Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to (a) tackle human trafficking from sub-Saharan Africa and Libya and (b) educate and inform people about the resultant modern slavery.
The Home Office is committed to tackling modern slavery and human trafficking internationally, and to raising awareness to help increase resilience against these crimes and prevent them from happening in the first place.
We work closely with the FCDO, who are working to protect those who are travelling on the dangerous migration route into Libya. As part of their current £70 million migration programme (2017-21), which works along the whole route from West Africa via the Sahel to Libya, they have allocated around £5 million to humanitarian assistance and protection for migrants and refugees in Libya, including targeted healthcare.
UK aid is also making those migrating aware of the dangers ahead and supporting them to return voluntarily. We are educating people before they decide to travel to Libya, informing them about the living conditions and the other risks they may face, such as falling into the hands of human traffickers.
As part of the Home Office’s Modern Slavery Fund, we are working globally including in sub-Saharan African countries, to tackle modern slavery and raise awareness about this crime:
In addition to these programmes, we continue to push for change on a global scale as part of our efforts to tackle modern slavery and human trafficking, by working with other countries and multilateral fora such as the G7, G20, Commonwealth and UN. We also work with partners to combat the criminal gangs who exploit and traffic people internationally.