india

Updated: Mar 20, 2019 18:20 IST

The number of Indian citizens referred as potential victims of trafficking and modern slavery in the UK has increased from 100 in 2016, 140 in 2017, to 196 in 2018, placing India among the top ten countries in the list, new figures showed on Wednesday.

India is ninth in the list topped by the United Kingdom. The 2018 figures for Indian citizens released by the National Crime Agency (NCA) include 141 for labour exploitation, 31 for domestic servitude, 18 for sexual exploitation and six categorised as ‘unknown exploitation’.

Charity organisations such as Southall Black Sisters and Kalayaan deal with victims of modern slavery from India and South Asia, among other countries. Many victims are brought to the UK under the ‘domestic workers in a private household visa’.

The situation of such victims is dealt with by the National Referral Mechanism, which is a framework for identifying victims of modern slavery or human trafficking and ensuring they receive appropriate support.

The latest figures show overall nearly 7,000 potential victims in 2018. Those referred as potential victims came from 130 nationalities, with the UK, Albanian and Vietnamese nationals remaining the most commonly reported victims.

In her previous role as home secretary, Prime Minister Theresa May had piloted the Modern Slavery Act 2015 through parliament, which gave law enforcement agencies more powers to deal with the issue, following growing concern in the UK.

“The increase is undoubtedly the result of greater awareness, understanding and reporting…However, the more we look the more we find, and it is likely these figures represent only a snapshot of the true scale of slavery and trafficking in the UK,” NCA’s Roy McComb said.

“Of particular concern is the increase in referrals made for ‘county lines’ type exploitation. These are often vulnerable individuals – often children - who are exploited by criminal gangs for the purposes of drug trafficking,” he said.