Meg Munn MP

TRAFFICKING IN WOMEN

I congratulate the European Women’s Lobby for taking the initiative to hold this an event. I’m aware of your long-standing interest in this area through your Policy Action Centre on Violence Against Women, and of the activities of people here today, such as Professor Liz Kelly, who have been working for some time raising awareness of issues arising from the trafficking of women for sexual exploitation.

Following the recent police raid on a Birmingham massage parlour I was struck by the media coverage, how it highlighted some of the important issues. But the coverage was only fleeting and quickly disappeared from view. Awareness of the problems may have grown slightly, but the need remains to raise substantially the levels of understanding among the general public and professionals about trafficking for sexual exploitation.

We know of the range of routes bringing these women into sexual exploitation in the UK.

Fictitious advertisements in the girls’ countries of origin for jobs as au pairs for which the “agency” “supplies” passports and other documentation.

Fictitious advertisements for jobs in the legalized sex industry.

Fictitious advertisements for marriages.

Kidnapping in countries of origin, where whole regions are still devastated by war and the collapse of economic and social infrastructures that follows.

Girls sold by their families – who have been known to re-sell them if they return.

Grooming of adolescent girls in countries of origin by so called “boyfriends” who are part of the trafficking network.

Diversion by pimps of females already working in the legal sex industry.

Women locked into paying off serial debt bondage.

Once in the hands of their so-called “minders” the women face an appalling experience. This is the story of one woman:

She was trafficked into prostitution into Italy and then the UK and was threatened and verbally abused throughout the journeys. She was told stories of other women being murdered, which she believed, and was threatened with a gun and with death herself. While in Italy she saw evidence of torture on other trafficked women’s bodies. While in the UK she saw her pimp stab another trafficked victim.

These trafficked and sexually exploited young women are kept in conditions akin to slavery. While they are kept captive in these brothels or houses there are no means of escape - as witnessed with the electrified perimeter fence at the Birmingham massage parlour.

The raid on that particular parlour arose from a tip-off from a punter and not an escapee. So the punter was on the side of the Angels? In this case maybe so. But serious attention has to be given to the ‘demand’ side of this particular industry. Talking to people working with trafficked women it’s not unusual to hear the view that if the demand did not exist here in the UK, the volume of trafficking would be greatly reduced.

There is a role for education in many areas:

With children (we should challenge perceptions - is it acceptable for women to be treated in this way?);

In the wider community (the neighbours of the Birmingham parlour seemed to have spotted signs of something not quite right);

With law enforcement professionals;

With immigration authorities; and

With health and social work professionals.

The stories from the women and young girls are horrifying. We owe it to the women to respond. Their needs are inevitably complex and we will only be able to meet them if we have available the range of services that can be tailored to the individual victim’s needs and crucially if the agencies involved can work together successfully.

Women will have health needs – physical and psychological. They need to feel safely housed. If these needs aren’t met women are unlikely to feel able to give an account of their experiences to the police. This is crucial if we are to bring the traffickers to justice.

Providing for the victim and gathering evidence for prosecution, are inextricably linked and if we do better on the one side then we may be able to move more effectively on the other.

We must also look to the longer term needs of victims as to how they can pick up their life again whether in this country or in their home country.

Here in Britain the Government has been working with Eaves Housing and its POPPY project since 2003 to test and evaluate a model of targeted accommodation and support for adult victims who have been trafficked into prostitution in the UK.

To date it has supported over 90 women.

The Government have recently extended the existing funding agreement until March 2006 - safeguarding current provision pending detailed consideration of evaluation findings.

Ministers are now looking in detail at the evaluation findings and recommendations and will take decisions about the future of the Scheme in due course.

This leads me to talk more widely about the UK Government strategy against trafficking.

We have in place a comprehensive, multi-faceted approach on human trafficking. It encompasses legislation, enforcement, international co-operation and support for victims.

We have already introduced legislation to comprehensively criminalise trafficking. The Sexual Offences Act 2003 introduced wide-ranging offences covering trafficking into, out of or within the UK for any form of sexual offence, which carry a 14-year maximum penalty.

A new offence, of 'trafficking for exploitation', which includes trafficking for forced labour and the removal of organs, is included in the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc.) Act 2004. This also carries a heavy 14-year maximum penalty.

A word now about our Prostitution Review.

The Government plans to publish a summary of the responses to the prostitution review in the next few months.

This document will also set out a coordinated strategy for prostitution based on the responses to the review and evidence of good practice.

A key issue for the strategy will be to challenge attitudes about prostitution – given the violence and exploitation so often associated with prostitution we cannot continue to accept the mantra that it is ‘the worlds oldest profession’ and here to stay.

We owe it to all those damaged by prostitution to do all we can to disrupt the market – and that includes focusing on those who create the demand for that market.

In March 2000 a multi-agency government taskforce 'Reflex', was set up to deal with organised immigration crime.

In 2004/5 Reflex conducted 343 operations during 04/05 which resulted in 1456 arrests.

Between April 2004 and April 2005 Reflex resulted in 149 disruptions of organised immigration crime groups. This figure includes those involved in human trafficking as well as people smuggling and related activities.

Through Reflex we have established a network of overseas immigration liaison officers.

To be truly effective, the Government has recognised that it must also tackle human trafficking at source.

There are a range of schemes in source countries, involving FCO and DfID, aimed at raising awareness of trafficking, and we are also involved in capacity building work in source and transit countries.

We saw just this week the breaking-up of a large-scale people-smuggling ring with 10 arrests. This strong intervention will be helped with the national action plan we’re developing to combat human trafficking.

The plan will take an end-to-end approach to tackling trafficking and will cover: international co-operation; investigation, law enforcement and prosecution; prevention (including demand reduction); victim support, and protection.

It is intended that the UK action plan should cover all forms of trafficking in human beings, in particular: trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation; trafficking for the purpose of labour exploitation, and child trafficking (e.g. for the purpose of domestic servitude/benefit fraud).

We intend to consult again widely on the draft plan and this is expected to be launched next month.

My colleague Paul Goggins recently held a meeting with key Non-Governmental Organisations stakeholders where he outlined the Government’s strategy on human trafficking. Some of you attended that meeting. I understand that it was an extremely informative and productive meeting and provided a useful forum for exchange of views.

We need to develop further this approach to tackling this problem - through discussion, collaboration, sharing of views and information. My role as Minister for Women enables me to work across different Government Departments and so I have a key role to play.

I know there is much support for the UK to sign the recent Council of Europe Convention on trafficking. We have not yet made a decision on signature. We are considering how we might implement the Convention safely and fully without undermining our ability to control our borders and guard against abuse.

I acknowledge also the support for reflection periods and short-term residence permits for trafficking victims. We have reservations about these provisions but do not disagree with the underlying principles. The POPPY Scheme already has a reflection delay, during which victims can start to recover and make informed decisions about their future. We also have a flexible, discretionary immigration system which enables us to hold off removal action or grant individual victims a temporary period of stay if warranted by their case. Nevertheless, we continue to consider these issues.

We are working hard to fully consider all implications. But in the meantime I ask you to continue to look for the practical ways to help make the important connections across government and its agencies. We all need to learn and understand better what the trafficking of people entails. It is the work that we do together and the actions that we take which will impact on these horrific crimes.

I will certainly draw upon the conclusions from this seminar as part of my role of ensuring that women’s interests are taken into account as part of high-level discussions. They will help in developing thinking about how best to tackle not only trafficking for sexual exploitation but also violence against women more broadly.