Human trafficking

Trafficking in human beings is an abhorrent crime where victims are coerced, deceived or forced into the control of others who crudely and inhumanely seek to profit from their suffering. Staff should be aware that the UK Border Agency may be the first point of contact a victim of trafficking has with an official agency in the UK.

The UN Convention against Transnational Organised Crime (UNTOC) and its two supplementary protocols aims to prevent, suppress and punish trafficking in persons, especially women and children (trafficking protocol) and guard against the smuggling of migrants by land, air and sea (smuggling protocol).

The trafficking protocol otherwise known as the Palermo Protocol was signed by the United Kingdom on 14 December 2000 and ratified on 9 February 2006. It was the first international instrument to define and address the trafficking problem.

The protocol sets forth three purposes:

To prevent and combat trafficking in persons, paying particular attention to women and children;
To protect and assist the victims of such trafficking, with full respect for their human rights; and
To promote cooperation among State Parties in order to meet these objectives.

The 2000 Palermo Protocol's definition on trafficking in persons states:

"Trafficking in persons shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or the use of force or other forms of coercion, or abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purposes of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs."

In 2007, the United Kingdom signed the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings (the Convention), the most recent international treaty on human trafficking which has as its focus the protection and support of victims. The UK ratified the Council of Europe Convention on Action against trafficking in human beings on 17 December 2008.

The convention aims to:

prevent and combat trafficking in human beings;
identify and protect the victims of trafficking and safeguard their rights; and
promote international co-operation against trafficking.

Key aspects of it include:

setting up a national referral mechanism, a process by which victims will be systematically identified by a competent authority and referred for support;
granting a recovery and reflection period of 45 days for identified victims, during which time action to remove them from the country is put on hold; and
issuing one-year temporary residence permits in certain circumstance. This entitles victims to access work and public funds.

The convention came into force in the UK on 1 April 2009. On 19 July 2011, the government launched its new strategy.

This page was last updated on 29 March 2012