Tackling Modern Slavery or Worsening Vulnerability?: UK’s Modern Slavery Agenda in Nigeria

Peter Olayiwola

doi:10.1007/s43576-024-00149-x

Tackling Modern Slavery or Worsening Vulnerability? UK’s Modern Slavery Agenda in Nigeria

Peter Olayiwola^* (Corresponding Author)

^*Corresponding author for this work

Sociology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Nigeria is said to be one of the largest source countries for victims of modern slavery in the UK (Throughout this paper, I use the terms ‘modern slavery’, ‘slavery’ and ‘human trafficking’ loosely and interchangeably to refer to extreme exploitation as often described in many international documents as well as in the UK’s MSA which is the focus of this paper). Thus, the UK government has often lauded its partnership with the Nigerian government in tackling the problem of modern slavery, often presented as a problem of irregular migration. At the same time, legal migration channels into the UK are increasingly being tightened, and Nigerians are among those who suffer the consequences of such. This paper reviews the UK government policies, partnerships and activities in Nigeria in the light of the Modern Slavery Act. It argues that the emphasis on deterring migration and sex trafficking has meant that the UK government agenda is being promoted to the detriment of key structural factors contributing to other dimensions of vulnerability and exploitation in Nigeria.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	349–357
Number of pages	8
Journal	International Criminology
Volume	4
Early online date	12 Dec 2024
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s43576-024-00149-x
Publication status	Published - Dec 2024

Data Availability Statement

All data or statistics quoted are publicly available.

Keywords

modern slavery
Modern Slavery Act
irregular migration
Nigeria

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

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Cite this

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title = "Tackling Modern Slavery or Worsening Vulnerability?: UK{\textquoteright}s Modern Slavery Agenda in Nigeria",

abstract = "Nigeria is said to be one of the largest source countries for victims of modern slavery in the UK (Throughout this paper, I use the terms {\textquoteleft}modern slavery{\textquoteright}, {\textquoteleft}slavery{\textquoteright} and {\textquoteleft}human trafficking{\textquoteright} loosely and interchangeably to refer to extreme exploitation as often described in many international documents as well as in the UK{\textquoteright}s MSA which is the focus of this paper). Thus, the UK government has often lauded its partnership with the Nigerian government in tackling the problem of modern slavery, often presented as a problem of irregular migration. At the same time, legal migration channels into the UK are increasingly being tightened, and Nigerians are among those who suffer the consequences of such. This paper reviews the UK government policies, partnerships and activities in Nigeria in the light of the Modern Slavery Act. It argues that the emphasis on deterring migration and sex trafficking has meant that the UK government agenda is being promoted to the detriment of key structural factors contributing to other dimensions of vulnerability and exploitation in Nigeria.",

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AB - Nigeria is said to be one of the largest source countries for victims of modern slavery in the UK (Throughout this paper, I use the terms ‘modern slavery’, ‘slavery’ and ‘human trafficking’ loosely and interchangeably to refer to extreme exploitation as often described in many international documents as well as in the UK’s MSA which is the focus of this paper). Thus, the UK government has often lauded its partnership with the Nigerian government in tackling the problem of modern slavery, often presented as a problem of irregular migration. At the same time, legal migration channels into the UK are increasingly being tightened, and Nigerians are among those who suffer the consequences of such. This paper reviews the UK government policies, partnerships and activities in Nigeria in the light of the Modern Slavery Act. It argues that the emphasis on deterring migration and sex trafficking has meant that the UK government agenda is being promoted to the detriment of key structural factors contributing to other dimensions of vulnerability and exploitation in Nigeria.

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