| Victims of human trafficking may get permission to stay back in Britain |
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LONDON: People who fall victims of human trafficking may be given permission to stay in Britain rather than having them deported, according to new proposals being studied by the home office.
Home secretary Charles Clarke said he considered the problem to be serious indeed, maybe as serious as drug peddling. His office is of the view that when human trafficking crimes are unearthed, the victims, although illegal immigrants, can be offered special residence permits, possibly a permission of temporary stay in the country, while the immigration and police decide whether they can help in the prosecution of the traffickers.
The home office brought in a consultation paper on this issue Thursday.
Clarke said many people being trafficked into Britain should be regarded as "victims of crime". The current procedure is to handle the issue on a case-by-case basis and there is no right to stay in the country.
The home office minister Paul Goggins described human trafficking -- often for the purpose of sexual exploitation or forced labour -- as an appalling crime and amounted to modern day slavery. "It causes great harm, not just to the victims, but to our society as a whole. The government is determined to tackle this terrible crime and reduce the harm it causes."
Britain is considering joining a European agreement that provides illegal immigrants forced into the sex trade with residence permits. The economic and social cost of the sex trade in 2003 has been estimated at around 1 billion pounds, according to the home office.
The public consultation has been undertaken following the unearthing of several high-profile trafficking trials and investigations. It mainly focuses on trade in children and adults for sexual and labour purposes.
Other suggestions in the consultation paper include conducting awareness campaigns in source countries, offering more training to immigration and police officers more training to help detect human trafficking and tightening entry requirements for foreign minors.
The home office has conceded that it has no reliable figures on the number of illegal immigrants in the country, though the National Audit Office had estimated that some 283,000 failed asylum seekers were in Britain in 2004 and that officials had lost track of half of them.
Posted
on : Sat, 07 Jan 2006 02:10 GMT | General News
By : Paula Jenkins
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