Modern slavery and human rights: migrant workers in the agricultural and care sectors in the UK
28 April 2025 - 28 April 2025
2:00PM - 3:00PM
Online via Teams
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Free
Contemporary forms of slavery and exploitation, including forced labour, debt bondage, and domestic servitude, are some of the most pressing human rights issues of today. In this webinar, Professor Tomoya Obokata, the current UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery since 2020, will discuss his mandate and views on states’ and non-state actors' responses to these concerns.
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The event will also focus in on the agricultural and care sectors in the UK, in which exploitation and abuse have been widely documented, with new restrictive visa schemes introduced in the post-Brexit shake up of UK immigration rules. It will discuss a March 2024 report on agricultural and care visas, which was conducted by five academics in partnership with four NGOs.
Drawing on the report alongside other research, it will explore how restrictive visa conditions combine with shortcomings in enforcement of employment rights and unscrupulous recruitment practices to make workers susceptible to forms of contemporary slavery and exploitation, such as forced labour and debt bondage. We will also consider developments in the year since the report’s publications, and prospects for addressing exploitation in these sectors and beyond.
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Speakers
- Professor Tomoya Obokata of the University of York, the current UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery.
- Dr Inga Thiemann of Leicester Law School, Primary Investigator of the research leading to the March 2024 report.
- Dr Natalie Sedacca of Durham Law School, a co-investigator on the report.
The event is organised by Durham’s Human Rights and Public Law Centre, and will be chaired by the Centre’s Co-Director, Dr Alice Nah, with time for Q&A and discussion.
This event will take place online via Teams.