2007 Trafficking in Persons Report - Center for Women Policy Studies

U N I T E D K I N G D O M
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temporary housing in hotels, counseling, medical
care, and repatriation aid in Dubai. The Dubai
government also refers self-identified victims to an
NGO-sponsored shelter. However, the U.A.E. does
not offer victims asylum, residence, or other legal
alternatives to removal to source countries where
they may face retribution. Thus, many victims are
reluctant to report being trafficked. Victim Assistance
Coordinators in police stations reportedly encourage
victims to assist in trafficking investigations,
but many victims still conceal the fact that they
were trafficked for fear of arrest and deportation. In
December 2006, the U.A.E. committed to funding a
$9 million expansion of a U.A.E.-UNICEF project to
provide assistance to children who had been forced
to work as camel jockeys in the U.A.E. and were repatriated
two years ago.
Prevention
The U.A.E. made some progress in preventing
trafficking this year. The Dubai police operated a
Web site and 24-hour hotline for trafficking victims
to lodge complaints. The U.A.E. also continued
an awareness campaign including public advertisements
and pamphlets distributed in airports,
worksites, and embassies warning potential victims
of their rights and resources. The U.A.E., however,
still has not ratified the 2000 UN TIP Protocol.
UNITED KINGDOM (Tier 1)
The United Kingdom (U.K.) is primarily a destination
country for women, children and men trafficked
for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation
and forced labor. Some victims, however, are also
trafficked within the country. The majority of victims
are women trafficked internationally to the U.K.
for sexual exploitation, though children are also
trafficked to the U.K. for the same purpose. Migrant
workers are trafficked to the U.K. for forced labor in
agriculture, construction, food processing, domestic
servitude, restaurants and possibly for illicit activities
such as street theft. Children, particularly
from West Africa, are also trafficked to the
U.K. for forced labor in cannabis factories
and Afghan minors may be trafficked
for forced manual labor. Main sources
of foreign trafficking victims found in
the U.K. are Lithuania, Russia, Albania,
Ukraine, Malaysia, Thailand, the People’s
Republic of China, East and Central Africa,
Nigeria, and Ghana.
The Government of the United Kingdom fully
complies with the minimum standards for the
elimination of trafficking. Over the last year, U.K.
authorities launched aggressive anti-trafficking
law enforcement efforts and sustained significant
measures to identify and provide specialized care to
adult female sex trafficking victims. To strengthen its
response to trafficking, the U.K. should rely more on
its specific anti-trafficking laws and less on related
laws to prosecute traffickers, and provide systematic
and specialized care for child trafficking victims.
Prosecution
The U.K. government demonstrated strong efforts
to combat trafficking through law enforcement in
the last year. The U.K. prohibits all forms of trafficking
through its 2004 Sexual Offenses Act and
its 2004 Asylum and Immigration Act. Under these
laws, any form of trafficking carries a sufficiently
stringent maximum penalty of 14 years, although
the punishment for sex trafficking is less severe than
that prescribed for rape. In 2006, U.K. authorities
prosecuted 109 individuals for trafficking offenses,
28 of whom were convicted and nine of whom
were acquitted. The remaining 75 prosecutions are
ongoing. Of the 28, 23 received prison sentences of
four years or greater, while two traffickers received
less severe sentences of 27 and 30 months, two
received a caution, and one received an undisclosed
sentence for managing a brothel. Although the
government is developing best practices for enforcing
its specific anti-trafficking laws, many trafficking
cases are prosecuted using non-trafficking statutes,
making accurate law enforcement data difficult
to obtain. From March to May 2006, the government
carried out Operation Pentameter, deploying
55 police units to conduct 515 raids of off-street
prostitution sites in the UK. Police arrested 232
individuals, of whom 134 have been charged with
sex trafficking or related crimes. In April 2006, the
government established the Serious and Organized
Crime Agency (SOCA) dedicated to dismantling
organized crime, including trafficking. In October
2006, the government launched the U.K. Human
Trafficking Center (UKHTC), an entity under the
Association of Chief Police Officers that will share
trafficking intelligence with SOCA and develop
training modules to help attorneys to more effectively
prosecute traffickers.
Protection
The government demonstrated solid efforts to
provide care for adult women trafficked for sexual
exploitation. It continued to encourage these victims
to assist in trafficking investigations and prosecutions
by funding two NGOs to provide rehabilitation
services to victims who choose to assist law enforce-