Human Trafficking

Lord Dubs Excerpts

Thursday 14th October 2010 Lords Chamber

[Lord Dubs]

My Lords, I congratulate my noble friend Lady Massey on having made this debate possible. I want to say a little about the nature of the problem and what can be done about it and to refer briefly, as others have, to trafficked children.

It is important to distinguish between people smuggling and people trafficking. The better an understanding we have of the problem, the better we can tackle it. Smuggling is clearly an activity where the person being smuggled wants to be smuggled, whereas trafficking involves force, violence, deception, intimidation and perhaps coercion. Indeed, a person might start their journey to this country being smuggled and then be trafficked on arrival, so it is quite a complicated problem.

The figures are very hard to come by. We are probably dealing with the tip of an iceberg when we talk about, say, 5,000 people trafficked into this country. Estimates are hard to get. It is clear that the majority of the victims are women and children and it is clear that it is an extremely lucrative activity for those engaged in it. The Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings came into force in April 2009 and it helped by including provisions to identify victims and to bring more cases to court.

Child trafficking is the most appalling aspect of the whole issue that we are debating. It has already been said that it includes exploitation in terms of domestic servitude, helping with cannabis farms, street crime and pickpocketing. It also includes sexual exploitation, child abuse, benefit fraud, illegal adoption and even forced marriage.

UNICEF has put out some positive statements. It says clearly that the victims of trafficking should not be punished for illegal entry or stay in the European Union or for forced involvement in illegal activities, but that, as victims, they are entitled to protection, assistance and compensation. That should surely be the basis on which we approach these unfortunate people. As regards children, it is absolutely clear that the needs of the child must come first and that any intervention should be based primarily not on concerns about immigration status but on the needs of the child and what can be done to secure his or her well-being.

I understand from various figures that about half the people trafficked into western and central Europe come from the Balkans or former Soviet Union countries, although I also understand that a disproportionately large number of children may be coming from Vietnam. I was in Moldova a year or so ago, where I met people from a number of NGOs. They were all concerned about trafficking—either about informing and warning local people of the dangers of trafficking or about helping those who had been returned. Very few people from Moldova are trafficked to the UK but it is clear that, as a country, we need to provide more support for NGOs and other bodies in the source countries to help them in preventive work and in securing the safe return and well-being of those who have been removed from western countries.

I have seen an estimate that one in seven sex workers has been forced into prostitution through trafficking, although that is a lower figure than was bandied about in the debates in this House a year or two ago. Nevertheless, it is an important issue and one that we should bear in mind.

Last June, the Home Affairs Select Committee produced a report and I want to refer to some of its recommendations and to other recommendations. The first key point is to increase public awareness, as the issue is known about by too few people and is only occasionally mentioned in the newspapers. Greater public awareness would lead to greater detection.

As has been said, there is a need to train all public officials who might come into contact with people where there are indications that they have been trafficked—for example, workers in the health service, social workers and even building inspectors and health and safety inspectors. We need to look closely at some industrial sectors where there must be a suspicion that a large number of trafficked people work, such as the construction industry, although that is probably an area less relevant to women. I believe that immigration authorities should issue sanctions against the employers of unregistered workers as a disincentive to exploitation, rather than having the burden fall heavily on those whom we should regard as victims.

Returning again to children, I have read that one difficulty with children is getting good interpreters. It is no good just getting someone who speaks their language, as sometimes an interpreter might not be on the side of the child. A sensitive approach is required. A social worker should be allocated to each child or young person where there is a suspicion that that child has been trafficked in order to provide support. Bed and breakfast accommodations are not suitable in that situation and one needs to provide far more support.

We have a responsibility to deal with this matter in this country but, as everyone has said, it is an international problem, which is why we must regret that the Government have not yet gone along with the EU directive. I hope that they will do so and that they will accept that we need to co-operate with other countries in dealing with the problems at source and support those countries that are trying to prevent their own citizens from being trafficked to the West.