Allegedly increased asylum rejections for those who had suffered from trafficking stem from the UK government's mix of support for victims and the tough line on immigration in general, Tamara Barnett, a spokeswoman for the Human Trafficking Foundation, told Sputnik.
LONDON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th August, 2018) Allegedly increased asylum rejections for those who had suffered from trafficking stem from the UK government's mix of support for victims and the tough line on immigration in general, Tamara Barnett, a spokeswoman for the Human Trafficking Foundation, told Sputnik.
Earlier in August, the Thomson Reuters Foundation (TRF) charity, said that in 2015-2017, the UK authorities have refused asylum to 183 former childEedern Slavery Act that's saying we need to support victims. So there's a complete tension between the caring approach and the tough stance of the immigration office which is effectively just about reducing immigration," Barnett said.
The revelation on the number of asylum refusals followed a news on the increased number of prosecutions for violations of the Modern Slavery Act, with the Crown Prosecution Service reporting a record 239 suspects being charged in the past year.
At the same time, these particular types of crime may be on the rise: 2017 saw a 66 percent increase in the number of referrals from the previous year, with over 2,000 minors being identified as potential victims of either forced labor or sexual exploitation.
Earlier this year, a parliamentary committee accused the UK government of an unsatisfactory approach to tackling the problem, with lawmakers claiming that ministers had failed to compile adequate data on trafficking levels or how to effectively curtail them.
The UK government has faced criticism over its dismissal of yet another measure aimed at supporting migrant minors, the Dubs Amendment to the Immigration Act 2016, which granted unaccompanied migrant children in Europe a right to be resettled in the United Kingdom.
"Safe, legal routes to the UK, such as the Dubs scheme, are vital to ensure unaccompanied children are not made more vulnerable to exploitation or trafficking. Unaccompanied children across Europe are particularly vulnerable to exploitation and abuse, as without the presence of parents or guardians, they are easy targets for traffickers," Catherine Baker, Policy and Campaigns Officer at Every Child Protected Against Trafficking (ECPAT UK), told Sputnik.
In 2017, the Home Office scrapped the Dubs scheme after capping the number of available places at 480, although about 3,000 children were initially expected to benefit from the program.
