The Trade in Human Beings: Human Trafficking in the UK - Home Affairs Committee Contents


2  Describing the problem

14. The term 'human trafficking' covers a wide range of criminal activity. The victims may be legal or illegal immigrants or nationals of the country within which they are trafficked, adults or children, male or female, engaged in a variety of work or in criminal activity, subjected to violence or not. They may have been sold to traffickers by their family or others, have initially willingly put themselves into the hands of people smugglers to reach western Europe, or they may have thought that they were applying for a legitimate job. The UN defines human trafficking as:

the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.[10]

What the victims have in common is that they are, in effect, 'owned' by the traffickers.

15. The traffickers are equally varied, but a significant number are part of an organized criminal network that includes passport and visa forgers, bogus employment agents, drivers, pimps, brothel owners or other employers and sometimes state officials. They are thus able to organise the whole operation, including arranging travel documents, tickets, meals and housing.

16. Human trafficking is distinct from people smuggling, which is a voluntary arrangement made between the illegal migrant and the organiser or facilitator. Trafficking also does not always involve illegal migration: Anti-Slavery International told us their research had shown that the majority of those trafficked into the UK from overseas entered the UK legally, though they noted this was perhaps because legal migrants were more willing to identify themselves as victims of trafficking as they had less to fear from drawing themselves to the attention of the authorities.[11]

17. Trafficking is a worldwide problem: while the source countries are generally poor and richer nations are the destination, any country may be a transit point for the trade in human beings, and traffickers also recruit victims from vulnerable groups within rich countries.[12] UNICEF's analysis of the flows of cross-border trafficking in Europe showed two-thirds of countries were countries of origin, more than three-quarters were countries of destination and in more than half there was trafficking in both directions. There was also internal trafficking in half the countries of Europe, including the UK.[13] The UK is an important destination country, but, we were told, no more so than France or Italy. Western Europe as a whole, and increasingly Central Europe also, is a favoured destination. Organised gangs trade where they will make most profit and where they consider it easy to gain access. They also often move victims from town to town and from country to country in order to prevent the victims from gaining enough knowledge and confidence to escape.[14]

How trafficking manifests itself

18. The archetypal form of trafficking is for the purpose of sexual exploitation, but other forms of trafficking may be at least as common— or, for some categories of victim, more common—than sexual abuse. Europol said that, based on the information it received, the most prevalent form of trafficking in the EU was of young women and children for sexual exploitation, but it admitted that it was not sure whether its information accurately reflected the real situation across the EU.[15] As we discuss later, the exploitation of migrant domestic workers became so notorious that in 1998 the Government introduced special visas for them.[16] CEOP, the multi-agency centre dedicated to tackling the sexual abuse and exploitation of children, suggested there was a "large undercurrent of children who are being subjected to domestic servitude or being used in forced labour or who are being indoctrinated into committing other crime types (and they are the vast majority that lie below the surface here)".[17] Europol commented that the trafficking of children to commit street crimes (linked particularly to begging) was a 'big issue' and Anti-Slavery International said it was increasing.[18] ECPAT UK also listed cannabis cultivation, forced marriage and benefit fraud as purposes for which children were trafficked.[19] Adults might be trafficked to commit crimes such as shoplifting, pick-pocketing and the sale of pirate CDs and DVDs on the street.[20] The legal employment sectors in which victims are found performing forced labour are those in which there is heavy reliance on seasonal or temporary staff: construction, food processing and packaging, agriculture and associated industries, catering, and care/nursing. There is also anecdotal evidence about people being forced to work in motorway service stations, in laundries, in nail parlours or as casual labour in ports.[21]

19. There is a fine line between those who voluntarily take a job that may be unpleasant or low status or where the wages and conditions are worse than normal for that type of occupation and those who are victims of trafficking. However, there are indicators that point to trafficking:[22] the use of violence or threats of violence by employers; debt bondage;[23] confinement to a workplace; removal of identity documents; requirements to live in accommodation or to use transport provided by the employer, especially if the accommodation is overcrowded and the means of transport unsafe, coupled with exorbitant charges for these compulsorily docked from wages; below average wages for that type of work or no wages; little or no time off; no sick pay. When dealing with a number of victims, for example when providing 'agency' labour or in brothels, traffickers also tend to try to isolate the victims from the resident population and from each other through language barriers (mixing different nationalities together) or by moving victims frequently from place to place to deter escape.[24]

A group of women from the Baltic States were repeatedly recorded on CCTV shoplifting in supermarkets in the South of England. The recordings showed a man that seemed to be supervising the group. The police raided the flat where the women were staying and found that they were all sleeping in one room. The flat was very basic and none of the stolen goods were found on the premises. The women denied knowing the man that appeared to be the supervisor and seemed anxious, afraid and intimidated. In an informal talk with a translator, they seemed ashamed of what they were doing and said that they had come to work, but the work they were promised was not available when they arrived.

Care workers from Bulgaria paid £2000 for jobs to be arranged in the UK, which was then deducted from their wages and included very high interest rate charges. A Polish women was told that according to the law in the UK she had to pay £300 as part of facilitating a job as an au-pair.

20. Moreover, even when victims have fled this abuse, many are still at risk from the traffickers. The Anti-Trafficking Legal Project (ATLeP) told us that their clients "see colleagues of their traffickers in the markets when they go out so they are very much at risk".[25] The Poppy Project said victim support groups sometimes move their clients to another town, occasionally a hundred or more miles away, to give the victims greater confidence that they will not be identified by the traffickers, their associates or other people involved in their exploitation such as clients of prostitution.[26]

21. A number of our witnesses provided anonymised case studies of the experiences of victims. We include edited versions of these in text boxes throughout this Report.

22. Because of the range of work into which people may be forced by traffickers, no region of the UK is immune from trafficking. This does not mean there are victims in every town, but even in places where no victims live, it is possible that they will have passed through there while being moved round the country.[27] The Poppy Project believes: "Where you have off-street prostitution, you are very likely to have trafficked women."[28] The Poppy Project, though London-based, has received referrals of victims from Birmingham, Glasgow, Sheffield, Manchester and Liverpool; but smaller towns may also be affected: in 2004 a group of Ugandan women trafficked for sexual exploitation were found in the seaside—and retirement—town of Worthing in West Sussex.[29] Kalayaan, an NGO that supports migrant domestic workers, and also London-based, receives calls from abused domestic workers from all over the UK, though most of the clients it sees are living in London.[30] The Gangmasters Licensing Authority finds trafficking victims in all the regions where the industries it regulates (agriculture, food processing and packaging, shellfish gathering) are based.[31] Most of the cases of human trafficking with which the Metropolitan Police have dealt relate to the sex trade, but there have also been examples of domestic servitude and a few of forced labour.[32]

How people become victims

23. A common feature of many of the victims of trafficking is that their home countries are poor and there are few opportunities for employment. The groups most vulnerable to this crime are those of low status, without powerful protectors (typically women and children—especially orphans or those subject to domestic violence—but also impoverished men), and those in debt bondage.[33] Some studies of those trafficked into the sex industry have suggested that 6% of 'recruitments' are done by a close relative, while in another 30% the trafficker is a close friend. Almost half of the recruitments are performed by other acquaintances of the victim.[34] ECPAT UK, a coalition of eight charities campaigning against the commercial sexual exploitation of children, including trafficking, said:

The majority of trafficked children are already highly vulnerable in their home country before they become the targets of traffickers. Some children trafficked to the UK have already been exploited and abused, and many appear to have been living in households with adults who do not have parental responsibility. The circumstances of them travelling with traffickers are often the result of being deceived, sold or coerced rather than abduction or kidnapping.[35]

Many of the adults arriving in the UK are actively seeking work abroad when they are trafficked but are deceived about the type of work they will be doing, or are charged exorbitant fees by agencies for 'arranging' work (forming a debt burden difficult to clear) or, when they arrive, are tricked or intimidated into surrendering their travel documents and either forced into prostitution or subjected to forced labour.[36] The types of legitimate work that women think they are being recruited to do include jobs in the restaurant trade, domestic work, childminding and accountancy, or they are promised education or training opportunities.[37] Some women may know that they may have to work as prostitutes for a while, but they have no idea of the violence and degradation to which they will be subjected.[38] Many children, or their families, think they are opting for a better life, with better education and employment opportunities, sometimes within a (private) foster family.[39]
Katerina was a student in Romania. She built up a friendship with a friend of a friend named Alex, who invited her to the UK and told her that she could stay at his house; he would even help her with the air fare. When she arrived in the UK, Katerina was held prisoner in a flat where she was repeatedly beaten and raped. Alex told her that she could have her freedom, but she would have to work as a prostitute to pay back the money that he had paid to bring her here. Katerina eventually gave in and began work, paying all of the money she made to Alex. Katerina was forced to return to work in the sex industry for over a year until Aex decided hat he would sell her on to some other men. While trying to carry out the transaction Alex was arrested.

24. Their countries of origin vary. Anti-Slavery International said "there is not a typical victim of trafficking, … people are trafficked to the UK from all parts of the world and the trends are changing".[40] However, all the NGOs involved in victim support had detected a degree of specialisation. Anti-Slavery International suggested the majority of people trafficked

  • for agricultural labour came from Central or Eastern Europe;
  • for cleaning work, South America;
  • for the sex trade, Eastern Europe (especially Lithuania), some African countries (particularly Nigeria) and parts of Asia (principally China and Thailand);
  • for labour exploitation, from Vietnam;
  • for crime, from Vietnam;
  • for domestic labour, from the Philippines, India and Sri Lanka.[41]

The other NGOs were largely in agreement with this list, though the Poppy Project also noted the high number of Albanian women trafficked into the sex trade. The Gangmasters Licensing Authority pointed out that the foreign nationals most prominent in the agricultural sector were Poles, Lithuanians and Slovaks.[42] ECPAT UK said that it had identified more than 25 source countries for trafficked children over the previous five years, but the vast majority of victims were from Africa, China and Vietnam.[43] Both the Poppy Project and ECPAT UK indicated that trends were changing. The Poppy Project said that 42% of the women it accommodated were of African origin now, and increasing numbers of African and Asian women victims were being referred to them. Uganda is now one of the top five source countries for victims, together with China, Nigeria, Albania and Thailand. ECPAT UK's informants in the police and local authorities suggested increased trafficking of Chinese children in 2007-08 (coinciding with increasing numbers of children going missing from local authority care[44]), with the result that the "vast majority" of trafficked children were Chinese; but also increased trafficking of Vietnamese children for cannabis cultivation; and of Roma children from Bulgaria and Romania for the purposes of street crime. ECPAT UK also noted that, whereas previously African child victims had originated from West Africa, now they came from countries throughout the continent.[45]

25. We asked how these people managed to enter the UK. We were told that, as far as women trafficked into the sex trade were concerned, those coming from other EU Member States normally travelled with their own, valid documents; women from Africa arrived mostly with false visas and passports—and some had been involved in the process of obtaining the false documents; and women coming from European countries outside the EU were normally coerced and smuggled into the UK, but some entered the EU lwith their own valid documents only to have them replaced with false documents by the traffickers before onward transmission to the UK.[46] Although some children travelled on their own passports and others were smuggled in without documentation, the vast majority came with false documentation—either a valid passport that belonged to another child or a false passport. Some children travelled on their own, others were accompanied by an adult.[47]

26. However, some of our witnesses uttered a note of warning: it would be rash to assume that all victims of trafficking in the UK are foreign nationals. IN 2008-09, 27 UK-born women were referred to the Poppy Project as victims.[48] Operation Glover, directed against the internal trafficking of teenage girls for sexual exploitation, rescued 33 girls, although it is not clear how many of these were UK-born.[49] Anti-Slavery International is aware of some evidence of internal trafficking within the UK, but they pointed out that, when the Netherlands studied the phenomenon recently, its Government was surprised at how many people were trafficked within the Netherlands.[50] A recent study conducted by ECPAT UK for the Children's Commissioner for Wales found evidence in Wales of the trafficking of British children: the UK was the country of origin of two of the 32 children identified as trafficking victims.[51] No one gave us an estimate of how many UK nationals may be trafficked within the UK.

Scale of the problem

27. According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), about 12.3 million people worldwide are in forced labour, bonded labour, forced child labour or sexual servitude at any given time. Other estimates range between 4 million and 27 million. According to US Government-sponsored research, about 800,000 people are trafficked across national boundaries each year, about 80% of whom are women and girls and 'up to 50%' are children.[52]

28. Neither the NGOs nor government agencies were willing even to guess the total number of trafficking victims in the UK. Chief Constable Maxwell, Programme Director of the UKHTC, one of whose main responsibilities is to obtain accurate information about the scale of the problem, admitted "at the minute I do not think we have got a real handle on what the figures are".[53] The same few statistical studies in specific areas (the Poppy Project's analysis of information provided by victims of sexual exploitation who had been referred to it, Kalayaan's analysis of responses from its migrant domestic worker clients, ECPAT UK's research on child victims in three UK regions) were cited to us time and again. The nearest we came to an overall total was when we added up the result of these studies and suggested to Anti-Slavery International that they implied that there were more than 5000 victims in the UK; Anti-Slavery International concurred.[54]

29. The Poppy Project's account of the difficulties of estimating the scale of sex-trafficking applies to all forms of trafficking:

Firstly, trafficking is illegal and therefore may occur undetected. Secondly, victims of trafficking may be unwilling to disclose that they have been trafficked because they fear retribution from traffickers or are too traumatised by the experience. Thirdly, there has been a lack of cooperation between key agencies that hold relevant data that could be used to calculate the number of women trafficked to the UK.[55]

In estimating the number of trafficking victims in the EU, Europol faces not only these problems but also the fact that Member States and NGOs define trafficking in a variety of ways, thus making available figures not fully comparable.[56] Taking account of the International Labour Organisation's estimates of forced labour, the European Commission suggested that between 100,000 and 800, 000 people are trafficked into the EU every year.[57]

30. The picture currently therefore consists of a number of snapshots, but there is some agreement on two aspects: that the cases known to the authorities represent only a minority of those trafficked (Anti-Slavery International estimated that only about 10-15% of cases were known to the authorities) and that the number of cases discovered was increasing—which might indicate a growth in the trade, or might be just the result of greater success in identifying victims.[58]

Sex industry

31. Currently, there is no agreed estimate of the scale of sex trafficking into the UK.[59] A Home Office study in 2000 estimated that between 142 and 1420 women had been trafficked into the UK in 1998 for sexual exploitation. More recent research cited in the Government's Action Plan on Tackling Human Trafficking estimated 4000 women trafficked into the UK for sexual exploitation in 2003.[60] NGOs such as Anti-Slavery International and the Poppy Project considered this a conservative estimate.[61] In the summer of 2004 the Poppy Project conducted a survey of off-street prostitution (ie those working in flats, massage parlours and saunas) in London, where it found that 80% of such prostitutes were foreign nationals. (This situation is the reverse of five years previously, when it was estimated that 80% of off-street prostitutes were British nationals.[62]) Given that about 8000 women are believed to work in off-street prostitution in London, Poppy's survey gives a figure of about 6,000 foreign nationals, a large percentage of whom the Poppy Project believed to have been trafficked.[63] The Metropolitan Police was loath to accept that there were victims of trafficking in the majority of London brothels, but agreed that there would be victims in a significant percentage of them.[64]

32. Other indicators of the scale of sex trafficking are the results of recent police operations and referrals of potential victims to NGOs for support. In the four months that it ran, Operation Pentameter 1 identified 88 women in forced prostitution, including 12 minors.[65] Operation Pentameter 2 recovered 167 victims.[66] The Poppy Project received referrals of 925 possible victims in the five years between its establishment in March 2003 and March 2008.[67]

33. The UKHTC is exploring ways to obtain better estimates of sex trafficking. When the UKHTC gave evidence to us, it was examining a project undertaken by the South West Regional Intelligence Unit of the police: based on where victims had been found and brothels were known to be and on their professional knowledge of the character of different areas within their patch, the Unit had extrapolated the known statistics to establish a figure for sex trafficking for the whole region. The UKHTC conceded this was still an estimate, but argued that it was more firmly-based than previous estimates; and it was considering whether the model could be transferred to other regions to obtain a national total.[68] The Poppy Project believed that statistics about on- and off-street prostitution could be used to derive estimates of trafficking. It thought more use could also be made of information from Immigration Appeals tribunals and the removal statistics produced by the UKBA.[69]

Domestic servitude

34. The figures for people trafficked into domestic servitude are even more difficult to ascertain, as these people, by definition, work alone or in small groups in residential properties, are scattered and very rarely come to the attention of the UK authorities. They are therefore also unlikely to be aware of help and advice available from NGOs, unless they have some contact with their own community or faith group in the UK or learn of such assistance from other domestic workers by word of mouth. Moreover, although there is a specialist NGO working in this area, Kalayaan, its remit is actually as a workers rights and community organisation for all migrant domestic workers—so, unlike the Poppy Project, it is not solely geared to the support of victims of trafficking.[70]

35. Despite this, Kalayaan's statistics make disturbing reading. In the twelve months from April 2006, Kalayaan registered 340 new migrant domestic worker clients and asked them questions about their experiences. Of these:

  • 69% reported psychological abuse;
  • 24% reported physical abuse;
  • 68% were allowed no time off;
  • 61% were not allowed outside their employer's house without the employer's permission;
  • More than half had no room or private space of their own;
  • 32% had had their passports and other identity documents taken by their employers;
  • 9% reported sexual abuse (though Kalayaan fears this is an under-estimate as workers are ashamed to talk about subjects like this until they know Kalayaan staff better);[71] and
  • (in relation to those who registered in 2006) 41% reported lack of food.[72]

Kalayaan concluded that most of the domestic workers it saw had been trafficked, but many did not see themselves in this light and no public authorities had identified them as such.[73]

36. Kalayaan told us that it did not know how representative these figures were of migrant domestic workers as a whole—presumably, those generally treated well would be unlikely to register with Kalayaan, but, conversely, those most abused would be unlikely ever to learn of Kalayaan's existence.[74] The UK has a special visa regime for migrant domestic workers. 18,206 such visas were issued for calendar year 2006. Many of those covered by these visas would have accompanied their employers to the UK for only a short visit. However, some will have stayed for significantly longer. The 200-300 trafficking victims who registered with Kalayaan in a year may well be only a small proportion of trafficked domestic workers in the UK.

Forced labour

37. Even less is known about those subjected to forced labour in other legal employment sectors. The Gangmasters Licensing Authority has no statistics on the number of trafficking victims in the industries in its remit as its regulatory efforts are directed at the employers and not the workers: it knows how many licences it revoked but not how many workers were affected, let alone what percentage of the workers were victims of traffickers.[75] In 2006 Anti-Slavery International published the results of a six-month research project into how migrants were trafficked into forced labour and what sectors were affected; it was not a quantitative study. The study identified 27 people as having been trafficked for forced labour in the UK. More than one person had been working in each of the following sectors: agriculture, construction, food processing and packaging, care/nursing, and the restaurant trade.[76] None of these people had been identified as trafficking victims before Anti-Slavery International's project, and in the majority of cases there was no information about what happened to them subsequently.[77]

Child trafficking

38. In 2006 ECPAT UK's research covering three regions of the UK found 80 reported cases of known or suspected child trafficking. 28% of these children were under 16 years old.[78] CEOP's scoping study for the Government[79]—which was based on information held by the statutory services and NGOs—identified 330 possible victims who had been in contact with those services over an 18 month period. CEOP considered that in just over 30% of these cases there was a high probability that the child had been trafficked. Building on this, CEOP's data for the 2008 Strategic Threat Assessment also showed 330 possible child victims, but this time over a 12 month period and, because the quality of the data was better, it was believed there was a strong probability of trafficking in 53% of the cases.[80] From past research and interviews with local authorities, ECPAT UK believes a very conservative estimate would be "at any given time a minimum of 600 children, known or suspected of being trafficked, will be in the asylum system or will have been in the asylum system before going missing from local authority care". ECPAT UK points out that this is 10% of the Home Office's figure of 6,000 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in the system.[81]

39. Again, it is very unlikely that these figures represent anything more than a minority of cases of trafficked children. They do not, for example, take into account children accompanied by an adult when entering the UK who are then subject to abuse by that adult or someone else to whom they are handed. Europol told us that it had seen a number of cases where gangs had trafficked large numbers of people into the EU, including one case where more than 1,000 children had been brought into the EU for labour exploitation or criminal activities.[82] It is reasonable to believe that a significant proportion of those brought into the EU would, at some time or another, enter the UK.

Overview

40. Trafficking is a hidden crime: its victims cannot or dare not make themselves known to the authorities (for fear of retaliation or because they are or think themselves to be illegal immigrants) and, as we discuss later,[83] some do not even realise that they are victims. They are concealed by physical isolation or language or cultural barriers, and may be operating under false identities. It is therefore not surprising—though it is frustrating—that no one was able to give us even a rough estimate of the scale of trafficking in the UK.

41. The UKHTC told us that it was "well advanced on a multi-agency programme of assessment work around various areas", and it was working with existing researchers at universities and would shortly be employing a full-time researcher itself to co-ordinate data gathering and analysis.[84] The Home Office Minister, Mr Alan Campbell, explained that his department was trying to obtain an overall picture of the scale of trafficking through a three strand approach: it was funding work on organised crime by ten police intelligence units round the country, and the role of Human Trafficking in organised crime would be examined within that; the UKHTC was analysing the data obtained from Operation Pentameter 2; and SOCA and CEOP were providing data from their work. He expected that these three strands would come together some time in 2009 to provide a better assessment of the scale of the problem.[85] However, victim support organisations have been calling for better data on the scale of trafficking for years, and we had understood that production of such data (from a variety of sources) was one of the main tasks for which the UKHTC was established. Without reasonable estimates of the scale of the problem, it is difficult to raise public awareness and concern and to engage the variety of professionals who would be able to play a part in identifying possible victims. It also makes it impossible to gauge what support services are needed for victims.

42. We are pleased that progress is finally being made, but are disappointed it has not been faster. We look forward to seeing the results of the Minister's three-pronged approach later this year.

43. Several of the NGOs that gave evidence to us urged the establishment of an Independent National Rapporteur with statutory power to request information from the police, the immigration authorities, social services and NGOs and to report to Parliament. Its task would be purely that of data collection and analysis: it would have no operational or policy-making responsibilities. The UKHTC, they felt, was not sufficiently independent of either the police or the Government to fulfil this role.[86] Given the UKHTC's apparent difficulty in making progress with data collection so far, this idea has its attractions. However, this would also add yet another organisation to the multitude involved in analysing and combating trafficking. An alternative would be to ensure that the UKHTC is properly resourced for the work of data collection, which should be given a high priority as it will form the basis of a proper assessment of the resources needed to tackle human trafficking and support victims.


10   UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in persons Back

11   Q 19; see also Ev 97, para 3.14 Back

12   The Poppy Project has helped German and Swiss women trafficked for sexual exploitation, for example: Q 52 Back

13   Ev 110, para 2.1 Back

14   Qq 12-13 (Anti-Slavery International) and 402 (CEOP) Back

15   Q 328 Back

16   See paragraph 58 below. Back

17   Q 402 Back

18   Q 328 and Ev 271, para 8 Back

19   Ev 104, para 2 Back

20   Ev 96, para 3.4 (Anti-Slavery International) Back

21   Ibid. and Q 6  Back

22   See, for example, Qq 24 (Anti-Slavery International) and 224 (UKHTC) and Ev 194, para 23 (Home Office) Back

23   In the UK context, debt bondage usually involves making people work for little or no payment in order to discharge the cost of getting them to the UK, or to pay fees for finding employment or for non-existent taxes or charges supposedly levied by the UK government. Back

24   Qq 25 and 29 and Ev 96, paras 3.8-3.9 (Anti-Slavery International) and Ev 122- 123 (Kalayaan) Back

25   Q 180 Back

26   Q 57 Back

27   Qq 9-10 (Anti-Slavery International)` Back

28   Q 56 Back

29   Qq 56 and 58 (Poppy Project) Back

30   Q 153 Back

31   In three police force areas, the Authority is the 'first responder' alongside the police to suspected incidents of labour trafficking: Q 246 (UKHTC) Back

32   Q 428 (Metropolitan Police) Back

33   Q 11 and Ev 96, para 3.8 (Anti-Slavery International) Back

34   Ev 260  Back

35   Ev 104, para 1 See also Ev 109, para 7 (UNICEF) and EV 205, paras 3.4-4.1 (Refugee Council) Back

36   Qq 19 (Anti-Slavery International) and 53 (Poppy Project), Ev 96, para 3.8 (Anti-Slavery International), Ev 156, para 5.3 (Poppy Project) According to the Home Office, Chinese victims typically are forced into prostitution to repay the 'cost' of smuggling them to the UK: Ev 195, para 27  Back

37   Ev 156, para 5.3 (Poppy Project) and Ev 195, para 26 (Home Office) Back

38   Q 274 (Misha Glenny) Back

39   Q 102 (ECPAT) Back

40   Q 11 Back

41   Qq 11 and 15; see also Ev 97, para 3.7 Back

42   Qq 52 (Poppy Project), 120 and 124 (GLA) The GLA told us that 82% of agricultural gangmasters employ at least some Poles, a minority employ solely UK nationals: Q 120 Back

43   Ev 104, para 2 Back

44   See paragraphs 147 and 149 below below Back

45   Qq 52 (Poppy Project) and 84 (ECPAT) and Ev 104, paras 2 and 3 (ECPAT) Back

46   Q 53 and Ev 257, para 2.3 (Poppy Project)  Back

47   Qq 103-104 (ECPAT) Back

48   Ev 257, table Back

49   Ev 203, para 94 Back

50   Q 18 Back

51   Bordering on Concern: Child Trafficking in Wales, March 2009 Back

52   All figures in this paragraph are cited in US State Department Trafficking in Persons Report 2008, Introduction Back

53   Q 257 Back

54   Qq 5-7 Back

55   Ev 153, para 1.2 Back

56   Q 325 According to UNICEF, this lack of consistency presents a particular problem in identifying child victims: Ev 110, para 19 Back

57   Q 345 Back

58   Qq 1 (Anti-Slavery International), 217 (UKHTC) and 325 (Europol) Back

59   Ev 153 (Poppy Project) Back

60   p14 Back

61   Q 2 (Anti-Slavery International) Back

62   Q 73 (Poppy Project) Back

63   Q 50 and Ev 153, para 1.5 cf also the Salvation Army's study of the situation in the London Borough of Croydon: Ev 139, paras 8-9 Back

64   Q 427 Back

65   Ev 95, para 2.1 (Anti-Slavery international) Back

66   Home Office Press Notice, 'Government ratifies European Convention against human trafficking', 17 December 2008. See paragraph 79 below for an account of Operations Pentameter 1 and 2.  Back

67   Q 50 Back

68   Qq 217 and 258 Back

69   Ev 153, para 1.5 Back

70   Q 157 Back

71   Ev 118, para 7 These figures are comparable with those given by Kalayaan in relation to calendar year 2006: see Supplementary Memorandum, Ev 122 Back

72   Ev 122 Back

73   Q 157 Back

74   Q 151 and Ev 118, para 8 Back

75   Qq 122-123 Back

76   Ev 96, para 3.4 and Q1 Back

77   Ev 97, para 3.16 Back

78   Missing Out: A Study of Child Trafficking in the North-West, North-East and West Midlands, p7 Back

79   A Scoping Project on Child Trafficking in the UK, Aarti Kapoor, June 2007 Back

80   Q 358 Back

81   Ev 106, para 15 Back

82   Q 325 Back

83   Paragraphs x-y Back

84   Q 257 Back

85   Qq 525-526 Back

86   Ev 153, para 1.6 (Poppy Project); Qq 113 and 115 and Ev 105, paras 6-8 (ECPAT); Ev 271 (Anti-Slavery International); Ev 250, para 6 (STOP THE TRAFFIK) ECPAT's damning conclusion was: "This work is not being carried out by the UKHTC so [a National Rapporteur] would not duplicate current arrangements": Ev 262, para 10. Back


 
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