What will the government approach to human trafficking be in 2009?

In November 2008, the announcement that London’s Metropolitan Police’s Human Trafficking team would have its Home Office funding cut from April 2009 represented a major setback to official efforts to fight human trafficking in the UK. The Human Trafficking Team was young, set up as recently as March 2007 and the news of its closure came soon after the team helped secure a major conviction (please see blog post 25 November 2008 ) in which six young men were given heavy sentences in connection to the trafficking of a sixteen year old Lithuanian girl in 2006. With funding slashed (the Team was fully funded by the Home Office Reflex Project) the Human Trafficking Team could not hope to continue its vital work. How could we take seriously the government’s promise to crack down on human trafficking?

Thanks to agitation and pressure from a number of organisations including STOP THE TRAFFIK, the Home Office have agreed to delay the ending of funding until 2010. Meanwhile, they have increased funding for the UK Human Trafficking Centre in Sheffield, which coordinates intelligence nationwide, and are providing funding for further supported accommodation for human trafficking victims.

Many thanks to those who helped bring pressure to bear, and STOP THE TRAFFIK eagerly awaits further news of progress in this area.

Closure of the Metropolitan Police’s Human Trafficking Team

It has recently been announced that the Metropolitan Police’s Human Trafficking Team will not receive government funding after April 2009. STOP THE TRAFFIK sees this as a major setback in UK efforts to bring offenders to justice and rehabilitate the victims of human trafficking. The decision to close the Team has been criticised by members of parliament, including Chris Huhne MP, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Home Affairs and Dominic Grieve, Shadow Home Secretary.

It is estimated that as many as 4000 women are victims of trafficking into the UK for sexual exploitation at any one time. Without the vital activity of the Met’s Human Trafficking Team there will be no unit in London dedicated to the prosecution of human trafficking gangs and protection of the victims.

The Met’s Human Trafficking Team was created in March 2007 and has been very successful over the past eighteen months. In fact, the announcement of the team’s forthcoming closure comes soon after a landmark judgement was made, in which six men were awarded a combined total of 52 years prison sentence for the trafficking of a Slovakian teenager into prostitution in Britain. The government’s decision not to continue funding has seriously undermined their claim that combating human trafficking is a key priority.