Reconciling protection of foreign national victims of forced criminality with effective immigration control: is a new approach required?

The proposed research will investigate and analyse the support available to, and impacts of, immigration control on foreign national victims of modern slavery (as defined by the Modern Slavery Act 2015) focusing on those forced into criminality. The research is divided into two parts: First, an interrogation into the extent to which the current model of immigration enforcement and control inhibits effective recovery and contributes to risk of re-trafficking of foreign national offender victims of criminal exploitation ("FNOVs"). Second, an analysis of the tension between the competing interest of the state in maintaining effective immigration control and the interest of the victims, and whether these can be reconciled through the development of an alternative framework in which those factors coexist.
The overarching aim of this research is to identify a viable policy strategy for facilitating recovery and reducing risk of further exploitation for FNOVs, whilst maintaining the state's legitimate interest in immigration control and reduction in crime. To address this, the project will consider to what extent immigration control and criminalisation policy and practices are prioritised over supporting the interests of the vulnerable, and to what extent the existing policy framework and stated policy aims in respect of all foreign national offenders ("FNOs") inhibit recovery and increase risk of re-exploitation of FNOVs. I will consider existing fault lines resulting in missed opportunities for prevention, identification and recovery for FNOVs, and the societal costs arising from any such systemic failures. Finally the project will explore how the non-punishment principle be more effectively implemented into immigration and anti-trafficking policy.
The backdrop for the project is the 'hostile environment' introduced in 2012, which has led to an increasingly restrictive and punitive legislative and policy framework in respect of FNOs. Forced criminality is the second...