Churches Together in Britain and Ireland

Churches Together in Britain and Ireland

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All Change - Preventing Trafficking in the UK
The Anti Trafficking Monitoring Group

This is a follow-up of a 2010 report by the ATMG on the EU Convention on Action against Trafficking and on the (lack of) measures for prevention, protection and prosecution for trafficked victims in the UK.

It notes inter alia that the Inter-Departmental Ministerial Group on Human Trafficking (IDMG) charged with implementing the Government's strategy and coordinating action has met infrequently and its attendance has been poor. The ATMG finds that coordination between agencies in anti-trafficking remains fragmented.

The UK manages labour migration using a points-based system, which favours highly-skilled and educated migrants, leaving few legal migration routes open for those deemed unskilled. The only immigration categories facilitating migration into unskilled work are: the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme (SAW) and, until recently, the Overseas Domestic Worker (ODW) visa, which allowed employers to bring domestic staff .The ODW visa category protects domestic workers from abuse and exploitation in its recognition of domestic workers as workers, thereby giving them some protection under UK employment law.  Awareness-raising and education about child trafficking has been very limited and focused chiefly on the
grooming of young girls into prostitution.

The report notes examples of good practices in the devolved UK nations ...and concludes that despite examples of good preventative work by statutory and civil society organisations, the overall picture remains uncoordinated.

Summary report (PDF) external link
Full report (PDF) external link

 

 

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