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Chapter 4 | Monitoring Entry To Provide Protection
a plan in January 2006 requesting responses by 5
April 2006. In the forward to this consultation, Paul
Goggins, MP, Home Office Parliamentary Under
Secretary of State states:
Human trafficking is a truly appalling crime where
people are treated as commodities and traded for
profit. It is big business, often controlled by organized
crime groups who seek the maximum return for their
investment at the expense of the health and wellbeing
of their victims.
Despite this expression of human rights concern for
victims, the draft proposals included in the consultation
document are heavily biased towards border
control and crime reduction. Moreover, the positive
steps taken so far to combat child trafficking have
been taken by the police and Crown Prosecution
Service as opposed to the Immigration and Nationality
Directorate. The latter is still wedded to the
belief that the provision of any form of leave to the
victims of trafficking, including unaccompanied or
separated children, will act as a “pull factor” to
“bogus” asylum seekers and therefore will not cooperate
with other agencies by offering any new form
of status to victims of trafficking, even though this
would also encourage them to act as witnesses and
enable their traffickers to be prosecuted. Therefore
the U.K. has opted out of the European Union
Directive on Short Term Residence Permits Issued
to Victims of Action to Facilitate Illegal Immigration
or Trafficking in Human Beings Who Co-operate
with the Competent Authorities. The U.K. has also
failed to sign and ratify the Council of Europe Convention
on Action Against Trafficking in Human
Beings, 48 because it provides victims of trafficking
with short reflection periods and renewable residence
permits.
In 2000, the U.K. set up Reflex, a multi-agency
task force 49 to combat organized immigration
crime. One of its three key objectives is to target
human trafficking. It also established a network of
Immigration Liaison Officers in 23 key source and
transit countries in Europe. The Home Office also
developed a Crime Reduction Toolkit on the Trafficking
of People to inform police, immigration
officers, and others of the issues related to human
trafficking and what steps they should take to
combat the trade. Many of the partners in Reflex
understand that victim protection is essential to
the prosecution of the organized international gangs
but have not been able to convince the Immigration
and Nationality Directorate of this fact. 50
Compliance With International Standards
■ 1. Article 35 of the Convention on the Rights of
the Child compels states to take specific national,
bilateral, and multilateral measures to prevent
“the abduction of, the sale of or traffic in children
for any purpose and in any form.” Articles
32 and 34 prohibit the economic and sexual
exploitation of children within a state’s territory.
■ 2. Paragraph 23 of the Committee on the Rights
of the Child’s General Comment No. 6 (2005)
recognizes that unaccompanied or separated
children are vulnerable to trafficking for purposes
of sexual or other exploitation. At paragraph 24
it states that practical measures should be taken
at all levels to protect children from trafficking,
which includes priority procedures for child
victims of trafficking and the prompt appointment
of a guardian.
■ 3. The European Union has adopted a Directive
on Short Term Residence Permits Issued to Victims
of Action to Facilitate Illegal Immigration or
Trafficking in Human Beings Who Co-operate
with the Competent Authorities.
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