Understanding Recent National Referral Mechanism Data for Child Victims of Trafficking

What is the NRM?

The National Referral Mechanism, or NRM is the identification and support mechanism for trafficking, exploitation and 'modern slavery' that we have here in the UK. It is for adults and children, regardless of their nationality, the type of exploitation they have experience or the location of this exploitation. For adults, the NRM also has limited safeguarding and support mechanisms in place, however for children it is essentially an identification mechanism as safeguarding and support responsibilities are still that of the local authority's children's services.

There are positives, and many limitations, of the NRM for victims of trafficking, which I will not go into here. One of the benefits of this relatively well-functioning identification mechanism is we get good data from the NRM, which helps us identify trends and patterns in trafficking and exploitation. This is particularly the case for children, as practitioners have a statutory duty to notify, which means they have to refer to the NRM if they are concerned about trafficking and exploitation (for adults, the potential victim of trafficking has to consent, which significantly reduces the number of referrals coming in).

Limitations of NRM data

- The data is only as good as the 'first responder' completing the referral. I'm aware from previous experience reviewing NRMs that what is recorded may not always be accurate. For example, children being criminally exploited may be reported into the NRM under labour exploitation. Vietnamese children are often trafficked on Chinese passports, therefore are sometimes recorded as Chinese (this has generally improved in recent years), or Roma children are wrongly classified as 'Romanian nationals', when they are Roma children who are nationals of another country, such as Slovakia or Bulgaria.

- Certain types of trafficking or exploitation are more likely to be identified than others. Criminal exploitation is much more visible compared to other forms of child trafficking, because it tends to happen in public spaces, and these children come into contact with law enforcement agencies for their involvement in criminal activities. Conversely, domestic servitude and sexual abuse occurs in private spaces, it is less visible and therefore less likely to be identified. (This also skews gender ratios in NRM numbers, as comparatively boys are more likely to be exploited for more visible, public types of exploitation, such as labour or criminal exploitation, whereas girls are comparatively more likely to be exploited in less visible ways, such as forced marriage, sexual abuse and domestic servitude).

So what does NRM data tell us about the exploitation of children in migration?

1. Numbers of child victims of trafficking and exploitation through the NRM have continued to increase.

In recent years we have seen a consistent and significant increase in referrals to the NRM for children where there are trafficking concerns- from 982 referrals in 2015 to more than 7,000 in 2022- more than a 7-fold increase. This increase is due to:

- A likely increase in the number of children actually being exploited- over time we've seen an increasingly hostile immigration policy in the UK, a consistent narrowing and reduction of safe routes to migrate to the UK. When safe routes reduce, trafficking increases. Other factors, such as a global increase in forced displacement, rising inequality both in the UK and around the world also contributes to this trend.

- An improved understanding of trafficking and exploitation of children- Although we have further to go, there has been a significant improvement in professional understanding of the trafficking and exploitation of children. Old perceptions of trafficking, which narrowly considered trafficking when children are physically abducted and forcibly controlled have thankfully changed. This has allowed us to identify more cases of children being trafficked and exploited, this particularly is demonstrated by the surge in referrals for child criminal exploitation for drug supply, commonly referred to now as "county lines". Although there is further work to be done, there is also more awareness of trafficking for domestic servitude, trafficking for organ harvesting or other forms of trafficking too.

- An improved understanding of who can be a victim of trafficking- Similar to the point above, there's an improved understanding of who can be a victim of trafficking. There's now broad understanding that boys, as well as girls are vulnerable to being trafficked. Most significantly represented in the numbers, is a recognition that British children can also be trafficked within the UK and trafficking is not only about non-British children from outside the UK being trafficked across borders.

- An improved understanding of the NRM and how to respond to trafficking- As understanding of trafficking has improved, so has the understanding of the National Referral Mechanism, what it does, how it works and how to use it. Although the numbers of referrals into the NRM is welcome, this does has not necessarily been accompanied by an improvement in the quality of NRM referrals. NRMs are not like other service-to-service referrals, it is a legal process with legal consequences for children. Therefore for practitioners completing NRMs (called " first responders") it is essential to access specialist training on the NRM and best practice in referring into and working with the system- Safeguarding Children in Migration can offer this training and you can inquire here.

The numbers shown above show that training matters. Between 2019-2022 I trained more than 2,000 practitioners in the UK on child trafficking, modern slavery and exploitation, and there were many others doing the same. These increases in referrals do not reflect a scatter-gun, whimsical approach to referring children- 92% of conclusive grounds decisions for children met the high evidential burden to be confirmed as a victim of trafficking in 2022. Therefore, we are accurately referring child victims of trafficking to the NRM, otherwise the percentage of decisions which were positive would be a lot lower.

2. A lack of safe routes to the UK to migrate is leading to increasing levels of trafficking of children to the UK.

People fleeing war, conflict and persecution will move- nothing will change this. If we want to protect children in migration from exploitation and harm, then we have to provide them with safe routes to migrate as well as the subsequent arrival support and protection, otherwise they will be vulnerable to exploitation. The graph below shows some of the most common nationalities of children identified as potential victims of exploitation.

The reduction in referrals in 2020 is a reflection of the global reduction of movement due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but the trend in recent years demonstrates that as the UK's immigration policies have become increasingly hostile, and safe routes to migrate to the UK have become increasingly closed which has resulted in a large increase in numbers of non-UK nationals being identified as victims of trafficking. In 2020, 58% of children referred into the NRM were British, but in 2022 this dropped to just 47.5% - the lowest since 2018. The numbers show as conflict worsens in places like Afghanistan, Sudan, Somalia and Iran, the numbers of children being identified as potentially being exploited is significantly increasing.

Why does a reduction in safe routes increase the number of children trafficked?

People who are forcibly displaced are going to move, because their lives depend on it. A lack of safe routes leaves children alone, vulnerable and completely dependent on strangers who make promises to get them to safety. Inevitably this complete dependence of children on strangers will often be used to exploit, abuse and harm children. Research has shown the overwhelming majority of unaccompanied children seeking asylum in the UK at some point or another on their journey were exploited, and therefore meet the definition of a child victim of trafficking. This is why we see an increase NRM referrals for children from countries which are experiencing war and conflict: Afghanistan, Iran, Somalia, Eritrea and Sudan.

Only a small proportion of children fleeing these countries want to make the UK their new home, and this is mostly because of family, language or other ties to the UK. For the children from these countries who feel their safety and future is in the UK, they have no safe route to come to the UK. More than 20% of the children referred to the NRM for labour exploitation stated this exploitation solely happened outside of the UK, i.e. it happened whilst trying to travel to the UK without the safe route. Overall more children referred into the NRM in 2022 experienced their exploitation outside the UK compared to in the UK. Therefore providing a safe, legal route for children would dramatically reduce the number of children trafficked and exploited.

How do we know this? Lets look at one population of children who have also been recently forcibly displaced, yet have a safe, legal route to come to the UK: Ukrainian children. UK government statistics show that between March and December 2022 an estimated 57,000 Ukrainian children came to the UK- by far the biggest amount compared to any other nationality of children. And how many children were referred to the NRM for potential exploitation? Just 11. And although the numbers of Afghan, Eritrean, Sudanese, Iranian or Somalian children arrived were significantly fewer, their NRM referral rates were significantly higher (Afghan: 223; Eritrean: 364; Sudanese: 499; Iranian: 135; Somali: 126).

Therefore the data once again reinforces what we already know to be true: opening up safe routes to children in migration significantly reduce the number of children harmed, exploited or abused.

The NRM is a legal process, with potentially profound consequences for children due to its interaction with the criminal justice and asylum system- therefore it is essential practitioners using the NRM know the best practice in using this. Safeguarding Children in Migration can provide your organisation with training on child trafficking and the national referral mechanism- to inquire about this training please fill out our training form here or contact phil@safeguardingchildreninmigration.com.

National Referral Mechanism data can be found here on the UK Government's website