Memorandum submitted by the Church of
Scotland Guild
INTRODUCTION
The Church of Scotland Guild is a component
part of the Church of Scotland and, as such, reports to the General
Assembly of that Church. For almost a decade the Guild has been
bringing the issue of human trafficking before the Assembly and
trying to raise awareness of this international crime and human
rights abuse within and beyond the church.
In 2007 the bicentenary commemoration of the
Abolition of the Slave Trade Act, together with pressure from
our partner churches in Africa, Asia and Europe, gave fresh impetus
to these efforts and a resource pack for use by local Church groups
was produced under the title "To be silent is to be unfaithful".
Our efforts therefore, have largely been in
terms of awareness raising and campaigning for government action
and resourcing of measures to address this evil trade. We have
done this alongside others, notably Amnesty, the Ecumenical Forum
of European Christian Women, Churches Alert to Sex Trafficking
Across Europe (CHASTE) and others.
We wish to make the following comments:
— Estimating scale and type of activity.
The first difficulty this presents is arriving
at agreement on a definition of human trafficking—the UN
definition is comprehensive and, while including instances less
common in the UK, eg exploitation of people for the removal of
organs, is a helpful one.
Understanding what trafficking is then leads
to the difficulty of identifying it in a context which is, by
its nature, clandestine, and where victims collude, through fear
of reprisals for themselves and their families, in the secrecy
and silence.
We are left with estimates and with stories from
those who have been involved—these may include escaped victims,
clients who suspect sex workers have been trafficked, reformed
perpetrators. Personal stories have to be checked out, but they
should not be dismissed as anecdotal and therefore suspect.
Key factors to be taken into account are:
— UN estimates of global numbers
involved and the resulting financial turnover (700,000 trafficked
annually for a turnover of £4 billion).
— Poppy project's research into
the origins of women in the off-street sex industry in UK cities
(79% of those working in London not from UK).
— Frequency of use reflecting
extent of abuse—Glasgow's multi-agency, Trafficking Awareness
Raising Alliance (TARA) suggests one trafficked woman "earns"
£104.000 in 18 months through enforced prostitution.
— The difficulty of finding those who
have been trafficked but have no right to remain in UK, including
requirements imposed by Council of Europe Convention on Combating
Human trafficking.
The requirements imposed by the Council of Europe's
Convention should be welcomed. These place victims of trafficking
firmly in the area of human rights as opposed to the area of immigration
legislation. Fears were expressed that ratification of the Convention
would lead to "pull factors" encouraging people to seek
admission to UK by presenting themselves as victims of trafficking.
The Joint House of Commons and House of Lords Committee on Human
Rights considered this at length and concluded in October 2006
that there was little realistic likelihood of this becoming the
case. The Convention's requirements with regard to the period
of reflection and recovery do present a challenge in terms of
identifying and funding provision of suitable accommodation and
support services. This is a challenge which must be met, nevertheless.
Voluntary sector provision of safe accommodation (Salvation Army,
Medaille Trust) must be matched by an extension of govt funding
for projects (eg Poppy). Support from other organisations, eg
churches, should be sought, particularly in terms of redundant
buildings which might be of use as places of safety. Other groups
may have skills, eg in counselling and recovery which might be
channelled to this work.
— Co-operation within the EU and control
of EU's external frontiers.
We have no real experience here, but do know
that non-governmental agencies have a contribution to make. For
example, the OSCE advises member states on trafficking legislation
and engages with a range of agencies in any given country. NGOs
are often the first point of contact for people seeking help—they
enjoy a level of trust not given to "the authorities".
They will also have no direct obligation to involve victims in
legal proceedings. Organisations like AIDRom (Romania) have established
a network across Eastern Europe for the gathering and sharing
of information across borders.
— Relations with transit and source
countries, and the role of Interpol and the UN Office on drugs
and crime.
When the Church of Scotland held a consultation
with all its partner churches worldwide in May 2005, the single
most frequently mentioned challenge facing them in their own countries
was human trafficking. Their plea was that we, as a receiving
country, play our part in addressing the problem which they experienced
largely as countries of origin or transit.
Partner churches in Africa, India, the Caribbean
all shared stories of the trafficking industry and signalled the
crucial factor of poverty as a driver of the trade. Whether it
is people deceived into responding to false promises of a better
economic lifestyle elsewhere, or parents knowingly handing over
one child in order to lessen the burden of feeding the remainder,
poverty is the significant factor. Desperate people will be driven
to take risks, and do things, they would never otherwise consider.
— Effectiveness of the co-ordination
between public authorities in the UK (Home Office FCO, police
forces, SOCA, Border and Immigration Agency, social services).
The setting up of the UK Human Trafficking Centre
has been very welcome, as has the dedication of resources to enable
initiatives such as the Pentameter and Pentameter 2 police actions.
The identifying of a dedicated officer in every force for trafficking
issues is also welcome, but the existence of such posts should
be more widely communicated. The national co-operation and co-ordination
of police and immigration officials is vital. In Scotland the
need to ensure that those aspects of the anti-trafficking effort
which are devolved, and those which remain reserved to Westminster,
are complementary and effective is crucial.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
The 2007 General Assembly of the Church of Scotland
passed a motion urging the Guild "to work as far as possible
with appropriate Councils and Presbyteries to investigate methods
of alerting brothel clients to the evils of human trafficking
and to communicate these widely through their networks."
In our attempts to fulfil this duty, it has
emerged that a key issue for exploration and debate is the link
between prostitution and trafficking of people for the purposes
of the sex industry. It is our view that these must be tackled
together. The whole culture of "pay as you go" sex needs
to be challenged if the government is serious about addressing
the climate in which abuse is able to flourish. Wherever UK legislation
settles on the spectrum between the Swedish and the Dutch approaches,
the debate needs to take account of the demand for sex and the
presumed right to its availability.
13 February 2008
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