{"id":145109,"date":"2015-03-26T22:07:53","date_gmt":"2015-03-26T22:07:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=145109"},"modified":"2015-03-26T22:07:53","modified_gmt":"2015-03-26T22:07:53","slug":"how-does-the-british-government-fail-victims-of-modern-slavery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/latest-news\/how-does-the-british-government-fail-victims-of-modern-slavery\/","title":{"rendered":"How Does The British Government Fail Victims Of Modern Slavery?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The government claims its Modern Slavery Bill, that passed into law today, is proof that it cares about victims. So why are anti-trafficking processes letting victims down?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

JENNY MCCALL<\/em><\/p>\n

One day last September a 16 year old girl arrived at Heathrow airport accompanied by a British woman. The girl was travelling on a United States passport but she\u2019d left there when she was two and was now living in an African country.<\/p>\n

Suspicious of the relationship between the pair, Border staff detained the child and let the woman continue on her travels.<\/p>\n

Whenever Border staff suspect that a child may be a victim of trafficking, they are supposed to inform the police and Children\u2019s Services straight away.<\/p>\n

That didn\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n

Instead, officials sent instructions for the girl to be flown to the US, even though she\u2019d left there 14 years ago and didn\u2019t speak English. The US Department for Homeland security was informed that the child would be returning.<\/p>\n

The girl was escorted to a holding room to wait for her flight and then taken out again for boarding. Then there was a ticketing glitch, so she was returned to the holding room.<\/p>\n

It took officials 16 hours after the girl was first detained to inform the National Referral Mechanism, the system that exists to identify and protect potential victims of trafficking.<\/p>\n

Still, the order to send her to the US remained in place until, at last, officials acknowledged the girl\u2019s request not to be sent there. It was another 34 hours before she was picked up by a social worker.<\/p>\n

Later, the Home Office found reasonable grounds to believe the girl was a victim of trafficking and she was temporarily admitted to the UK.<\/p>\n

This case came to light only because prison inspectors happened to make a surprise inspection of\u00a0Heathrow\u00a0Airport\u2019s holding facilities on 30th September 2014. The details emerged two weeks ago in a report\u00a0published here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Prisons Inspectorate said: \u201cThe attempted removal to the US, the delay in placing the child in social services care and delay in referring her to the national referral mechanism indicated a lack of focus on\u00a0promoting the child\u2019s best interests and welfare.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can say that again.\u00a0The UK\u2019s systems for protecting victims of trafficking \u00a0\u2013\u00a0adults as well as children \u2013\u00a0aren\u2019t up to the task. So how is the system supposed to work?<\/p>\n

Mind the gap<\/h2>\n

The National Referral Mechanism\u00a0was\u00a0introduced in 2009 to identify\u00a0and support trafficking victims.\u00a0Government\u00a0and agencies such as the police, social workers or charities like the Salvation Army<\/a>, who may come into contact with a victim of trafficking are known as \u201cfirst responders\u201d. They refer individuals to one of two decision makers, known as Competent Authorities, which\u00a0currently\u00a0are\u00a0the UK\u00a0Visa and Immigration service<\/a> (UKVI)\u00a0and the\u00a0UK Human Trafficking centre\u00a0<\/a>(UKHTC).<\/p>\n

Once the victim is identified and referred, the Competent Authority has up to 45 days\u00a0to determine whether the person was trafficked or not.\u00a0During this time the person is provided with accommodation.<\/p>\n

When a decision has been made, an adult has 48 hours to leave\u00a0the accommodation provided for them if it\u2019s found that they have not been trafficked and 14 days to leave if it is found they have been trafficked.\u00a0In either case adults get no further assistance and they may start a claim for asylum.<\/p>\n

Children are accommodated by Local Authority Children\u2019s Services. Many disappear, according to\u00a0a shocking report<\/a>\u00a0by the\u00a0all-party parliamentary group for runaway and missing children and adults, published in 2012\u00a0(PDF here<\/a>). The group noted:<\/p>\n

\u201cTrafficked children from abroad are particularly being let down and their needs ignored because the authorities view child trafficking as an immigration control issue. Hundreds of them disappear from care every year, many within 48 hours and often before being registered with children\u2019s services. The majority of these children are never found again.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM)<\/a> reported that the majority of re-trafficking cases involves minors under the age of 25.<\/p>\n

The Anti Trafficking Monitoring Group<\/a> brings together\u00a0human rights organisations including the Helen\u00a0Bamber Foundation<\/a> and ECPAT UK<\/a> whose work involves combating human trafficking.\u00a0They reviewed the National Referral Mechanism\u2019s first five years\u2019 work and exposed multiple flaws in their report last year. (You can access the\u00a0PDF\u00a0here). <\/a><\/p>\n

They found evidence of prejudice towards applicants from outside the European Union and towards child victims of trafficking, and identified a culture of disbelief against non-EU victims.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Home Office may ignore or dismiss evidence of trafficking. (Womens eNews 2009, Flickr)<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Anti-Trafficking Monitoring Group\u2019s report includes quotes from asylum interviews that provide examples of trafficking scenarios which were not acted upon by the\u00a0UKVI\u00a0staff at the Home Office. Here\u2019s\u00a0one:<\/p>\n

\u201cHe told me I had to work on the streets. I worked … he threatened me [with] what would happen to me if I ever left. I told [him] that I didn\u2019t want to do this. That it was against my will.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here\u2019s\u00a0another:<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been working as a sex worker since I arrived in the UK four years ago. I did not pay any rent to the lady so she said I will have to sleep with these men.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A Home Office staff member told one child victim of trafficking who was from outside the EU:<\/p>\n

\u201cYour account of escaping when your employer left the doors unlocked but actually open is considered inconsistent with your account of their previous behaviour where they kept the doors locked, wholly restricted your freedom and controlled your actions.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Another victim, known as\u00a0YP,\u00a0was 16 years old when she was trafficked into the UK. She had been told that she would be able to go to school. Instead she was beaten and forced to work for her traffickers.<\/p>\n

She escaped. Social services referred her case to the National Referral Mechanism. The decision was negative. But the judge in her asylum case decided that she had in fact been a victim of trafficking. She was later awarded \u00a354,000 in damages.<\/p>\n

The Anti-Trafficking Monitoring Group found that out of 299 referrals made in 2012 to the UK human trafficking centre, 80 per cent of their decisions said that the person had in fact been a victim of trafficking. For the\u00a0UKVI\u00a0it was less than 20 per cent.<\/p>\n

According to\u00a0National Crime Agency figures<\/a>\u00a0the National Referral Mechanism received 1746 applications\u00a0from potential victims of trafficking, from EU and\u00a0non-EU countries in 2013. Of all the applicants, 559 received a positive response, and 400 of them were EU victims.<\/p>\n

I asked the Home Office to explain the apparent bias against non-EU victims. A spokesperson said: \u201cnon-EU victims of trafficking tend to be found in more exploitative conditions compared to EU.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is a more likely reason. A \u2018positive\u2019 decision on the trafficking claim may lead to leave to remain. Since the Home Office is also the gatekeeper of immigration decisions, there is a clear conflict. In EU cases there is no immigration decision to make.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow can you have an organisation making decisions on a victim of trafficking when they have a performance indicator that marks them on how many people they get to leave the country?\u201d asked Huw Watkins, a former Detective Inspector, Gwent Police, in a Centre for Social Justice, report in 2013<\/a>. (The Helen Bamber Foundation\u2019s David Rhys Jones reviewed that<\/em> report here on OurKingdom<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Fail again, fail better<\/h2>\n

In April last year Home Secretary Theresa May ordered the Home Office to review the National Referral Mechanism.<\/p>\n

They\u00a0published a report\u00a0in November, proposing to put the Home Office in charge of the entire National Referral Mechanism, and take the UKVI out of\u00a0the\u00a0process, replacing them with a panel of decision makers. They also proposed to run an awareness programme to public and professionals\u00a0to enhance recognition of human trafficking and to improve data collection plus provide support based on the assessment of the individual victims\u2019 needs.<\/p>\n

Advocates for people who have been trafficked aren\u2019t impressed.<\/p>\n

Mike\u00a0Emberson, of the\u00a0Medaille Trust,<\/a> which provides shelter for victims of trafficking, reckons the Home Office is just giving more \u201cjobs for the boys\u201d.<\/p>\n

He told me:\u00a0\u201cReplacing\u00a0UKVI and UKHTC\u00a0with this multi-agency panel is not going to work. A victim normally appears unannounced, requiring a decision to be made as soon as possible. Assembling a panel, issuing paperwork etc. is going to turn this into a hugely bureaucratic process that will take months to resolve, as with all civil service endeavours we will have a lot of process with little outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Home Office plan to have only statutory bodies referring victims of trafficking excludes specialist charities who understand this work, and leaves it instead to police officers and social workers, some of whom do not know what the National Referral Mechanism is.<\/p>\n

Chloe Setter from\u00a0ECPAT, said: \u201cWe train frontline\u00a0professionals, with many of them unaware the system exists to help identify victims of trafficking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tatiana\u00a0Jardan, from\u00a0Human\u00a0Trafficking Foundation<\/a>, said: \u201cThe recommendations don\u2019t go beyond the 45 days; it is like re-shuffling chairs inside a room. They may improve the current situation but the problem of life beyond the shelter has not been tackled. Victims will face the problems of no support from the government.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last July\u00a0Karen Bradley<\/a>, the minister for Modern Slavery and Organised Crime, told the House of Commons: \u201cThe current UK Government policy goes further than the European Convention on Action against Trafficking obligations by providing a minimum of 45 days\u2019 support once a Reasonable Grounds decision is made.\u201d<\/p>\n

Each year 150 people leave\u00a0Medaille\u00a0Trust\u2019s\u00a0six\u00a0safe houses.\u00a0Mike\u00a0Emberson told me:\u00a0\u201cWe may know what happens to five per cent of the people who leave our shelters each year. There is no tracking of where they go or end up from the government.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of these people could end up living homeless, involved in the sex trade or return to their trafficker.<\/p>\n

Some things are getting better. Speaking today as the government\u2019s\u00a0bill passed into law, Unicef UK’s executive director David Bull<\/a> said:\u00a0\u201cWe welcome the fact that the Modern Slavery Act includes a defence for child victims against prosecution for crimes committed directly as a consequence of their trafficking.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, he said:\u00a0\u201cWe believe there is still more work to be done to ensure trafficked children are not at risk of being wrongfully prosecuted and even sentenced for these acts. Our work does not stop here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sarah\u2019s story<\/h2>\n

Lately I met Sarah (not her real name), a young women from Ghana, who came to the UK hoping to make a new life.<\/p>\n

Her room at the shelter is cosy, filled with pictures of her family from back home in Ghana, and some photos of Sarah with other girls from the shelter. She starts by telling me about why she moved to the UK and how she was hoping to start a new life while supporting her parents back home.<\/p>\n

Living with her aunt in London Sarah was subjected to daily beatings and forced to work for no pay.<\/p>\n

\u201cI needed someone to fund me when I first came to the UK, I wanted help,\u201d she told me. \u201cFor six years my aunt beat me and would tell my family back home a different story.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sarah mentioned nothing of this to her family in Ghana; she didn\u2019t want to upset them:\u00a0\u201cA friend of mine helped me escape and took me to the authorities. I just didn\u2019t want to go back to that house,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Sarah was placed into the specialist care of the Medaille Trust.\u00a0She has been waiting for more than a year while the Home Office\u00a0determines whether or not she is a victim of trafficking.<\/p>\n

If the decision goes against her she will have to leave the shelter within\u00a048 hours and find her own accommodation.<\/p>\n

If she is identified as a victim of trafficking, she will have to start an\u00a0asylum claim in order to put a roof over her head.<\/p>\n

For now, her life is on hold.<\/p>\n

Some references<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The National Referral Mechanism: A Five year Review. A report by the Anti-Trafficking Monitoring Group for the Joint Committee on the Modern Slavery Bill, February 2014<\/p>\n

Report on an unannounced inspection of the short-term holding facility at Heathrow Airport Terminal 1, by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, inspection 30 September 2014, published March 2015.<\/p>\n

It Happens Here: Equipping the United Kingdom to fight modern slavery, Centre for Social Justice, 2013<\/p>\n

This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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