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In March, the winners of the biannual Unchosen Modern Slavery Short Film Competition were announced for Best International Film on Modern Slavery and Best Film on Modern Slavery in the UK

The Home Office recently announced a series of long-awaited reforms to the National Referral Mechanism (NRM), the UK’s main framework for identifying and protecting victims of trafficking. However, despite some key developments, for children, the reforms remain surface level and fail to address children’s fundamental safeguarding and protection needs.

Trafficking for labour exploitation is at once a serious crime, a human rights breach and a violation of labour law. It happens all over the world, in every industry, yet still is poorly understood and often goes unnoticed and unreported. FLEX’s new report Risky Business: Tackling Exploitation in the UK Labour Market exposes the root causes of labour exploitation in the UK, and sets out a roadmap to prevent it by tackling head on the attitudes, practices and gaps in protection that allow exploitation to thrive.

The pathway from ‘victim’ to ‘survivor’ of trafficking can be tricky to navigate. Each person’s circumstances will be different, but for many it will involve recovering from the effects of exploitation on their mental or physical health as well as addressing immediate material needs such as somewhere to live and money for food and essential supplies.