Women’s equality in the UK – A health check

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criminality due to their trafficking experience being criminalised as well. The CoE Convention
highlights that victims should not be criminalised except in the most extreme cases. However,
we see increasing numbers of female victims forced to commit crimes and then criminalised in
the dock with their traffickers. 27 What organisations working in trafficking have pressed for is a
dedicated centre like a Rapporteur or Ombudsman that has extensive, independent powers. 28
While we support the Government’s claimed aim to “try and curb the level of advertising of
sexual services in newspapers” 29 (See Article 5) we find the statement that “the UK has seen
a dramatic reduction in advertisements for sexual services from non-UK women” deeply
problematic. The assumption that all non-UK women advertising sexual services have been
trafficked is wrong, and the curb on their advertising alone is xenophobic, and completely
ignores the fact that women are trafficked for sexual exploitation in and around Britain as well as
internationally. The 7th Periodic Report demonstrates that the Government remains focused
on immigration and border control in its strategy to combat trafficking, at the expense of the
women it claims it is trying to protect.
Recommendations:
• Review trafficking legislation and policy to ensure victims are identified and
adequately supported and to ensure that a consistent and rights-based approach
to women who have been trafficked is adopted
• Authorities need to be better equipped to recognise people who may have been
trafficked and avoid their criminalisation
• Specialist knowledge and expertise, such as that developed by the Metropolitan
Police, needs to be disseminated nationally if the UK is to become an unattractive
and hostile environment for the organised crime networks that profit from sexual
exploitation
• Standardise anti-trafficking responses across the UK insofar as possible given the
devolution of law enforcement powers, and appoint a Rapporteur or Ombudsman
in each devolved authority to make critical assessments and improve the UK’s
overall anti-trafficking response
Support for victims of trafficking
We welcome the Government going beyond the minimum requirement in the CoE Convention
for the minimum reflection period for identified victims. However, as indicated above there
are major concerns that the strategic approach is driven by an immigration and crime
framework, which means that victims are going unidentified and the NRM is failing in its role.
This clearly does not deliver the Convention fully, as all of these unidentified victims are
receiving no support.
As the Government’s report says, the Salvation Army has been given £2m a year funding to
provide support services for identified victims of trafficking in the UK. 30 The same amount was
previously provided to the Poppy Project for its limited capacity of 55 cases. Given the Home
27. See for example Grant, H. (2013) ‘Human trafficking victims tell of drug factory ordeal’, The Guardian, 7th April 2013 http://www.guardian.
co.uk/law/2013/apr/07/human-traffic-victims-drug-factories
28. Anti Trafficking Monitoring Group (ATMG) (2010) Wrong kind of victim? One year on: An analysis of UK measures to protect trafficked
persons http://www.antislavery.org/includes/documents/cm_docs/2010/a/1_atmg_report_for_web.pdf
29. Government Equalities Office (2011) CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women) report. United
Kingdom’s Seventh Periodic Report. GEO: London http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/equalities/international-equality/7thcedaw-report?view=Binary
Paragraph 65
30. Government Equalities Office (2011) CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women) report. United
Kingdom’s Seventh Periodic Report. GEO: London http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/equalities/international-equality/7thcedaw-report?view=Binary
Paragraph 68
54 Women’s equality in the UK: CEDAW shadow report 2013