The Hierarchy of Victimhood: Prisons and States’ Responsibility to Protect Every Victim of Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking

In 2022, the prison service in England and Wales developed state-of-the-art guidance for prisons to enable them to better identify and support modern slavery survivors. This positive development in the UK’s anti-slavery regime is overshadowed by its increasingly restrictive immigration legislation, which leaves those without lawful residence and victims involved in criminal offences excluded from the support and assistance otherwise guaranteed by domestic and international law. This article presents an overview of the UK’s legal obligations towards survivors of modern slavery and human trafficking, explains how the prison service in England and Wales has sought to implement them, and discusses key challenges facing prisons in doing so. These efforts are contrasted with an increasingly hostile environment for certain categories of survivors, which effectively creates a “hierarchy of victimhood”, expressly prohibited by international law. In an environment where being a victim of a crime and human rights violation both matter less than the State’s interest in immigration and crime control, prisons will struggle to deliver on their commitment and international obligation to protect those inmates who have been or are at risk of being exploited.