Shocking! Reality Check on Britain's Modern Slavery

There are shocking new government figures on the number of people being held as modern-day slaves in Britain.

The U.K. Home Office now says there were 10,000 to 13,000 people forced into prostitution, domestic labor, farm work, and factory jobs last year. That's a siginificant increase from the National Crime Agency's Human Trafficking Centre's previous reports of fewer than 3,000 victims.

"The first step to eradicating the scourge of modern slavery is acknowledging and confronting its existence," Home Secretary Theresa May told reporters. "The estimated scale of the problem in modern Britain is shocking and these new figures starkly reinforce the case for urgent action."

A Modern Slavery bill is now moving through Parliament. Its goal is to give courts in England and Wales new powers to protect people who are trafficked.

Some still question whether the government plans go far enough, like Aidan McQuade, who heads the charity Anti-Slavery International.

"If you leave an employment relationship, even if you're suffering from any sort of exploitation up to and including forced labour, even if you're suffering from all sorts of physical and sexual violence, you'll be deported," McQuade told The Telegraph.

"So that gives an enormous power in the hands of unscrupulous employers," he said. "And, frankly, the protections which the government has put in place are not worth the paper they're written on in order to prevent this sort of exploitation once they've given employers that sort of power."