Slavery resources

The Anti-Trafficking Monitoring Group (ATMG) has created an Alternative Modern Slavery Bill, to assist in the scrutiny and strengthening of the government’s Modern Slavery Bill currently before the Parliament. At present, the Modern Slavery Bill drafted by the government lacks the necessary provisions to successfully prevent and prosecute modern slavery offences, and protect the victims of these crimes. The provisions contained within this Alternative Bill are those which the ATMG feel are vital for inclusion in UK anti-slavery legislation to ensure it is robust, world-leading and victim-focused. These include a range of offences to capture all forms of modern slavery; comprehensive victim protection measures, including a defence for those who have been forced to commit crimes and a statutory National Referral Mechanism; an Anti-Slavery Commissioner role which has strong powers and a clear independence; and a provision to tackle slavery in supply chains.

Anti-Trafficking Monitoring Group.
The report analyses anti-slavery legislation across the UK and highlights significant differences in a number of key areas across the three jurisdictions. In particular the research emphasises how the Modern Slavery Act falls behind the legislation in Scotland and Northern Ireland on victim protection measures. It also points out that there is no monitoring framework in place to oversee the implementation of all three Acts across the UK, including data collection and analysis. As with all of the Group’s reports, the research makes recommendations as to improvements in the UK’s anti-trafficking policy and practice.

Anti-Trafficking Monitoring Group.
This report analyses how the victims of trafficking who are pregnant or have children are ‘systematically overlooked’ in the UK’s anti-trafficking response. It identifies that support to meet this group’s special needs, such as access to safe and appropriate accommodation, childcare, access to specialist healthcare and support for their children, is not systematically provided. Despite pregnancy and parenthood having an often profound impact on the physical and psychological well-being of trafficking victims, the government’s response to trafficking fails to recognise these individuals as being particularly vulnerable.

In March 2015 the Minister for Modern Slavery, Karen Bradley, tasked James Ewins QC to undertake an independent review of the Overseas Domestic Worker (ODW) visa. The review includes consideration of:

• Whether the arrangements for issuing ODW Visas are effective in protecting potential victims from abuse
• Whether there is any evidence that the terms of the Visa, including the link to the specified employer, have led to the trafficking or slavery of domestic workers
• Whether the policies or processes for (i) identifying and (ii) providing support to victims of modern slavery amongst those who entered the country on an ODW visa are effective
• Whether the policies and processes for pursuing those accused of perpetrating modern slavery offences against those on an Overseas Domestic Workers Visa are effective
• The need to maintain the integrity of the immigration system.

The UK Government has recently released the report on the implementation of the European Union Trafficking Directive (EU/2011/36) by the UK. The Anti-Trafficking Monitoring Group, which was set up to monitor the implementation of the Directive as well as the Council of Europe Convention on Trafficking in Human Beings, has been critical of the Government’s findings.

The following briefings were supported by the Anti Trafficking Monitoring Group shared with parliamentarians to improve the Modern Slavery Bill going through the parliament.

• A briefing on the Independent Anti-Slavery Comissioner; to welcome a government amendment which allows the Commissioner to oversee victim support and assistance, but continue to call for the role to have greater independence from the government and more direct access to Parliament.
• A briefing on victim protection (Clause 49) to support an amendment to create a duty on the State to provide physical, psychological and social recovery to victims, and a separate amendment to provide for the statutory establishment of the National Referral Mechanism (NRM).
• A briefing to call for the inclusion of a separate child exploitation offence to address the potential prosecution gaps that may result from the existing offences.
• A briefing to welcome the government’s amendments to clause 48 which give child trafficking advocates full legal powers and to seek assurance from the Minister that the provision of  advocates will not be dependent on a positive NRM decision.
• A briefing in support of an amendment to reinstate protections for Overseas Domestic Workers (ODWs), to allow them to change employer, renew their visa and be entitled to a 3-month temporary visa to find an alternative place of (domestic) work if they leave an abusive employment situation.
• A briefing which calls for the statutory defence to be strengthened to ensure it works effectively for children, specifically by removing the ‘Reasonable Person Test’.
• A briefing in support of an amendment to Clause 47 to ensure that legal aid could be provided to a person before an application had been made to the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) competent authority or before the competent authority had reached its NRM decision.

Anti-Trafficking Monitoring Group.
The Anti-Trafficking Monitoring Group has created proposals for a revised National Referral Mechanism (NRM), one for adults and a separate one for children, to assist the Home Office in its ongoing review of the current system. The NRM is the process through which victims of trafficking are formally identified and supported and has been in place in the UK since 2009. After it was established, the ATMG has raised concerns about the way in which it operates and has highlighted these in its research reports. The proposed models address these issues and provide workable solutions to them.

Anti-Trafficking Monitoring Group.
Fourth report in the ATMG series analyses the UK’s response to trafficking four years on from the Council Of Europe anti-trafficking convention coming into force. Whilst there has been a number of improvement in the government’s response to trafficking through the National Referral Mechanism (NRM), the system fails to systematically identify, assist and protect victims of trafficking. The report highlights major problems of the UK’s system, especially looking at victims of trafficking through context of their immigration status, causing the decision making to be unfair and discriminatory.

Anti-Trafficking Monitoring Group
This report examines the effectiveness of the UK’s Criminal Justice System’s (CJS) response to trafficking in terms of law, policy and practice. The report found that, in spite of localised examples of good practice, the CJS fails to systematically prosecute traffickers and protect victims’ rights. Despite the Government’s claims to make the UK a “hostile environment” for traffickers, human trafficking is not a policing priority.