After Exploitation

Naeema Ahmed, Network Development Manager at BASNET
Naeema Ahmed is a dedicated advocate for race equality, diversity, and inclusion, with a strong focus on modern slavery and human trafficking. As the Network Development Manager for the UK BME Anti-Slavery Network (BASNET), a project under AFRUCA Safeguarding Children, Naeema has significantly expanded the network of Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) grassroots organisations tackling modern slavery in the UK, growing membership from 20 to over 60 organisations. She has been pivotal in strengthening BASNET’s presence through innovative ideas, strategies and sector engagement. A key highlight of her work at BASNET is leading the development of the UK’s first Race Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Action Plan for the modern slavery and human trafficking sector. Naeema is the Public and Community Engagement Lead for the NIHR Knowledge Mobilization in Public Health Project (KNOW-PH) and serves as a trustee for Samworth Foundation.  Naeema’s work is grounded in her passion for promoting equality and amplifying marginalised voices in the fight against exploitation.

Ayushman Bhagat, Lecturer in Political Geography at Brunel University London
Ayushman Bhagat is a Lecturer in Political Geography at Brunel University London. His research focuses on the spatial politics of anti-trafficking and migration control in Nepal and the United Kingdom, contributing to the agenda of decolonising “modern slavery”. By centring the experiences and practices of people on the move, Bhagat questions dominant anti-slavery measures and narratives that often profile these populations as primary targets for intervention. Prior to his academic career, Bhagat worked as a consultant to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) on issues related to forced labour, human trafficking, and bonded labour. He has also worked with various government agencies and non-government organisations in India.

Joanna Ewart-James, Executive Director at Freedom United
Joanna is Co-Founder and Executive Director of Freedom United, a global community against modern slavery powering action for change. Joanna is also a trustee at Labour Behind the Label Trust – campaigning for workers’ rights in the clothing industry. At the end of 2021 she completed her term as Chair of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative UK, during which she received an innovation award for the newly created Commonwealth 8.7 Network on modern slavery. Joanna was previously with Walk Free and Anti-Slavery International, where she developed and directed their work on business engagement, including coordinating the Cotton Campaign in Europe. Joanna is a contributing author to books including Vulnerability, exploitation and migrants: Insecure work in a globalised economy (Palgrave, 2015) and The SAGE Handbook of Human Trafficking and Modern Day Slavery (SAGE, 2018). Her international human rights experience spans the UK diplomatic service, academia, and philanthropy, managing multi-million dollar budgets. Joanna holds a graduate Masters degree in Human Rights from the University of London.

Jamie Fookes, UK and Europe Manager at Anti-Slavery International
Jamie has a background in both advocacy and service delivery across a range of issues including, sexualised drug taking, sex work, asylum and migration and modern slavery. As UK and Europe Manager at Anti-Savery International they are responsible for the delivering advocacy strategy focussed on achieving just systems of prevention, identification and support for modern slavery, prevention of forced labour for migrant workers, and the promotion of survivor lead advocacy. Jamie chairs the Anti -Trafficking Monitoring Group and represents ASI in European networks including in the Council of Europe.

David Gadd, Professor of Criminology, University of Manchester
David Gadd is Professor of Criminology at the University of Manchester. He is the co-author of Demystifying Modern Slavery (with Rose Broad) and is currently leading a project on Improving the Police and Policy Response to Modern Slavery, within the ESRC Centre for Vulnerability and Policing Futures based at York University. His article (also with Rose Broad), ‘Troubling recognitions in British responses to modern slavery’ published in the British Journal of Criminology, won the Radzinowicz Prize in 2018. David was also an ESRC Impact Prize finalist in 2022 and is best known for his research on violence, perpetrators, and for the development of psychosocial understandings of crime problems.

Sonia Lenegan, solicitor and editor of Free Movement
Sonia Lenegan is an immigration, asylum and public law solicitor with over 13 years’ experience. She has previously worked as a solicitor at Anti-Trafficking and Labour Exploitation Unit, Duncan Lewis and Hackney Community Law Centre. Sonia was previously the Legal Director at the Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association and the Legal and Policy Director at Rainbow Migration. Sonia is currently the Editor of the Free Movement blog, a trustee at The Unity Project and Non Executive Director – Policy at Micro Rainbow. She is also the UK expert for the European Council on Refugees and Exiles Asylum Information Database which involves updating the UK’s country report annually.

Jerome Neil, Campaigns Manager at Breakthrough
Jerome is Campaigns Manager at Breakthrough, a not-for-profit that supports campaigners that have direct experience of injustice. He has worked on campaigns at every level. Prior to his time at Breakthrough, Jerome fought the corner of looked-after children and care leavers in local government and worked with the Mayor of London’s Violence Reduction Unit to tackle exclusion and youth violence in the third sector. Jerome has supported diverse communities at every turn, helping to establish a publication that carved out space for black and brown voices, and spearheading the campaign strategy of a Rohingya diaspora organisation that took the Myanmar military to the International Court of Justice.

Sian Norris, investigative reporter at openDemocracy
Sian Norris is an investigative reporter, currently working at openDemocracy. She covers immigration, including modern slavery issues, with a specific focus on how changing government policy has impacted modern slavery victims/survivors. Sian specialises in reporting on women’s rights, and has reported from Ukraine, Poland, Romania, Bangladesh, Kenya and the UK. Her work has appeared in the Observer, i news, the Times, the Guardian, the Lead UK, the Ferret and the New Statesman. Her book, Bodies Under Siege, was published by Verso in June 2023. 

Emily Vaughn, Consultant at Human Trafficking Foundation’s Lived Experience Advisory Panel (LEAP) and After Exploitation collaborator
Emily Vaughn is a modern slavery consultant and lived experience expert with expertise on survivor rights and support. Vaughn helped establish the Human Trafficking Foundation’s Lived Experience Advisory Panel (LEAP) which gives experts with lived experience of modern slavery a platform to influence research, campaigns and policy. Vaughn has authored a best-selling memoir about her personal experiences and advocates for better access to compensation for victims of trafficking, via research and press work. Vaughn is also an volunteer for the NSPCC and abassador for the modern slavery charity Causeway.