Human trafficking is modern slavery | Law | The Observer

This $32bn business is nothing less than serious, international, organised crime and must be fought with cross-border laws

• Elizabeth Butler-Sloss
• guardian.co.uk, Saturday 2 July 2011 23.04 BST
• Article history

As a result of a relentless campaign led by William Wilberforce, slavery was "abolished" in this country in 1807. Yet sadly it still exists. United Nations figures suggest that 800,000 people are trafficked annually in one form or another.

Modern slavery assumes a different mantle from the slavery of Wilberforce's day. Then, it was part of everyday life. Today's slavery is more insidious, hidden from public gaze.

It takes many forms. Debt bondage, where gangs bring individuals illegally into this country then require them to pay off an artificially inflated debt through their labour. Trafficking of women for the purposes of sexual exploitation: the trafficker receives recompense or a percentage of earnings – again hugely inflated. Trafficking of children, either for petty crime or more serious crimes such as ATM thefts and begging. Children under 10 are increasingly trained for criminal activity, since they fall below the age of criminal responsibility.

Human trafficking is nothing less than serious, international, organised crime: the money generated from it (an estimated $32bn per annum) is only marginally less than from arms dealing and drug smuggling.

In the past decade, the government has launched a number of initiatives. These include extending legislation to apprehend traffickers, to confiscate their property, and to compensate victims found here; the funding of the Poppy Project to offer adult victims accommodation and support; and the creation of the Human Trafficking Centre. But the numbers of people trafficked into this country continues to grow. Given the home secretary's statement last year that tackling trafficking is a "coalition priority", the hope is that the government's new strategy, expected to be announced this month, will build on the steps taken by the last government and keep Britain at the forefront of the anti-trafficking fight.

One issue the strategy should focus on is prevention. Too often vulnerable people are lured with false promises of a better life, only to find themselves enslaved on arrival. The Human Trafficking Foundation, of which I am a founding trustee, is supporting and assessing a prevention programme in Romania that provides educational and vocational help to vulnerable girls and boys. I would welcome government support for such projects.

More also needs to be done to disrupt trafficking networks, which requires better coordination between law enforcement, social care and immigration agencies, but also constant dialogue with agencies working "at the coalface" that have valuable practical knowledge to share.

Finally, the cross-border nature of trafficking means our fight must be carried out in close liaison with our EU partners and at many levels – to hold governments to account; across police forces, to ensure targets are agreed and met; within immigration services across Europe, to ensure staff are better able to spot trafficking victims. To this end the Human Trafficking Foundation, together with ECPAT UK and the Asociata High Level Group in Romania, is about to launch a two-year initiative funded by the European Commission and the Tudor Trust to recruit and inform national parliamentarians throughout the EU.

Lady Butler-Sloss serves on the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Human Trafficking

Human trafficking is modern slavery | Law | The Observer

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ConservativeHome's Platform: Peter Bone MP: Can the Big Society Help Fight Modern Day Slavery?

Peter Bone is MP for Wellingborough and co-chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Human Trafficking.

Anthony Steen, when Chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Human Trafficking which he founded in 2006, not only raised awareness of the scale and effects of human trafficking into the UK and the EU, but also put forward practical solutions to reduce supply and demand, and to improve welfare provisions for victims. 

The European Commission estimates that a minimum of 100,000 people are trafficked into and around the EU each year, with at least 5,000 victims arriving in the UK.

Unfortunately, the UK statistics are inconsistent and unreliable; the Metropolitan Police believe that as far as sex trafficking in London alone is concerned, there are some 4,000 women trafficked annually into brothels, massage parlours, and the like. Human trafficking is now the second most profitable criminal activity in the world, netting $32 billion per year to traffickers. 

Despite its relative youth, the Group has garnered widespread recognition and praise across Government for its commitment to its cause and far-reaching work.  Immigration Minister Damian Green MP described the APPG as “an absolute model of how one can use an all-party group to shift public policy forward an inch or two.”  Reconvened in July 2010 under the joint chairmanship of myself and Baroness Butler-Sloss, it now boasts 12 officers representing in both the Commons and the Lords and is one of the largest all party groups in parliament.

ECPAT UK (coordinating Anti-Slavery International, Jubilee Campaign, NSPCC, Save the Children UK, The Children’s Society, UNICEF UK, and World Vision UK), a leading charity dedicated to combating child trafficking, provides information to the Parliamentary Group members, whilst Anthony Steen (now chairing the Human Trafficking Foundation) is the Group’s Special Adviser.

Through its pan-European campaign, the APPG has established similar cross party parliamentary groups in Spain, Germany, Bulgaria, Romania, Lithuania, Latvia, Denmark, Italy, Poland, Greece, Cyprus, and Estonia. Creating a network right across European parliaments is the aim.

The group’s biggest challenge now is how to guide the new government on how best to address this hidden and growing scourge which presents itself in many different guises and how better to help victims cope with their situation. There are a number of issues which need urgent consideration. Should the scope of the Gangmasters (Licensing) Authority be extended to include the hospitality, tourism and agriculture industries, and so better tackle the growth of labour exploitation?

In an answer to me on July 22nd, Home Secretary, Theresa May, said: “Tackling human trafficking is a coalition priority, and the Government are currently considering how to improve our response to this terrible crime, including through the creation of a border police”.

Questions need to be asked regarding the closure of the United Kingdom Human Trafficking Centre and the loss of some fifty staff as well as the consequences of the demise of the Serious Organised Crime Agency.
What will happen to the National Referral Mechanism, by which those who have been trafficked are formally identified? Who will coordinate that and what skills will the interrogators have? What effect will these two closures have on human trafficking? Should we continue to turn a blind eye to this?

Perhaps the Government need look no further and enlist some of the top-class Non-Governmental Organisations willing and able to give practical help in solving some of these problems. They are certainly up to it. Isn’t this part of David Cameron’s “Big Society”, and shouldn’t the NGOs whom the previous administration ignored, be more involved? We recently heard the excellent announcement of locally-elected Police Commissioners – could they be required to report annually of Human Trafficking in the area?

If savings are to be made (e.g. £1.8m for the UKHTC), why not enlist NGOs like ECPAT UK to help with the National Referral Mechanism? Government could do no better than to bring in Kalayaan, whose sterling work fighting domestic slavery is well known. Poppy is a professionally run housing association caring for fifty or more abused women in at any one time in London alone: shouldn’t their ten years of experience be spread to other metropolitan areas? As Chairman of the All-Party Group, with the help of the Human Trafficking Foundation, I want to encourage government to take a lead in promoting the growth of networks of parliamentarians right across the EU, both to deter traffickers and to develop a more caring strategy towards victims.

William Wilberforce banished overt slavery 200 years ago yet today new slavery is even more widespread and an even more daunting challenge because it is ingrained in our society yet hidden from view.

September 10, 2010 at 06:33 in Peter Bone MP Permalink

ConservativeHome's Platform: Peter Bone MP: Can the Big Society Help Fight Modern Day Slavery?

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Sex slavery case highlighted by MP

Wednesday, February 10, 2010, 09:27

JUDGES have been urged to severely punish human traffickers following the 'weak' jail sentences handed down in a sex slavery case in Paignton.

Tougher prison terms for criminals involved in the brutal trade were called for by Totnes MP Anthony Steen at Westminster.

Devon's first sex-trafficking case came to court last year after a 19-year-old woman escaped from a brothel in Hyde Road, where she had been forced to have sex with men for £50 a time. She ran into nearby Henry's Bar and shouted for help.

She had been flown in from the Czech Republic via Bristol Airport and promised legitimate work as a masseuse.

The husband and wife brothel keepers were both jailed. Madam Renata Kuznecovova was sentenced to two years and her husband Alexander Kuznecov was sentenced to 18 months after admitting running a brothel from 2A Hyde Road and charging men £50 a time for sex.

Renata was also sentenced to a further two years concurrently after admitting trafficking a Czech woman for prostitution.

A third defendant, Nina Hubackova, was sentenced to four months in prison.

It is estimated the lucrative business netted Kuznecov and Kuznecovova £30,000.

The case was highlighted in the Commons by Mr Steen, who is pressing for a national anti-slavery day to be introduced in England and Wales to raise awareness of the crime.

He told the chamber human trafficking was 'everywhere'.

"It is not just in the cities," Mr Steen told fellow MPs, describing how the teenaged girl ran out of the brothel after being assaulted.

He said the Devon and Cornwall police force had handled the case 'magnificently'.

Mr Steen added: "As she had agreed to give evidence, the two women who had been running the brothel agreed to plead guilty and were sentenced.

"However, although I mean no disrespect to the judge, I must say he gave a really rather weak sentence.

"The judiciary, as well as the police, need to be trained to realise trafficking is part of the scenery in this country and it needs to be severely punished."

Mr Steen, who is chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on the Trafficking of Women and Children, said an annual event would make people aware of the 'dangers and consequences' of modern-day slavery.

Introducing his Anti-Slavery Day Bill, which has cross-party support, he told MPs many thousands of people were being sold as commodities and forced into slavery in the UK.

He said: "People trafficking is, in essence, about people being forced to do things against their will. Victims are deceived or duped into a situation which is not what it at first appeared to be."

His Bill was given an unopposed second reading. It then went on to complete all its remaining Commons stages without a vote and now goes to the Lords.
Sex slavery case highlighted by MP

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