Last year over 10,000 people were identified as possible victims of human trafficking or modern slavery, around two thirds of whom were foreign nationals from places like Albania, Sudan and Vietnam. That’s just a drop in the ocean, given that an estimated 100,000 victims are out there at any one time. Nevertheless, the existence of a support system for victims can provide exploited migrants with important rights — so naturally the government is keen to reduce the number of people helped by it.

In this podcast I talk to Maya Esslemont about her work with After Exploitation, which tries to dig out proper data on what happens to trafficking survivors, as well as the recent changes to policy on detention of potential victims and the widely criticised trafficking proposals in the government’s New Plan for Immigration.