appraisal of the evidence.^[4] This means that there may be variations in the relevance and robustness of included studies/sources that have not been considered. The findings should therefore be treated as indicative.

The evidence base

There are a number of limitations with the evidence base. The body of evidence on human trafficking and exploitation as a whole tends to focus on female sex trafficking and exploitation, with less evidence available on male victims, labour exploitation and domestic servitude (Cockbain & Bowers, 2019). As noted, the literature search found a lack of evidence on child labour exploitation, and this is reflected in the findings. There was also a lack of evidence on ‘what works’ (see Cockbain et al., 2018), and very limited evidence on primary prevention interventions^[5]. Lastly, very little evidence was specific to Scotland and is more focused on UK wide literature. The findings of this review reflect these limitations, recognising more broadly that research and evidence on prevention of human trafficking and exploitation is a relatively new field of inquiry.