A new private members bill to assist victims of Human Trafficking is due to have its second reading debate in the House of Lords on 25th November.
The bill, Human Trafficking (Further Provisions and Support for Victims) Bill (covering the UK) has been tabled by Lord McColl of Dulwich. The bill is in line with the EU Directive on Human Trafficking but has more robust provisions e.g. in respect of non prosecution of victims of human trafficking.
We would be grateful if you would contact the Peers (particularly any Peers that you know) asking them to attend the second reading debate and support the bill. A list of arguments in favour of the bill along with a list of peers can be found at: click here
For the first time in my life I am going to get sponsored to exercise – as many of you will know – exercise does not come naturally to me but I am doing it so that we can rescue more people from slavery.
I haven’t been on a bike for 15 years – yes that 1……5! but I have full confidence that with your support and a good seat and some chamois glide (I hear that works like a treat!) together – we can be the UK solution to the UK problem.
Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate – I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.
GOVERNMENT ISSUES NEW STRATEGY ON HUMAN TRAFFICKING
The government brought out their long awaited new human trafficking strategy on 19th July 2011. The strategy is four fold:
Improving victim care arrangements
Enhanced ability to act early before the harm has reached the UK
Smarter multi-agency cooperation at the border
Better coordination of our law enforcement efforts within the UK
However the strategy has been criticised for overly focusing on immigration rather than the detection, protection and aftercare of victims. Human trafficking should always be seen first and foremost as a human rights violation. Also although the government has pledged to opt into the EU Directive on Human Trafficking the strategy fails to deal with two major aspects of this directive, namely a rapporteur and child guardianship.
Victim Identification
Hope for Justice welcomes the government’s commitment to improving victim identification including review and auditing of decisions within the National Referral Mechanism along with a second decision making process independent of immigration. Independent review is needed given a disproportionate number of illegal immigrants receiving negative decisions.
However, greater emphasis needs to be placed on training all front line agencies on identification and the laws relating to human trafficking. Without training at this level, victims will not be identified in the first place and even when identified, many agencies, including government agencies, will remain unaware of the law, practice and procedures designed to protect victims. Currently failure to identify by key agencies has lead to victims being prosecuted for offences committed whilst trafficked and/or deported.
Victim Care
Despite improvement of victim care being one of the key areas of the strategy it only accounts for one page in the strategy document.
Hope for Justice is gravely concerned that the government strategy provides no extra funding or support to child trafficking victims outside the existing child services framework despite the fact that many child trafficking victims have complex needs. The UK’s current inability to protect and support children is particularly borne out by the large numbers of unaccompanied migrant children identified as trafficked or potentially trafficked who go missing from local authority care. (55% in a CEOP Report). Also worryingly a recent CEOP report of June 2011 identified 2083 victims of child sexual exploitation, many of these victims internally trafficked. The growing problem of internal trafficking of UK children appears missing from the plan in terms of prevention, prosecution and aftercare.
The Trafficking in Persons Report as early as 2009 raised serious concerns about the UK’s ability to protect child victims of trafficking and called for an “expansion of existing facilities to meet the needs of all trafficking victims including specialist care for children.” These concerns are in no way mitigated by the new policy.
Enhanced Ability to Act Early
Hope for Justice welcomes greater focus on cross border cooperation in respect of investigations and prosecutions as invariably traffickers commit there crimes in multiple jurisdictions. Although it is important to target traffickers early, it is also important to ensure that traffickers are investigated and prosecutions commenced. Without accountability through criminal prosecution traffickers will merely continue their trade.
Smarter Action at the Border
Hope for Justice does identify the need for intelligence to be joined up and shared amongst relevant agencies. However the strategy appears to focus heavily on border control/illegal immigration for instance an element of the strategy points to refusing visas to suspected traffickers and their victims. However many traffickers and victims enter the country legally and are not required to have a visa.
Better Coordination of Law Enforcement Efforts within the UK
Currently prosecution rates remain low, for instance, the government recorded in 2009 just 31 convictions for trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation and 2 for trafficking for the purposes of forced labour. The strategy identifies (paragraph 82) that offenders still perceived trafficking as a low risk crime. Shockingly human trafficking only accounts for 0.5% of the recovered assets and finances from criminals. Prosecutions , high sentences coupled with targeting criminal profits are integral to seeing the UK become a hostile environment for traffickers.
I LOVE watching people, I can’t help it, not in a stalker way… In a perfectly normal watching people way.
There’s nothing better than seeing people in their sweet spot… Where they were destine to be.
I remember a time when I was at college, ( the royal northern college of music ) I was training to be an opera singer ( as you do!!). I used to LOVE being on stage, the pomp and circumstance of it all, It was brilliant!!
I need to explain something’s about opera, generally the main role is sung by the tenor ( a man with a high voice), now I wasn’t a tenor I was a bass baritone. Bass baritones often play the role of the old man at the back of the stage, who normally get killed off in the first act…. And IF they are very lucky get to come back from the dead in act 345 (ok I’m exaggerating!!!).
I distinctly remember one day, being at the back of the stage, before my dying scene, thinking…. WHY can’t I be a tenor, I’m better than them, I could wipe the floor with them…. SO… I went back to my room and decided to be a tenor…
I lock my self in my room, got my casio keyboard out!!! Got out my copy nessun dorma….
It began so well, as the aria went on a got more confident, maybe just maybe my dream could come true… Maybe I could BE a tenor… Stood right at the front of the stage will all my fans throwing roses at me….
I kept on going… And to be fair it was going well until I hit… The bit… You know the bit….
Vincerò…..Vincerò…… VIIIIIIIINNNNNNcero well my friends I’m not going to lie to you… It wasn’t good.
Just then. I heard a knock on my door. ( it was my flat mate and fellow opera singer)
Ben, are you ok? He asked
I didn’t answer
Ben, I don’t know how to say this….. But your NOT a tenor …….your a BASS baritone.
I know it sounds obvious… But what a revelation it was…. How many of us in life are trying to be a tenor when we are a bass baritone… If we are ever going to change the world we need to be who we are… Who we were destined to BE..
Here’s an a example of what I mean… Gareth Brocklebank heard about the work of Hope for Justice at an event I was speaking at and decided he would do what he could to fight human trafficking… He would raise money… He KNEW that he couldn’t be an investigator or a lawyer or social worker… But what he could do was raise money for the RESCUE mission of Hope for Justice, by cycling 130 miles with a whole group of people from one of our partner churches GRAND UNION VINEYARD !! I LOVE IT!!!!
Thank you Gareth for using YOUR skills to fund The rescue mission of Hope for Justice….