Safeguarding Refugees
The Clewer Initiative
Many refugees are at risk of being exploited and becoming trapped in modern-day slavery.
It is important to understand how the circumstances and vulnerabilities faced by many refugees can place them at greater risk of exploitation by criminals.
Definitions
Before exploring the link between refugees, modern slavery and exploitation, we start with some introductory definitions and statistics:
A refugee is a person who 'owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country.'
An asylum seeker is a person who has left their country and is seeking protection from persecution and serious human rights violations in another country, but who hasn’t yet been legally recognised as a refugee and is waiting to receive a decision on their asylum claim.
A vital part of being recognised as a refugee is Refugee Status Determination (RSD), a legal process that governments or UNHCR use to determine whether a person seeking international protection is considered a refugee under international, national or regional law.
The scale of the issue
According to the UNHCR (the UN Refugee Agency), there are 41.6 million refugees worldwide (December 2025). This consists of:
- 28.5 million refugees
- 7.2 million other people in need of international protection.
- A further 6 million Palestine refugees, supported by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which was set up in 1949 to care for displaced Palestinians.
The UK is home to hundreds of thousands of refugees and people in refugee-like situations who have fled war, persecution, and violence. According to the latest government statistics, more than 58,000 people were granted refugee protection or other forms of leave in the UK in the year ending September 2025.
In 2023, the top five most common countries of nationality of people who applied for asylum from inside the UK were Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh.
At risk
There are many reasons why refugees and asylum seekers are at risk of modern slavery and exploitation.
Factors include:
- Propensity to seek work in the informal economy where there is greater risk of exploitation – this is because many refugees face restrictions on the legal work they can pursue and are therefore more likely to find themselves in casual work where minimum wage and worker rights might be ignored.
- Poverty and destitution – when fleeing conflict or persecution, refugees can find themselves in extremely vulnerable situations without food, accommodation and work. This is often when criminals swoop in, with the offer of work and money.
- Debt bondage – because legal migration routes are limited, some refugees pay extortionate fees to gangs to enable them to travel to a particular country. This can result in massive, unpayable and ever-increasing debts, which traffickers use to coerce and trap individuals in forced labour or even sexual exploitation.
- Isolation & language – refugees are, by definition, far from home and isolated, often with a poor knowledge of the local language, worker rights and how to get help and no community network to support and protect them. This means they are less likely to leave exploitative situations.
How can we safeguard refugees?
Here are some simple things you can do to grow in your understanding of the risks, respond effectively and raise awareness:
- Learn more about modern slavery in general by watching Invisible.
- Complete our eLearning training module about modern slavery and human trafficking in the resources section of the Church of England training portal. You will need to create a log in if you don’t have one.
- Watch Hana's story and learn more about the experience of victims and survivors.
- Circulate our new poster about the risk to Seasonal Workers in the UK and where they can get support.
Going deeper into the issue
The British Red Cross and UNHCR has written a report which explores the risks of exploitation in the UK asylum system and provides recommendations about how the Government could safeguard refugees and asylum-seekers more effectively.
It makes sobering reading: “One interview participant was aware of a number of cases whereby female asylum-seekers had been exploited after being made homeless due to a refusal of Section 98 support. Traffickers then offered them accommodation in exchange for sex. These women were moved between the trafficker’s network of friends on the promise that they would receive accommodation, but in each case were sexually exploited.”
Another testifies: “I had a case where an individual missed the bus to his dispersal accommodation as he had got lost on his walk from his Initial Accommodation (IA). The IA staff wouldn’t let him back in or support him to re-arrange transport. He was destitute and was trafficked the next day in to labour and sexual exploitation.”
The report identifies the moment when an individual is formally recognised as a refugee as a particular time of risk. Support from the Home Office stops after 28 days and this gives refugees very little time to find accommodation and a job. The report explains: “Focus group participants and people with lived experience repeatedly emphasised that the short timeframe refugees are given to leave asylum support can leave them vulnerable to homelessness and destitution, unless they have the support of a third-sector organization to assist them through the process.”
Individuals are often at greater risk of exploitation having been granted refugee status – something they have been hoping for and working towards – than in the years prior.
One participant in the focus group explains: “These were people who I wouldn’t have said would ever appear vulnerable to exploitation at any other stage or in their previous lives before coming to the UK, but… they didn’t really understand the benefit system and they just took up this offer.”