AI helping traffickers identify modern slavery victims as exploitation 'greater than ever', report finds
A report warns that artificial intelligence and digital platforms are helping traffickers recruit and control victims as referrals topped 23,000 in 2025.
- A report released by the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner on Monday warns that AI-enabled platforms allow criminals to "recruit, groom and control victims at scale," making exploitation increasingly difficult for authorities to detect.
- Data from the National Referral Mechanism recorded 23,411 potential victims referred to the Home Office in 2025, a 22% increase over the previous year and the highest volume since the system began in 2009.
- Traffickers are leveraging AI-enabled scams and synthetic identities, while tactics such as "remote mothering" involve perpetrators acting as protective figures to monitor and control victims through tracking apps.
- Without urgent action against criminal networks, the report warns, exploitation will not disappear but become "more digital" and deeply embedded in daily life, threatening to outpace current detection and legal responses.
- Eleanor Lyons, Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner, stated the issue is "greater than ever," as technological change is expected to "significantly reshape the exploitation landscape" through fraud and cryptocurrency laundering.
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13 Articles
AI driving modern slavery surge
Technology is enabling traffickers to identify, recruit, and control victims at scale, making exploitation harder to detect, a UK study warns... Artificial intelligence is helping criminals expand their entrapment of modern-day slaves across the UK, with traffickers increasingly using digital tools to identify and exploit victims, a new report has found. Criminal networks in the UK are seeking to enslave people through coercion, deception, or fo…
The number of cases of exploitation in the United Kingdom has risen to a record high and will continue to increase over the next ten years. This is the warning issued by the country's independent anti-slavery commissioner (IASC), British media report. "We always thought this happened in far-off places, but it is happening in the UK too," says the commissioner. She calls on the government to take action. The number of victims of modern slavery in…
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