If someone, or more than one person, has taken over your home and is selling drugs from it, then you are a victim of a crime.

It is called ‘cuckooing’.

If this has happened to you, then the police will help you as the victim – and not the one committing the crime.

You might be afraid to tell someone. You might feel unsafe. These people who have taken over your home might be threatening you or your family. You may be afraid to ask them to leave. Or you might fear losing your home or even being deported.

You have done nothing wrong. You are the victim. The police will help you.

Modern day slavery and human trafficking

This is when someone is tricked, coerced or threatened into taking work or getting involved in criminal activity.

Victims of modern slavery and human trafficking can be any age, sex, nationality or ethnicity. Often, victims are vulnerable people. 

They’re not able to leave the work or criminal activity, or report it to the police, because they’re afraid of what might happen to them if they do.

It is possible that someone may not realise that it's happening to them. Modern slavery and human trafficking includes s a wide range of abuses, such as slavery, being in service to someone, forced or compulsory labour and trafficking someone for the purpose of exploiting them.

Usually someone is benefiting financially from the situation, but not always.

To follow are some formal definitions to help you to work out if you or anyone you know is the victim of slavery or trafficking. You might need help with the Recite translation button to understand these in your first language as the language is very complicated.

• Slavery is the status or condition of a victim over whom rights of ownership are exercised by their exploiter.
• Servitude is linked to slavery, but includes an obligation for a person to work for the exploiter, to live on the exploiter’s property and for it to be impossible for them to change their circumstances.
• Forced or compulsory labour is all work or service (lawful or unlawful) that a victim is forced or compelled to do, and that they haven’t volunteered to do.
• Human trafficking is the arrangement or facilitation of a victim’s travel, with the intention of exploiting them.

Below is a list of the types of modern slavery and trafficking you might come across.

• Labour exploitation: this is when someone is forced to work for someone, including someone who is involved in crime.
• Domestic servitude: this is when someone is exploited by a partner, relatives or someone not related to them, and with whom they live.
• Sexual exploitation: this includes child sexual exploitation by a group or an individual, sex work in a fixed or changing location, and trafficking for personal or third-party gratification.
• Criminal exploitation: this is forced gang-related activity, forced labour in illegal activities, forced acquisitive crime/begging, financial exploitation and sham marriages. If a child is involved, it is not necessary for the use of force to be evident for it to be criminal exploitation.

Modern slavery: a crime hidden in plain sight

An estimated 136,000 people are living as modern day slaves in the UK right now, so it’s highly likely you’ve seen or met someone being exploited. Men make up more than 100,000 of them.