he submission on access to justice and effective remedies for victims of trafficking in human beings in the UK to the Group of Experts on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings (GRETA) on the implementation of the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings. The submission is to inform GRETA’s 3rd round evaluation of the UK and has been compiled by the Anti-Trafficking Monitoring Group (‘ATMG’), a coalition of twelve UK-based anti-trafficking organisations coordinated and chaired by Anti-Slavery International, from content submitted by ATMG members and ten other UK based organisations.
Although progress has been made by the UK in implementing the Council of Europe Convention, there is more to be done if the UK is to achieve its desired status as a world-leader in addressing human trafficking. The austerity cuts, which resulted in a systematic lack of funding for trafficking response programmes and prevented many trafficking survivors from obtaining specialist legal advice, and a tension between the implementation of anti-trafficking and immigration policies, which has undermined the UK’s ability to identify and support survivors, are amongst the biggest obstacles for the UK’s further progress.