Northern Ireland (Executive Formation etc) Act 2019 Section 5

Karin Smyth Excerpts

Monday 30th September 2019 Commons Chamber

[Karin Smyth (Bristol South) (Lab)]

I, too, welcome the Minister to his new post. He and I have previously met and talked in our respective roles in the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly. He is a great loss to the Brexit team but a great addition to the Northern Ireland Office team, given his knowledge.

This is a cruel subject and there are many victims. I was recently involved in the police parliamentary scheme, as many other hon. Members have been, and I spent a day with the trafficking team here in London before going out on one of their investigations. Anyone who has seen up close the work that they do could only be massively impressed. It is very difficult work, and meeting and talking with victims is hugely emotional. I pay tribute to the work that they are doing here in London and to support teams across the United Kingdom and Europe.

It is very valuable to have this discussion about victims in Northern Ireland. The European Commission’s recent report “Together Against Trafficking in Human Beings” highlights that:

“Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom to have a land border and traffickers and enslavers exploit this. We therefore have strong links and effective partnerships in place to ensure that law enforcement organisations from both jurisdictions work together to tackle modern slavery.”

That is a core part of the United Kingdom’s work in this area. I therefore have a few questions for the Minister. First, in the context of the discussions that are now happening, and not just on the European arrest warrant but in relation to our joint north-south arrangements on human trafficking, which are a core part of the UK’s defence in this area, what discussions are taking place to ensure that traffickers and enslavers are not allowed to exploit the situation at the border.

Secondly, as has been mentioned already, support for victims really does rely on policing. We have heard about some good success this weekend, but the chief constable of the PSNI has said that he will require an extra 800 police officers over the next few months, so resourcing in this area is a massive problem. Having seen up close the level of resource needed by police forces in the rest of the United Kingdom—I have not been to Northern Ireland to see the work being done there—I know that it is a massive problem, and they will have to make decisions about those competing priorities. Again, we need an assurance from the Minister that the Government will be cognisant of those priority decisions that the chief constable is having to make now with regard to policing over the next few months, to ensure that the situation is not further exploited by traffickers.

Thirdly, as has already been said today, these are victims, and even if we find them, which itself is a massive “if”, they require an awful lot of support and resource, particularly in housing and health provision, and especially mental health support and counselling. We know that mental health services in Northern Ireland are already heavily stretched, with high levels of mental health need. It is important, when looking at these reports and the work coming forward, that the Minister and his Department work with colleagues across Northern Ireland to really understand what we mean by aftercare. The fact that it has been raised here shows that people here feel very strongly about that. We know that these public services are already under huge strain and cannot cope with the levels of care needed. I do not have much confidence that they are able to provide that aftercare. The Government need to take that very seriously, support those victims and provide the rehabilitation services that they so desperately need.