Recently in Human Trafficking Convention Category

The BBC reports that something called the (UKHTC) has been opened in Sheffield.

All well and good, but what about the secretive Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), who refuse to speak directly with the public (no public telephone number or email address, even for "tip offs" from the public !), which is supposed to have "human trafficking" as its number two priority after drug smuggling ? The UKHTC also has a contact number for the press and media, but not for the general public !

The Fact Sheet (.pdf) for the press and media mentions "2 senior SOCA officers" working at this new multi-agency unit, but what can they do, except liase with their 4,000 or so colleagues vack in SOCA ?

It is still very unclear what exactly the relationship and demarcation lines between this new UKHTC unit, SOCA, the investigators from the Gangmasters Licencing Authority, the Home Office's Immigration and Nationality Directorate ("not fit for purpose") and the dozens of regional Police forces and non-governmental organisations like the Poppy Project are.

Is this just another layer of bureaucracy ?

Who exactly do you contact, in confidence, if you suspect that someone is being exploited illegally ?

Where is the telephone hotline or email address etc. ?

What guarantee is there that any action will be taken whatsoever ?

What is clear is that NuLabour politicians are still really only paying lip service to addressing the issues of modern day slavery in the UK:

Yet another couple of Oral Questions in Parliament which highlight NuLaboour's scandalous ongoing failure to sign the Council of Europe Convention on Action against trafficking in Human Beings

NuLabour's deliberately Kafakuesque, over complicated, petty bureaucracy through which they inflict their inconsistent Immigration and Asylum policies, which flip flop between pandering to tabloid scaremongering and political correctness.

They are spinning their current policy for treating the victims of sex slave and other human trafficking ,as if it is somehow individually tailored to the best interests, of these mostly women and children victims of crime.

In practice, as is so often with NuLabour's "big governnment" approach, the policy actually means a "post code lottery", inconsistently applied up and down the country.

Meg Munn is the unpaid "Minister for Women's Issues" but has the title of Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, She is unpaid in this role, because Tony Blair "forgot" to re-appoint someone to this role, and he had already bloated his regime with the maximum number of permitted paid Ministerial posts.

Meg Munn said:

"Our concern is that automatic periods could act as a pull to bogus asylum claims, but we are looking at the experience of other countries. We consider all victims on their merits: the cooling-off periods are not automatic but are on the basis of each person's need".

To translate this NuLabour newspeak, that means that the victims of rape and child abuse have no right to stay in the UK , except at the whim of the petty officials, whilst they are being treatd for and trying to recover from rape and child abuse, before the faceless bureacratic system auto,matically treats them as criminals and illegal immigrants first, rather than tragic victims of serious crimes.

Where is the numerical evidence that the population of illegal immigrants consists largely of of human traficked sex slaves and forced labourers ? Surely these victims are a minority of illegal immigrants ?

Oral Answers in the House of Commons:

The NuLabour Home Office , has still failed to sign or ratify the Council of Europe Convention on Action against trafficking in Human Beings last May in Warsaw, despite claiming that the issue was one of their top priototies during the now elapsed UK Presidency of both the European Union and the G8.

They have now published a consultation document which calls for more research into the problem, more training, and "rasing of awareness" etc.

Tackling Human Trafficking – Consultation on Proposals for a UK Action Plan (176Kb .pdf)

The excuse which Charles Clarke has given for not already having led the ratification of the COE convention is, according to the BBC:

There has been pressure on the government to sign the European Convention on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings.

The convention says temporary residence permits must be given to victims endangered by return to their home countries and to those who assist with prosecutions.

Currently, when trafficking victims are discovered, their fates are decided on an individual basis, and they do not have a right to remain in Britain.

Home Secretary Charles Clarke told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the government had not signed the treaty yet because it was not sufficiently comprehensive.

But he continued: "We do anticipate that in the coming months we will be in a position to sign and then ratify the convention."

So trhat will have been another year of dithering and procrastination.

Tony Blair is quoted in yesterday's Sunday Telegraph about sex slave human trafficking.

Astonishingly he seems to be planning to increase even more the powers of the Police, including the new Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), even before it has swung into action, but he is still failing to sign or ratify the Council for Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking of Human Beings

He told the Sunday Telegraph: “I don’t think you can deal with crime in the way we used to deal with it. Some of these gangs are vicious. We’ve just established the Serious Organised Crime Agency … [but] I am convinced [its] powers are not sufficient. You need to find ways of making their life difficult.

Spy Blog and BlairWatch seem to be the only other people in the British political blogosphere who are interested in this.

Will NuLabour take notice of this article in a Sunday Newspaper, or will they continue to spin and news manage their disgraceful failure, as current holders of the revolving presidencies of both the G8 and the European Union, to lead by example and to sign and ratify the Council for Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking of Human Beings, which they should have signed in Warsaw back in May this year ?

The Independent on Sunday reports:

"Britain's shameless role in helping sex traffickers keep thousands of women in slavery

Those who try to escape prostitution are branded illegal immigrants then deported home to disgrace and poverty

By Sophie Goodchild, Marie Woolf and Tom Anderson
Published: 09 October 2005

Criminal vice-masters are making millions profiting from trafficked women in a growing illegal trade, which MPs will this week claim the Government is failing to stop.

shameful rather than shameless would be a better word for this ongoing scandal.

The BBC report on the "sex slave" trade brothel raid in Birmingham today, but it fails to mention the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking of Human Beings.

N.B. the latest versions of the BBC website reports now do seem to include a mention of the CoE convention, but only, presumably, after our complaint (unlikely) or the BBC's monitoring of their rival TV network coverage (much more likley).

Sarah Green from Amnesty International has been interviewd by Sky News and ITV News, and has mentioned the Council for Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking of Human Beings.

Why has the NuLabour Government still failed to sign or ratify this Convention ?

Why was the police raid in Birmingham delayed until after the Labour Party Conference, in which neither Home Secretary Charles Clarke nor Foreign Secretary Jack Straw bothered to mention this Convention ?

The TV pictures clearly show the presnce of TV crews and other photographers waiting for the bus full of "up to 50" police women to turn up and raid the premise, so it was a staged media event by the West Midlands police.

Has anyone spotted the pattern yet ? Why won't the NuLabour Home Office state officially exactly what the "issues" are that they are preventing them from signing and ratifying the Council of Europe Convention on action against Human Trafficking ?

The Written Answers to Parliamentary Questions posed by Members of Parliament seem to be just as misleading as usual. None of the activities which the Government claims it is engaged in to tackle the problem of the sex slave / illegal worker slave trade would be contradicted by signing this Convention.

What NuLabour seem to be intent on, is to continue to refuse to treat sex slave or other exploited people as victims first, who need compassionate treatment rather than simply as criminals, These people get trapped in the Kafakaesque bureaucracy that the Home Office inflicts on them, especially with regard to granting them a temporary visa or to providing accomodation and support for them away from where they have been forced to work as slaves.

This bureaucratic callousness and indifference to human suffering here in the United Kingdom, not in far off Africa or elsewhere, seems to be at the heart of these so called "issues", and makes a mockery of the platitudes that they are spinning about making the issue of Human Trafficing a priority at the G8 summit or during the UK's presidency of the European Union.

You cannot "fully support the aims of the Convention" without signing and ratifying it !

House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 20 Jun 2005 (pt 28)

"Written answers Tuesday, 14 June 2005

Home Department
Trafficking in Human Beings

Jeffrey M Donaldson (Lagan Valley, DU) Hansard source

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to ratify the Warsaw Convention on trafficking in human beings.

Paul Goggins (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office) Hansard source (holding answer 13 June 2005)

The UK has not yet taken a decision on whether or not to sign the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings, which opened for signature in Warsaw in May. There are certain provisions in the Convention which present concerns for the UK and which remain under active consideration. We want to resolve these issues before taking a decision on signature. We support fully all of the aims of the Convention and we too want to see widespread action to tackle this abhorrent trade at source, to protect and support the victims and bring those responsible to justice."

Seems remarkably similar to the previous week's lack of progress on this issue:

"Written answers Tuesday, 7 June 2005

When will Paul Goggans and NuLabour be shamed into actually signing and ratifying this Convention ?

Or will this take even more allegations of African children being smuggled and traded and abused in London as "human sacrifices" ?

The ongoing scandal of NuLabour's bureaucratic treatment of the victims of the sex slave trade has not been clarified by the following.
Hous of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 7 June 2005 (pt 16)

"Convention on Human Trafficking

Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department for what reason the UK has not ratified the Convention on Human Trafficking; and what discussions he has had with non-governmental organisations on the decision not to ratify that Convention. [117]

Paul Goggins [holding answer 24 May 2005]: The UK has not yet taken a decision on whether to sign the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Human Trafficking. There are certain provisions in the Convention which present concerns for the UK and which remain under active consideration. We want to

7 Jun 2005 : Column 504W

resolve these issues before taking a decision on signature. We support fully all of the aims of the Convention and we too want to see widespread action to tackle this abhorrent trade at source, to protect and support the victims and bring those responsible to justice. Ministers and officials are in contact with non-governmental organisations about the Convention. The Convention was discussed during a round table meeting on trafficking held in October and further dialogue on the Convention has taken place since."

What exactly are thes "certain issues", and why is there no public or Parliamentary debate on them ?

Are these "issues" to do with treating sex slave trade victims as illgal immigrants and criminals first, and victims second, as previously briefed anonymously to the media ?

Why were they not resolved months and years ago ?

What have the NuLabour politicians and Home Office got to hide ?

Written answers, Monday, 23 May 2005, Home Department, People Trafficking

"Sandra Gidley (Romsey, LDem)

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on Government action to counter people trafficking.

Paul Goggins (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office)

The Government have a comprehensive strategy for tackling trafficking in human beings which includes prevention, legislation, law enforcement, international co-operation and the support of victims. Human trafficking will be a priority during our EU presidency and is on the agenda for the G8 summit. The Government provide £20 million per year to Reflex, the multi-agency task force which co-ordinates the enforcement response to organised immigration crime, including people"

How can NuLabour pretend to be leading the EU and the G8 on "human trafficing" (the sex and slave labour trade), when the UK Government has not signed or ratified the Council of Europe Convention on action against trafficking in human beings ?