In a report
published today, Tuesday 8th April 2014, the Committee charged with
scrutinising the UK’s proposed new anti-slavery laws says the law must be
simplified and strengthened, and the focus of the legislation must shift to the
victims of slavery: changes that are “morally right and fundamental to
effective prosecution”.
The Chair of the Committee,
Frank Field MP, said he hoped “that the Committee has risen to the Home
Secretary’s challenge to help her introduce a Bill that will lead the
world in combating this heinous crime of human slavery”.
The Committee’s report
calls on Government, law enforcement agencies and business all to do more to
protect the victims of slavery and tackle the crimes of modern
slavery.
Steve McQueen, the
Oscar-winning director of 12 Years a Slave, has lent his support to the report.
In a statement released with the report, Mr McQueen
said:
“There is much in the
history of the United Kingdom in relation to slavery that our country should be
ashamed of. But one thing that all British people can be justifiably proud is
of our anti-slavery tradition stretching back to people such as Equiano,
Clarkson, Wilberforce, and the Quakers, and carried on since 1839 by
Anti-Slavery International of which I am proud to be a patron.
The authors of this report can
honourably stand in that tradition. They have listened to the evidence and
considered it with great care. Their recommendations are humane and principled.
More than that they have grasped the complexity of contemporary trafficking and
forced labour in the United Kingdom and have set forth clearly the fundamentals
of what is necessary to tackle it effectively.
I warmly commend this report and
pay tribute to the Members of the committee who have produced it. Their work
has honoured Parliament and the country.”
Modern slavery in the UK and its
supply chains takes many forms. Adults and children are exploited in the sex
industry, through forced labour, domestic servitude in the home, and forced
criminal activity such as marijuana farming. The victims include British
schoolchildren groomed, abducted and forced to have sex, children brought into
the United Kingdom for benefit fraud, and people who are trafficked or come to
the UK legitimately and voluntarily to work but are enslaved once they are
here, among many others.
Estimates of the scale of the
problem are unreliable and vary widely, but it has been estimated for example
that in the UK there are currently thousands of victims of trafficking for
sexual exploitation alone.
The Committee presents its own
version of the Modern Slavery Bill. This includes sweeping changes to parts of
the draft Bill which define the offences. The Committee recommends the creation
of six offences: slavery of children and adults, child exploitation,
exploitation, child trafficking, trafficking, and facilitating the commission
of an offence of modern slavery. The Committee believes the Bill as drafted,
without giving greater protections to victims, would do little to address the
current problems securing convictions of traffickers and
slave-masters.
The Committee calls on
Government to:
- simplify the criminal offences
in the Bill to ensure more convictions
- recognise the special case of
children by creating separate offences of exploiting and trafficking a child;
making clear that children cannot consent to modern slavery, and making
provision for distinct child assistance and support
- put the principles of victim
care and services into the law itself and make it easier for victims to claim
compensation
- establish a statutory system of
children’s advocates
- ensure that victims are not
prosecuted for crimes they were forced to commit while
enslaved
- establish a fund for legal
services for the victims of modern slavery
- strengthen the asset recovery
regime to seize the illicit gains made from modern
slavery
- revisit recent Domestic Worker
visa rule changes that have “unintentionally strengthened the hand of the
slave master against the victim of slavery.”
- ensure there is a clear
separation between immigration decisions and decisions on modern slavery
victimhood; there is clearly a conflict of interest
- ensure the independence of the
Anti-Slavery Commissioner to establish the post as a focal point for
galvanising the fight against modern slavery
- require quoted companies to
report on measures they have taken to eradicate modern slavery from their
supply chains, ensuring that goods and services sold in the UK are free from
the taint of slavery and supporting those firms that already perform well in
this area
- introduce a review mechanism so
that as the criminal trade of modern slavery evolves, so does the
legislation
Frank Field MP, Chair of
the Committee, said:
"The shift to the focus on
victims is not only the morally right thing to do in and of itself, it is
essential if we are to get the prosecutions necessary to try to end this
evil.
We must conclude that for parts
of this Bill, amendments will not be sufficient to make good, workable,
effective legislation. Some parts of it need a rewrite.
This is ground-breaking
legislation that will influence law and the fight against modern slavery around
the globe. The world is watching: we have to get this right. In the 19th
Century British politicians sought to abolish the international slave trade and
end one of the most deplorable practices in history. Their hard-fought victory
remains one of our Parliament’s finest achievements. We must not betray
that legacy – or the victims of slavery.
We must make life as difficult
as possible for today’s slave masters and traffickers, and the position
of the victims of slavery must be transformed. This must now be central to
Parliament’s consideration of the Bill."
Baroness Butler-Sloss
said:
"We applaud the stated aims
of this Bill, and the Home Secretary's wish to take the battle to the slave
masters and traffickers, but we are concerned that this Bill as currently
drafted will not achieve what it must. It has overlooked the position of
victims both as victims in need of support, but also as essential to getting
convictions.
Unless and until the protection
of victims, and the provision of support and services to them, are put on a
statutory footing at the heart of this legislation, there is a risk that we
will turn victims into criminals. Apart from the fact that this would be
morally wrong, it is also self-defeating. These are among the most heinous
crimes imaginable: we must protect its victims and ensure they can act as
witnesses able help to secure convictions for the crimes committed
against them."