Human rights groups flay UK anti-trafficking policy | Philippine Times

Human rights groups flay UK anti-trafficking policy

Philippine Times (IANS) Thursday 17th June, 2010

Human rights groups have flayed the existing British anti-trafficking policy, saying it was punishing victims of trafficking instead of targetting those behind the crime.

They have found disparities in the successful identification of trafficking victims, leading to fears that officials are overly concerned with immigration issues rather than assisting the victims of traumatic crimes, including sexual exploitation and forced labour.

The charges are listed in a report, 'Wrong Kind Of Victim?', brought out by the Anti-Trafficking Monitoring Group, a coalition of human rights organisations including Amnesty International UK, Anti-Slavery International and ECPAT UK (End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and the Trafficking of Children).

The campaigners say there is clear evidence that criminals are even controlling their victims by warning that they will be seen as 'illegal immigrants' not victims, and would be subject to detention and removed from the country or even imprisoned.

The report also criticises Border Agency staff for taking decisions without showing any understanding of trafficking issues.

In one case a West African woman in her twenties was told that though her 'experiences' of being forced to have sex with strange men were 'extremely unpleasant', this did 'not amount to trafficking' because she had failed to escape her tormentors when she had the opportunity.

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