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