8 Effectiveness of UKHTC
189. UKHTC
has been in existence for only three years and, as many of our
witnesses commented, these are still early days to pass judgement
on its effectiveness. However, the UK Action Plan placed a huge
emphasis on UKHTC's role as a multi-agency body, the central repository
of all data on human trafficking, offering strategic and operational
support and a 24/7 support line for advice, including on the care
of victims. It is therefore disappointing that so many of our
witnesses suggested it was not really multi-agency, being dominated
by the police and UKBA; that it was not doing much work to produce
the badly-needed estimates of the scale of trafficking; that it
was not fully aware of the needs and rights of child victims;
and that recent operations and individual cases had shown a lack
of clarity in responsibilities and a failure to give useful advice
on the support available for suspected victims. UKHTC has, however,
worked hard on awareness-raising and training of the police and
immigration officials, has run the public 'Blue Blindfold' campaign,
has widened the focus to labour exploitation as well as sexual
exploitation and has successfully involved a number of NGOs in
training and in anti-trafficking operations. It is probably unrealistic
to expect too much of so young an organisation which, moreover,
has only about 30 staff. However, we recommend that the Government
and the leadership of UKHTC look carefully at the criticisms of
the organisation made by our witnesses to see whether UKHTC needs
to rebalance its efforts. We ask the Government to report progress
made to us by the end of March 2010.
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