The term ‘modern slavery’ is used to describe people who are exploited by others for personal or commercial gain. It was first adopted in the 1970s. It is, however, a phrase not used in international law, and as such as a legal term it is mostly confined to the United States and the United Kingdom. The term modern slavery is the basis of the United Kingdom’s 2015 Modern Slavery Act (see Haynes, 2016) which combined previous legislation under one law and compels certain sized companies in England and Wales to examine their labour supply and set out steps to prevent labour exploitation.

Modern slavery as a term often lacks meaning outside of the spheres of the United States and the United Kingdom, and as a term may be locally misinterpreted or perceived as dismissing the horrors of historical transatlantic slavery in light of contemporary criminal exploitation activities. Furthermore, there is often an assumption that, when looking at issues in the Global South, modern slavery is a continuation of historical slavery or is somehow rooted in some cultural practice.

Internationally, many countries and organizations refer to the exploitation of humans by others for profit by the term of human trafficking, which is defined by the United Nations under the Palermo protocols as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of people through force, fraud or deception, to exploit them for profit (see Allain, 2013). As a result of these issues, the term ‘Modern Slavery Human Trafficking’ (MSHT) is gaining traction in the United Kingdom as a way of bridging linguistic barriers. The key element of the human trafficking definition is to recognize that persons who are trafficked may not be initially forced but deceived into compliance with fake employment or education offers.

Facilitation of human trafficking

Human trafficking is facilitated by a range of organized crime groups (OCGs), who in some parts of the world work alongside terrorist organizations such as the Islamic State or co-operate with other OCGs to enable the efficient distribution of exploited labour and hence profit. The nexus of OCG–terrorist groups is a globally emerging area of concern.