On the occasion of International Women’s Day 2025, IOM in the United Kingdom releases an analysis of cases of women and girls referred to the National Referral Mechanism (NRM), the UK’s official system to identify and support survivors of modern slavery and trafficking.  

Key findings: 

• More women and girls than ever are being given negative decisions through the NRM which means they are not able to access government funded specialist support and assistance for survivors or given the official recognition as a survivor of modern slavery.  

• The majority of women and girls are being are referred to the NRM as potential victims of sexual exploitation highlighting modern slavery as gender-based violence. The analysis highlights that girls referred to the NRM in 2024 were more likely than women to have been referred as a victim of sexual exploitation.  

• Women and girls continue to wait longer than men and boys to receive a decision on their status as a survivor modern slavery to be able to move forward with their lives.  

Understanding these trends can spur action towards reducing the waiting times for women and girls to be more equal with waiting times for men and boys.  

The recognition of record low percentages of positive decisions for women and near record lows for girls in 2024 should also prompt policymakers to consider reforms to how decisions are made since 2023. 2024 saw the lowest annual percentage of women and second lowest annual percentage of girls being given a positive Reasonable Grounds decision. 

In 2024 only 53% of women referred to the NRM received a positive Reasonable Grounds (RG) decision. This is the lowest annual percentage since records began in 2014.  A positive RG decision is required to access government funded specialist support and assistance under the NRM. This means a record percentage of women were prevented from accessing protection. Furthermore, a record number of women were denied protection through the NRM, with 1778 women given a negative RG decision.  

The percentage of positive decisions for girls increased to 84% in 2024 from 83% in 2023 but this was still the second lowest since records began. 

The changes to how RG decisions are made in 2023 in response to the Nationality and Borders Act1 have made it more difficult to get a positive decision for women and girls and all referrals. The 2012 women who became eligible to access government funded support through the NRM in 2024 was less than in both 2019 and 2022. 

1. 2024 saw the lowest annual percentage of positive Conclusive Grounds decisions for women since 2017 and the equal second lowest for girls.  

In 2024 there were a record number of CG decisions for women and girls (4477). However, only 61% were positive for women and only 72% were positive for girls.   

In October 2024 the UK government committed to clearing the backlog of cases in the NRM waiting for a Conclusive Grounds decision within two years. Reducing the backlog of outstanding NRM decisions is important for enabling people who are referred to get a correct decision and to move forwards with their lives. However, it is important to recognise that the reality of reductions in the backlog includes a record percentage of women being refused recognition as a survivor of modern slavery and record high numbers of negative decisions overall. The 1102 women who were not believed to be a survivor of modern slavery by the Home Office in 2024 was greater than the total of all negative CG decisions for women made by the Home Office between 2018 and 2023 (1011).   

The numbers of both positive and negative CG decisions in 2024 for girls referred to the NRM increased significantly but the percentage of girls receiving a positive decision was only just above a record low of 71% in 2015 and way below the record high of 95% in 2020.  

2. The number of days between a referral to the NRM and a  Conclusive Grounds decision for women and girls in 2024 were the longest on record 

The median number of days between a referral to the NRM and a CG decision for women in 2024 was 1329 days and 539 days for girls. The number of days for women was twice as long as the overall median for all decisions of637 days.   

2023 was the first year that the median number of days between an NRM referral and a CG decision for women fell. However, 2024 saw the highest ever year-on-year increase to reach a record high. There was also the highest ever year-on-year increase for girls to reach a record high in 2024.  

While the number of days between an NRM referral and CG decisions for men reached a record high of 847 days this was still nearly 16 months shorter than CG decisions for women. 

3. In 2024 the most common reported type of exploitation for both women and girls referred to the NRM was sexual exploitation with girls referred to the NRM more likely to report sexual exploitation than women. 

In 2024 there were 990 women who were recorded in the NRM data as a potential victim of trafficking for “sexual” exploitation and 553 girls. The total number of women and girls who were referred as a potential victim of sexual exploitation in combination with one or more other forms of exploitation were 1773 and 788 respectively.  

The data shows that girls were significantly more likely to be referred as a victim of sexual exploitation than women. 73% of girls were referred as potential victims of sexual exploitation compared to 55% of women.  

It is important to recognise that this data obscures the numbers of women and girls who experience sexual violence within situation of labour exploitation, criminal exploitation, etc. This data illustrates that the problem of human trafficking is one of gender based violence.