Identifying Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking in the Context of Child Criminal Exploitation

Since 2014, only 53 people have been referred to the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) in Northern Ireland as potential child victims of modern slavery that occurred in the UK, with only nine referrals in 2024. There has also never been a UK or Irish male under 18 referred to the NRM for criminal exploitation in Northern Ireland, in comparison with 11,489 children of UK nationality identified for criminal exploitation across England, Scotland and Wales – nearly one third of all child referrals across the rest of the UK since 2014.

The extraordinarily low number of potential victims of child criminal exploitation (CCE) and wider forms of modern slavery and human trafficking (MSHT) in Northern Ireland is particularly notable given the legacy of the past and continued presence of paramilitarism in Northern Ireland. There has been increasing acknowledgement of the need to understand CCE and the harms that contribute to it CCE has become a policy priority throughout the UK and Northern Ireland, most notably with the launch of a cross-departmental multi-agency two-year action plan to address the issue. “Criminal exploitation” has been recognised within the framework of modern slavery and human trafficking more widely in the UK for over a decade and Home Office guidance on county lines was updated in 2023 acknowledging that “criminal exploitation is a form of modern slavery”.

Paramilitaries and organised crime groups are known to exploit children and young people in Northern Ireland, a problem that has received attention from state and non-state actors. Yet despite increasing attention, framings of such conduct as modern slavery or human trafficking have remained largely absent in Northern Ireland.

Against this backdrop, the scoping study aimed to enhance the understanding of why, given the increased focus on addressing harms experienced by children in the context of criminal exploitation, the formal identification of modern slavery and human trafficking within the NRM is largely absent.