22nd December 2024. The Group of Experts on Action Against Trafficking in Human Being (GRETA) is the body responsible for monitoring whether the UK acts in accordance with the Council of Europe Convention on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings (ECAT). Complying with ECAT means making sure survivors of modern slavery have access to a number of rights, such as to access safe housing, compensation, mental health support and healthcare.
After Exploitation submitted written and oral evidence to the following evidence to the the 4th round questionnaire for the United Kingdom.
In accordance with the themes of the questions set by GRETA this year, we explored:
- Barriers to identifying child victims of trafficking – Including an unwillingness by some first responders to refer children as victims of modern slavery, threats to children’s access to relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) in the UK, and a misinterpretation of child exploitation definitions by UK charities and relevant agencies.
- Inconsistent support- Including to safe housing and counselling.
- Referral problems – Such as misunderstandings amongst first responders around when victims can and can’t be referred for support, and the role immigration enforcement plays in making victims scared to report exploitation.
- Challenges accessing compensation – Including via the UK’s scheme for victims of violence crime (run by the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority or ‘CICA’) and via the courts.
- Criminalisation of victims – Including the ways in which survivors of modern slavery become criminalised for crime they were compelled to commit as a result of their exploitation
- Immigration enforcement – Including the threat of deportation and prison-like immigration detention settings against victims of serious exploitation
- Government misdirection – Such as incorrect claims that victims identified by the National Referral Mechanism (NRM), used to identify victims of serious exploitation, were not ‘real’ victims. These claims have since been reprimanded by various cross-party Parliamentary committees and the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR).
- Personal data – Including the challenges facing survivors of modern slavery, and their legal advocates, who cannot access their own personal data often needed for their cases.
After Exploitation 