How a British man was pulled into modern slavery working at a food court in the heart of London

Customers coming to buy lunch could have had no idea what was happening beneath their feet. As the Central London crowds arrived at the food court, it seemed as though they were faced with a choice of independent businesses offering them a bargain meal. Downstairs, however, Christopher (not his real name) was among a group of people preparing the food on sale, chopping ingredients, cleaning and restocking produce. This hidden labour force was not paid – instead forced to work 16 hours a day with constant intimidation and violence.

Christopher grew up in the UK and studied at university. In the years afterwards, he tried to build a future for himself. But after placing his trust in the wrong person, he had found himself forced into modern slavery.

“If you spoke up or made a mistake you were beaten, burned or threatened. The violence was designed to make us compliant,” he said. “You stop feeling like an individual. You become part of a system designed to strip away your identity.”

Modern slavery referrals reach record levels

Christopher’s experience sits within a growing problem of modern slavery in the UK. Referrals of UK nationals to the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) – the UK’s framework for identifying victims of modern slavery – have reached record levels, pushing overall referrals to their highest-ever numbers. And in fact, UK nationals – like Christopher – are the most commonly-referred group, making up almost a quarter of all those who pass through the NRM.

Those working to support victims told Big Issue of a piecemeal and underfunded landscape, made more difficult as poverty, homelessness and other issues drive vulnerabilities which criminals can exploit. Yet the government is planning reforms to modern slavery support, as part of its new immigration bill, that will penalise those who are deemed to disclose their situation late, or who have a criminal record. These changes, which are on their way through parliament, have prompted warnings that they will “push the most vulnerable people further underground”.

Alison Logier, director of modern slavery response at the charity Hestia, said: “The fact that all modern slavery legislation is within an immigration bill, or an immigration act, goes to show how much the two issues are conflated, and how much the British public think and the British parliamentarians think this is a foreign national issue.”

Logier added: “It completely misses the point that there are so many people that are British, that British is the most common nationality.”

‘From that day I became a slave’

Christopher, whose identity we have protected as he still fears reprisals from his captors, had fallen into a tough period after a bereavement and financial difficulties. A friend offered him a business opportunity that he thought might open a new door in his life, a chance to join his food business at the management level, hiring and recruiting staff. They set up a meeting in London and told him to bring documents – including his passport – along.

“I didn’t think twice because I trusted him. That meeting was the end of my life as I knew it,” he said.

After the meeting, they offered him a place to stay while they figured the details out. But the business opportunity quickly disappeared. The next day, they took his phone and passport and demanded access to his bank accounts. Christopher tried to leave – they beat him, gave him different clothes, and told him: “‘You work for us now’. From that day I became a slave.”

His captors took him to a rented house with up to nine people crammed into a room. Some shared beds and others slept on the floor, and each night Christopher faced the choice between queuing for a shower or getting what sleep he could. “The physical conditions were harsh, but the constant atmosphere of fear and humiliation was worse,” he said.

From the squalid housing, they were driven to and from the food court. Christopher was the only person he came across who spoke fluent English with a British accent.

“Most of the others had been trafficked into the country and did not understand what was happening to them. Some had been trapped for years and no longer believed another life was possible,” he said. “They had been told they owed a debt or that they should be grateful for food and shelter.”

Read more:

• Borders Bill will be ‘catastrophic’ for victims of modern slavery, MPs told
• If we want to prevent modern slavery, we must start with preventing homelessness
• Few trafficking and modern slavery survivors get counselling. They have to face their trauma alone

Poverty, homelessness, and rehabilitation are fertile ground for criminals to exploit

There is one question that often follows British nationals who fall prey to modern slavery: Why can’t you just leave?

For foreign nationals, the answers usually seem simple: immigration papers may have been taken, and seeking help brings the risk of removal from the UK.

For Brits, it is often a work opportunity that is the route into exploitation. Those who have fallen on
difficult times can be vulnerable to the lure of well-paid work, often with accommodation, according to the National Crime Agency. But it can quickly emerge that this is a lie.

“There’s usually a lot of psychological coercion and manipulation, threats to family,” said Logier of Hestia.

“I worked with someone, a British national who was exploited in a restaurant just outside of London. And one day he just wasn’t allowed to leave. There was a late-night event, so it was suggested to him, ‘Well, you can sleep here. It’s so late. There’s no point leaving.’ And then he’s locked up, and that’s it. So even that kind of technique is used sometimes.”

Justine Carter, deputy CEO of Unseen, the organisation which runs the UK’s Modern Slavery Helpline, added: “We’ve had situations of individuals being in our safe houses where they have genuinely said, ‘I feared for my life, I feared for the life of my child, and therefore I just did what they said because it was easier than trying to get out of the situation.’”

The common factor is often a vulnerability, made worse by growing social problems. Those who find themselves homeless, in financial distress, or with a criminal record often struggle to reintegrate into society and are left isolated. “There are so many vulnerabilities that are exploited by traffickers to ensure that people remain in exploitation and are not able to escape,” said Eleonora Fais of Anti-Slavery International. “Some people might feel ashamed to go and ask for help or might have been failed by the system before if they’ve tried to ask for help.”

Badly funded services and stigma can stop people getting support once difficulties begin, added Fais. But the missed chances can be traced even earlier: “There’s no prevention and that is the problem.”

Escaping and rebuilding

Christopher had been working under the food court for a few weeks when his escape came. It was thanks
to the intervention of a nearby business owner, who had realised that something was wrong. They helped Christopher call the Modern Slavery Helpline and he was rescued.

“Physically I was free, but psychologically I was still trapped. For months afterwards I barely left my room. I didn’t tell most people what had happened. I still experience nightmares and night terrors,” he said.

He was recognised as a victim of modern slavery under the NRM, meeting a high bar set by the 2023 Nationality and Borders Act that victims must provide “objective evidence” of what they have been through.

Record referral numbers do not tell the whole story, experts told Big Issue. Before the 2023 Nationality and Borders Act, 89% of adults who were referred to the NRM received a “positive reasonable grounds” decision, granting them support. After the introduction of the “objective evidence” criteria which Christopher had to meet after escaping, this rate fell to roughly half, said Logier. “That doesn’t mean they are not victims. They just didn’t have the evidence. They didn’t present their case in a way that they were believed, and therefore they couldn’t access life-changing support. So there may be so many more British nationals out there that we’re failing.”

For those whose cases are accepted, support can be hard to come by. “There has not been a consistent response over the years, every agency has been almost left to their own devices,” said Fais. Academics found last year that local authorities – one of several “first-responder” agencies to modern slavery cases – have not trained staff to respond properly, and do not have the resources to check their own supply chains. While the Labour government released a flurry of new strategies at the end of 2025, the current anti-slavery strategy has been called “outdated” and no longer adequate.

There are fears the government is pushing in the other direction. The new immigration bill, brought forward by home secretary Shabana Mahmood, would mean authorities must assess a person’s credibility when they make a claim. The bill is aimed at preventing exploitation of the system, as well as identifying victims earlier. But it means claims could be damaged by delays in coming forward without good reason, or inaccuracies and similarities with other cases. The Home Office told Big Issue that decision-makers already consider credibility, and changes are aimed to clarify how they consider evidence.

“I think that is just going to prevent more and more people who genuinely need the help and support that we could offer from accessing that,” said Carter. “There are just more and more barriers being placed in front of individuals who are quite distraught, don’t want to and quite often can’t relive their experience immediately.”

As he looked to rebuild, Christopher received support from the charity Hestia. He attended a support programme and spoke to other survivors, which gave him the confidence to leave the house.

“Seeing them trying to rebuild their lives gave me hope that I could too,” he said. “Some days I feel ready to face the world; other days I am scared.”

But he reflected on what the public, those customers coming in for lunch, often don’t see.

“People are profiting from forced labour and stolen identities, and most people have no idea,” he said. “I want people to understand that modern slavery is not a distant problem.”

A Home Office spokesperson said: “We are committed to reforming the modern slavery system to reduce opportunities for misuse, while also ensuring that we have the right protections for those who need it.”

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