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| Definition of trafficking |
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The UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons
defines trafficking as “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or
receipt of persons, by means of threat or use of force or other forms of
coercion, of abduction, of fraud of deception, of the abuse of power or of a
position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits
to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for
the purposes of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the
exploitation of prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation”. |
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| Trafficking is a form of modern day slavery |
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Human trafficking is a worldwide problem and the UK has been a
destination country for many years. Trafficking is now recognised by
governments, both in the UK and abroad, as being a high priority issue,
requiring a significant amount of attention and resources if it is to be
controlled. The lack of comprehensive statistics and data available in
relation to trafficking in the UK and the “hidden nature” of trafficking make
it difficult to fully understand the scale of the problem. |
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It is known that the majority of victims of trafficking are young with victims
sometimes under 10 years of age coming to the attention of the authorities.
Moreover, according to information made available in the UK Action Plan on
Tackling Human Trafficking, “the size of the UK market for human trafficking
for sexual exploitation was up to £275 million in 2003”. There are no reliable
estimates of the number of individuals trafficked to the UK for sex or labour
exploitation. However, more is known about exploitation for sex as there
is no comprehensive collation of data in relation to those trafficked for
labour exploitation.
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Although victims of trafficking suffer a complete loss of their human rights,
trafficking is viewed as an “immigration” or “law and order “issue rather than
a violation of human rights. Clearly this is a situation that needs to be
rectified. The journeys undertaken by some of these young people, to
become involved in modern day slavery, are shocking. When they reach
their final destination, frequently an even worse ordeal awaits them. |
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There is a need to support the victims of human trafficking and to make
greater efforts to secure convictions against the traffickers and those
associated with them. Both of these needs can be enabled by encouraging
victims to give information, intelligence and evidence, and in order to do so,
they will need support. The risks to the victim must be assessed and
consideration given as to how these processes link to effective protective
measures. The overriding principle in all of this is the restoration and
protection of the victims’ human rights. |
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| Recent developments |
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Recent positive steps include the setting up in October 2006 of the UK
Human Trafficking Centre, the signing in March 2007 by the UK
Government of the Council of Europe Convention on Action against
Trafficking and the issuing of the UK Action Plan on Tackling Human
Trafficking. With 10 ratifications, the Convention is set to come into force
from 1 February 2008. In January 2008, the Home Secretary announced
plans to acclerate the ratification of the Council of Europe Convention
stating that all legislative and procedural changes required to implement the
Convention ought to be in place before the end of 2008. |
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