Miranda Butler succeeds in challenge expanding protections for victims of trafficking

The High Court has handed down judgment in R (AAM) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2025] EWHC 447 (Admin), an important new case which establishes, for the first time, that a person being kidnapped for extortion can be a victim of trafficking.

The claim concerns a 24-year-old Syrian asylum seeker, who fled Syria in 2021 under threat of forcible conscription by the al-Assad regime. Like many other asylum seekers, he travelled to Libya, where he was abducted by a gang and held to ransom. Large sums of money were demanded from him and he and his fellow detainees were abused in order to force them to request money from their families. AAM was also not given sufficient food or water during his imprisonment. After several weeks, a payment was made and he was released.

The claimant then travelled onwards to the UK, where he claimed asylum. He was referred into the National Referral Mechanism for identification as a potential victim of trafficking, however the Home Office made a negative Reasonable Grounds decision on the basis that he could not meet the ‘exploitation’ element of the trafficking definition, although he met the other elements.

AAM challenged the negative Reasonable Grounds decision by way of judicial review. He succeeded in that challenge, with the High Court accepting that he fell within the definition of exploitation within the Slavery and Human Trafficking (Definition of Victim) Regulations 2022 and the European Convention on Action Against Trafficking.

The 2022 Regulations stated that trafficking could include a person being “subjected to force, threats or deception designed to induce that person […] to enable another person to acquire benefits of any kind”. The Court accepted that this definition could cover kidnap for ransom as described by AAM.

While the Court was careful to emphasise that whether or not a person is a victim of trafficking will depend on the facts of each individual case, this is a major step forward in the protection of victims of trafficking, many of whom are kidnapped and extorted in the way AAM experienced.

Miranda Butler acted for the claimant, AAM. She was instructed by Jeremy Bloom and Elizabeth Cole of Duncan Lewis Solicitors.