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24 May 2007 : Column 519WH—continued

That, I am afraid, is a fairly standard answer: we just do not know. Of course we shall not know as long as CEOP does not produce its report.

We just do not know the numbers and we do not know what happens to the children. If they are not sent back, they will become the responsibility of local authority social services. However, in practice, research shows that many unaccompanied children dare not come into contact with the authorities at all. They disappear and have no access to an asylum claim. The 3,000, 4,000 or 5,000 asylum claims are the tip of the iceberg. We do not know the full figure because children are told not to go near the authorities as they will be sent back.

Identifying child victims of trafficking is a highly skilled job. Who does it and how are cases handled? How do we avoid sending children back as fast as possible? Does the consultation paper not aim to send children back as fast as we can? As there is no national profile for the identification and care of child victims of trafficking, most trafficked children are simply processed as unaccompanied asylum seekers, which means that they fail to receive the specialist support that they need because they are trafficked and are not actually unaccompanied asylum seekers.

I have provided quite a tirade, but I will carry on a bit longer because hon. Members are enjoying it so much. Chapter four of the Government’s action plan deals exclusively with the problems of child trafficking and what the Government intend to do to ensure that child victims are safeguarded and protected. The action plan states that we must have regard to the fact that child victims have

That is absolutely spot on, but that is not what actually happens. The Government say all the right things. One must agree with the Government’s assessment and that there should be concern and compassion, but what has actually been achieved under the action plan? Has the joint committee of Ministers met yet and what is on their agenda? What is the feedback from those meetings? We are all interested in the joint committee of Ministers, but what does it actually do? They may have a cup of coffee, a biscuit and a good chat, but then what happens? We need to know more about what they do.

The UK sheds crocodile tears when it talks about missing children. On the one hand it says that the reservation on the UN convention on the rights of the child does not need to be lifted because it would have no effect and Britain is doing all that is needed. The convention was set up to protect children who have no one to care for them. Although the Government claim that they do care, the CEOP report will highlight just
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how neglectful they have been. Young children from many parts of the world arrive on our doorstep and ask to be taken in. We deal particularly badly with people who have been trafficked, whether they are women or children. Although we have signed the Council of Europe convention, we have not implemented the measures necessary to provide victims of human trafficking—children as well as women and men—with the assistance and protection that they need.

I do not need to go into the details of articles 10, 13 and 14, which are particularly important. If there are reasonable grounds to believe that a child has been a victim of trafficking, the child should not be removed from the United Kingdom until the process of identifying the child as the victim of an offence has been completed. If a child or unaccompanied asylum-seeking child is identified as a victim of trafficking, they should be provided with representation and a legal guardian. Is that happening? If a child has been identified as a victim of trafficking, they should be allowed a reflection and recovery period of at least 30 days, but that is not happening. It is no good signing such conventions, if they are not implemented. During the reflection period, it should not be possible to enforce any expulsion of the child and they should be authorised to stay in the UK. That is not happening either. The Minister is having the wool pulled over his eyes or he does not know what is going on. I have received my information from the horse’s mouth, the rock face and the grass roots. What the Minister is saying is fine and dandy, but what is happening is a totally different matter.

We cannot say that the reservation on the UN convention on the rights of the child does not matter; clearly, it does. I do not know how the Minister for Women and Equality can say this, but, in answer to a question, she said:

She ended by saying:

I am not quite sure what we are a leader of, but that is an extraordinary statement on trafficking. If the Minister considers that we are recognised as a leader in Europe, I wonder where she has been.

Nia Griffith (Llanelli) (Lab): Does the hon. Gentleman agree that only six countries have ratified the convention? I think that the Minister for Women and Equality was referring to the fact that we are one of the 28 countries that have signed up to it.

Mr. Steen: Nobody else knew that, so I thank the hon. Lady for that clarification. If we need an appendix or a glossary to explain the Minister, that may be the answer, but it is not a very impressive answer. As I have said, we are not the leader in Europe. The leading country in Europe would be expected to have more than 30 convictions for trafficking in the last four years.

How much money was confiscated from traffickers. That is a very important question. Did the money go to the victims? I would love to hear that that was the case. It would be wonderful if we could say that we have taken a few million pounds off the traffickers and that the women who have been trafficked have been set up
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in hairdressing saloons or McDonald’s and that they are all doing great things. The problem with that may be that more and more women would say, “Let’s shop the traffickers and pick up the cash.” We need to find out whether traffickers have had money taken from them and whether that money has gone to the Chancellor or to the victims. Does the Minister know about that? If I were in his shoes, I would be painful with my officials because I would ask such questions and say, “You can’t go home until you have given me the answer.” I would probably end up with no staff, but those are material questions.

Mr. Dismore: One of the issues that we focused on in the report, to which I did not refer, was the need for compensation for victims. The criminal injuries compensation scheme could provide an appropriate route, but it is unclear whether victims are entitled to qualify under the scheme. I think that they are, but as and when the scheme is reviewed, which it is from time to time, that matter should be clarified as part of the process.

Mr. Steen: I read about that in the report, which gave me the idea to prod the Minister on that issue. The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right, particularly if millions of pounds are removed; and if they are not, they jolly well should be. Not much money would have been removed from the 30 convicted traffickers who were involved in, I think, 16 individual crimes. There were 30 people involved in the 16 cases, but there could have been a few pounds removed, which should have gone to the women who shopped the traffickers.

In conclusion, one must presume that the Minister is as dissatisfied as I am at the progress that is being made. The all-party parliamentary group on the trafficking of women and children, which I have the privilege of chairing, has been in existence for only nine or 10 months, but we have been fairly active. With the help of the timing of the Committee’s report, we have attacked the problem. There have been some very fine words, but we all lack information and we do not know whether progress has been made.

I keep asking questions about the number of child victims of trafficking in this country, but there are no answers. We know that there is a growing trade in trafficking in Britain—not just of children, but of women and sometimes men. We also know that, despite the number of initiatives, the police have not nailed many gangs and, as I said, there have been few convictions. The facilities provided by the POPPY project, which is a good barometer, are well used, although the refuge has only 35 places in London. The good work that they do has not been expanded outside that area.

Social services are full of the most well-intentioned people who do not have a clue about how to deal with victims of trafficking. That is probably also true of the police, although since Operation Pentameter, there has been a greater awareness of the problem. Will the Minister say something about the proposed Operation Pentameter 2? What will it do? When will it come on-stream and who will be in charge? What will the objectives of the operation be? Will he say something about the liaison between EU police forces and about why Britain was not one of the EU signatories at Prum
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in Austria where seven of the more advanced countries on immigration control and trafficking came together? Why have we not signed up? Were we refused because our track record is not good enough?

The situation of trafficked people and unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in Britain is profoundly distressing. Will the Minister say why he has been persistently against giving victims of trafficking temporary residence permits? I know that that is beyond his immediate responsibility, but I think that his working group could look into it. The women whom I met in Italy who had such permits had an entirely different feel for what they were doing because they could be confident that they would not be stopped by the police and sent home. It gives them security and protection and allows them to assist the police more actively with criminal investigations into traffickers.

At half-past 5 this afternoon, we will witness the opening of an exhibition in Westminster Hall celebrating the 200th anniversary of the abolition of slavery. I hope that the Minister will be there and that he will be embarrassed, as I am, by the Government’s failure to get to grips with these new forms of slavery, about which we all know, but which remain very much unresolved. In the UK, vulnerable children go missing in the care of local authorities, and 48 victims of child trafficking are yet to be found.

3.41 pm

Nia Griffith (Llanelli) (Lab): How do I follow my hon. Friend the Member for Hendon (Mr. Dismore), with his inimitable ability to say an enormous amount in a very short space of time, and the hon. Member for Totnes (Mr. Steen), who made a valuable contribution as well? I shall try not to repeat too much of what has been said.

This is a wonderful opportunity to debate a very important report, and I welcome the fact that this year—the 200th anniversary of the beginning of the end of the slave trade—the UK Government signed the Council of Europe convention on action against trafficking in human beings. Most importantly, I welcome the launch of the UK action plan on tackling human trafficking. However, we must remember that this is just the beginning; it is going to be a very long journey. There is no easy answer.

We must remember the sorts of the people with whom we are dealing. I understand the disappointment of the hon. Member for Totnes at the number of convictions brought, but we are dealing with very difficult people. It will be very challenging to stop any criminal who believes that it is acceptable to treat human beings as commodities and to subject them to a lack of freedom and the appalling treatment that we hear about, and who is, no doubt, making a lot of money out of those victims. It will take an immense international effort.

Currently, some 28 countries have signed the convention, but, not having your remarkable memory, Mr. Bercow, I cannot recite them all. However, the sad fact is that only six of those have actually ratified it. That is the real problem. It is very easy to sign something, but making it work is much more difficult. We have a clear action plan, and I want to focus on the progress made on its very honourable objectives, because unless we make that progress, we will not get anywhere or do anything to improve the situation.


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Let us remind ourselves of some of the issues that we raised in our report last year, and particularly some of the points that we feel that the Government need to take very seriously, to eliminate the trafficking of human beings. We want much greater improvement and better development in training in the identification of victims and to ensure that those identified as victims of trafficking are not treated as criminals or immigration offenders. It is extremely important to give them the confidence to come forward. We must take a much more comprehensive approach to the provision of basic support and assistance to victims upon their discovery, including financial support and accommodation. I think that we all recognise that it is very difficult for victims to come forward, and we need to give them the fullest possible support.

Furthermore, we need proper public outreach and awareness through advertising and a freefone number, so that victims can self-refer and those who use prostitutes can refer women whom they think might have been trafficked. However, we need a much broader programme than that. Very often, people are unaware that they can come across victims of human trafficking in many walks of life—perhaps in cheap labour sources or the domestic labour market—and we need to raise awareness, so that citizens can provide information if they suspect that trafficking has been going on. We need to ensure that, when victims of trafficking are identified, they get proper information about their rights in the UK.

Mr. Steen: I agree with everything that the hon. Lady is saying—nobody could disagree—but the question is: to whom do they report? There are the victims, the traffickers and the authorities, but who in the authorities? Where are the authorities? Who understands it all? That seems to be the problem.

Nia Griffith: Indeed, I shall come to that when I talk about the action plan. We need to raise awareness. It is very important that as many people in society as possible are aware, because information can be disseminated that way. As the hon. Gentleman pointed out, it is not necessarily that easy for the victims to know immediately to whom they should turn. We need to broaden our approach through teachers in schools—although I suspect that the vast majority of young victims do not get the chance to go to school—other layers of work and the general public as well. We all have a huge responsibility.

Of course we want better funding for projects such as the POPPY project and similar ones rolled out throughout the UK, and specialist support for the victims of sex trafficking. We need opportunities for victims to report their experiences to the police and steps to be taken against traffickers or exploiters, if they can be identified. We would like to work on more prevention measures in source countries, although that depends, of course, on collaboration with other countries, and to move towards more holistic approaches covering the causes of trafficking, which are often extreme poverty and unemployment.

We must ensure that proper information is provided about how to migrate to the UK legally, so that migrants are not exploited by traffickers and so that potential victims know that they need not take the way offered to
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them by traffickers. Also, we need to undertake research to understand the demand for trafficked people in the UK, both for sexual and labour exploitation, including the reasons why individuals and businesses continue to seek trafficked people. We need to take all sorts of measures. We need to enforce minimum wage legislation and measures against illegal employment practices.

I congratulate the Home Office on coming forward with its action plan. However, as I said, we will make progress only through its implementation. The action plan mentions a number of measures that are ongoing or down for completion by mid-2007. I should like to take this opportunity to ask the Minister about the progress that has been made on a number of those matters. What has been done to prevent trafficking in the countries of origin and to reduce the demand for trafficked persons, because, again, at the end of the day that will be one of the key factors in diminishing the trade?

What progress has been made in making human trafficking core police business? How would the Minister define that and what is being done? Who is being trained in issues related to human trafficking—ordinary officers in police stations, those at the ports, people working in social services or others who might come into contact with those who have been trafficked?

I should like to know what has been done so far to produce and disseminate guidance on the key indicators of criminality to assist with the identification of victims of trafficking for forced labour. I should also like to know more about what my hon. Friend the Minister is doing in considering extending non-governmental organisation outreach support nationally. We have mentioned the POPPY project several times, but we need a much broader approach.

What is being done to pilot support provisions for victims of trafficking for forced labour? What is being done to increase access to health and support services for victims of sexual violence and abuse? What progress is being made with the Department for Education and Skills, working together with the Home Office and UKvisas, to approve addresses and carers for unaccompanied children applying to stay in the UK for in excess of 28 days? What progress is being made on a proper system of guardians?

As with all large problems, we can make progress by dealing with the nitty-gritty and working bit by bit, one step at a time. I should like specific answers on the progress that has been made in the UK, together with any information that the Minister can give about talks on an international scale with EU partners, other members of the Council of Europe and countries further afield.

3.50 pm

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