Modern Slavery, Victim Identification and the ‘Victimized State’

Abstract Resistance to entering the UK government’s modern slavery victim identification mechanism is widespread and part of normal practices of state evasion that shape the lives of large numbers of insufficiently documented people. This article provides evidence of the role practitioners play in producing referrals into that mechanism in spite of such resistance and in spite of the harms caused by the identification mechanism itself, which is integrated into the immigration system. Though referrals are driven by practitioners, those entering the mechanism are said to be ‘abusing’ the system. This dynamic is considered in relation to a common trend of the liberal state, in which state practices are externalized onto others, while it claims to itself be the victim of violence.