Rights of Trafficked Children Recognised

The welfare of trafficked children has taken a giant step forward, with the passing of the Modern Slavery Bill. The Bill will receive Royal Assent soon.

The research team from the University of Bedfordshire has seen its work play a key role in shaping the new legislation. Clause 48 of the Bill defines the role of independent specialist advocates who will make sure trafficked children’s rights are respected by public authorities.

In July 2014, the research team at the University was appointed by the Home Office to independently evaluate a Child Trafficking Advocate (CTA) trial run by the children’s charity Barnardo’s.

The team from Bedfordshire is evaluating Barnardo’s work to establish what difference the specialist advocate scheme makes for trafficked children, compared to the existing provision, run by local authorities.

Professor of Child Welfare, Ravi Kohli, who leads the team from the University said: “The University is at the cutting edge of research in enhancing the protection of trafficked children. We are proud to be working with the UK Government and Barnardo’s in doing all we can to make sure that these children are safe.”

The team’s interim evaluation findings are based on the first four and a half months of the trial in which 59 children were allocated to the child trafficking advocates trial. The findings focus on the process of early implementation of the trial and early lessons learned about the role of advocates. So far, there is good evidence of advocates safeguarding children’s rights and meeting their needs.

The final evaluation report will be published after the trial ends in September and will draw on a wider range of data.

More training to identify and support victims of human trafficking | Home Office

And further news on human trafficking. The Home Office has announced that training will be given to social workers, youth workers, GPs and midwives to identify and help the victims of human trafficking.

Read more here:
More training to identify and support victims of human trafficking | Home Office

How the latest research into child trafficking in the UK should inform social work practice - 10/16/2012 - Community Care

Social workers should not discount children’s claims to have been trafficked even if they sound extraordinary, says Emma Kelly, a lecturer in social work at University of Salford.


How the latest research into child trafficking in the UK should inform social work practice - 10/16/2012 - Community Care

International Crackdown On Human Trafficking

Immigration Minister Mark Harper has joined with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) to call on international partners to redouble efforts against human trafficking. He outlined work the government is undertaking to tackle this crime, both in the UK and overseas. This includes:

• work with embassies and high commissions of key source countries
• collaboration between the Metropolitan Police, the Romanian National Police and the Romanian Embassy to share intelligence
• work by Border Force officials to identify victims
• victim care under a contract run by the Salvation Army

Mark Harper said: 'Human trafficking is an atrocious crime that requires a strong and robust approach, both from within the UK and internationally.


'The government will continue to identify what further we can do to stop people from becoming victims in the first place and, if they do, how we can best support them to recover and recuperate from their terrible ordeal.

'Our aim is to build on our collective efforts with international partners so far to continue to support victims and to identify and punish perpetrators.'

The top five countries for trafficking, based on potential victims referred through the UK's victim care system, are Nigeria, Vietnam, Romania, China and Slovakia. The top ten countries accounted for more than 64% of all referrals in 2011.









 

International crack down on human trafficking | Home Office

Immigration Minister Mark Harper has joined with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) to call on international partners to redouble efforts against human trafficking. You can read what he had to say and more facts about human trafficking here:
International crack down on human trafficking | Home Office

Trafficked Children In The UK Care Sector Go Missing

A new report from the Council of Europe says that some children trafficked into the UK are going missing from local authority care. 

It says there are indications that increasing numbers of people are being brought into the UK for the purposes of sexual exploitation and forced labour. The council raises particular concerns over a lack of secure and suitable accommodation for trafficked children who end up in local authority care. It calls for better trained supervisors or foster carers for them.

The Council of Europe's Greta (Group of Experts on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings) says reports suggest a "significant" number of trafficked children in local authority care go missing and some end up rejoining those who exploited them in the first place. Its report says hundreds of people have been identified as victims of trafficking in the UK but only 56 people were convicted of human trafficking in 2009 and 29 the following year.

The common countries of origin were China, Vietnam, Romania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Albania, Nigeria, Uganda and India, the report says. Children tended to be brought in for the purposes of sexual exploitation, domestic servitude, benefit fraud, cannabis farming and forced begging and stealing.

Greta acknowledges good work is going on around the UK but it found inconsistent approaches in different areas.

Greta also highlights what it describes as a significant intelligence gap on trafficking, saying the levels of trust and co-operation between victim support services and law enforcement agencies need to be improved.
The Council of Europe says on its website that it aims to "develop throughout Europe common and democratic principles based on the European Convention on Human Rights and other reference texts on the protection of individuals".

This is its first assessment of human trafficking in the UK since the anti-trafficking convention came into force in the UK in April 2009.As well as improvements regarding care of trafficked children, Greta recommends a number of actions:

• More needs to be done to separate the identification of trafficking victims from decisions on immigration or asylum and it points out that quick decisions on immigration status can prevent victims being recognised
• Victims of human trafficking need assistance and support regardless of when the trafficking actually took place
• Prosecutors across the UK need guidance to ensure trafficking is considered as a serious violation of human rights and victims of trafficking should not receive penalties for their involvement in illegal activities carried out under duress
• The assisted voluntary return programmes should be reviewed to check whether they are appropriate for victims of trafficking.