The Risks and Harms Associated with Modern Slavery during the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United Kingdom: A Multi-Method Study

The COVID-19 pandemic has considerably affected global economies and
societies, exacerbating existing social inequalities. This “syndemic” pandemic
has placed people and communities affected by modern slavery and human
trafficking at elevated risk of multiple harms. This paper uses a mix of
methods – an evidence synthesis, a survivor survey, web-monitoring, and
dialogue events – to explore how COVID-19 has affected the risks and pathways to harm associated with modern slavery/human trafficking in the UK
and U.S. We use concepts of hazard, risk, exposure, and harm and the tools of
public health risk and resilience assessment to examine how COVID-19 has
amplified existing risks of harm and generated new pathways to further
harm. We also use a novel complex systems approach to represent risk
relationships and demonstrate how the economic shock of COVID-19 and
mandated social isolation have led to negative outcomes for affected people.
The paper provides policy and practice insight into interventions can be
implemented across systems to minimize exploitation and how locally led
intervention can offset the damaging effects of the pandemic (SDGs 5 & 16).