Transcript Chloe Setter, ECPAT UK - Coram Children`s Legal Centre

Child trafficking in the wider
child protection system
Chloe Setter
Head of Advocacy, Policy & Campaigns
ECPAT UK, 2014
ECPAT UK
• ECPAT UK is a children’s rights charity
campaigning for the protection of child victims of
trafficking and the victims of transnational sexual
abuse by British citizens
• Research / Campaigning / Training / Project
Work / Youth Programme & Youth Groups
• Network in more than 75 countries
Child trafficking in the UK
• Of the 2,255 potential victims of trafficking in
2012, 549 (24%) were children. This represents
a 12% increase from 2011 (UKHTC, 2013)
• The most prevalent countries of origin of child
potential victims were Vietnam (103, 19%),
Nigeria (78, 14%), Slovakia (43, 9%), Romania
(39, 7%), UK (38, 7%), Albania (22, 4%), China
(13, 2%), Bangladesh (10, 2%), Democratic
Republic of the Congo (10, 2%) and Somalia
(8, 1%)
Child victims in the UK
Impact on children
“It’s like their fingers were in your brain. Your heart
jumps when you see them”
“He didn’t just threaten me, he beat me
unconscious”
“They used to say things like children's organs are
really expensive & children can be kidnapped”
“Every single day I heard the threat, I’ll kill you
bitch”
Safeguarding child victims
Child trafficking = actual/potential significant harm
• Local Authority
Assessment
• Multi-agency response
• Strategy Discussion
• S47 investigation
• Immediate action to
safeguard: EPO; S46
Police powers
• S20 accommodation
• Child protection
medical
• A.B.E. interview
• Child Protection Case
Conference & Review/
LAC reviews
• CP trained interpreters
• Child abuse first status/ criminal issues
later
Identification of child victims
of trafficking
• Early identification is vital to safeguard
victims against ongoing risks (missing /
criminalisation / re-trafficking / evidence)
• BUT difficult to identify – children may not
disclose, may be inconsistent or lie, may
have a ‘learnt’ story to tell authorities
• Children may have ‘bond’ with traffickers
and they or their family may be in debt to
the traffickers
National Referral Mechanism
• In 2009, the UK ratified the Council of Europe
Convention on Trafficking and created an
official system of identification
• NRM is the framework for identifying victims
and providing support/assistance
• First Responders can make referrals to the
two Competent Authorities for two-stage
decision (the Home Office and the UK
Human Trafficking Centre)
Review of the NRM
The aim of the review is to establish whether
the NRM:
- provides an effective and efficient way of
supporting and identifying potential victims of
human trafficking
- can, or should, cover all victims of modern
slavery
Submit evidence here:
[email protected]
Criticism of the NRM for children
After the NRM’s first year of operation, the
ATMG published a report that criticised the
lack of sufficient expertise in relation to
children of those tasked with identifying child
victims. Further, the decision to ‘bypass’ the
existing strong and mature child protection
system and locate the children’s NRM
outside of this system, the report argued, had
a detrimental effect on trafficked children.
Criticism of the NRM for children
- Low awareness of the NRM system and child trafficking
indicators/definition/profiles among First Responders in
particular
- Low referral rate among some local authorities that see
little purpose in the NRM for children
- Low conclusive grounds rate decision for children (around
31% from April 2009 up until June 2012), which is lower
than that of adults, despite the simpler definition of child
trafficking
- Lack of child-specific training and child protection
specialism among case owners in the Competent Authorities
- Potential discrimination in the decision-making process
Criticism of the NRM for children
- Poor decision-making that is frequently based on credibility
(and often, wrongly, consent) and lacks an understanding of
child development and the impact of trauma and abuse
- Lack of a formal appeal system
- Lack of any independent evaluation/monitoring of the
operation of the NRM and any scrutiny, either internally or
externally, of decisions made
- Lack of multi-agency input in the decision-making process
- Poor communication between First Responders, relevant
agencies and the Competent Authorities
- Conflation between asylum claims and identification within
the NRM
Criticism of the NRM for children
- Lack of policy/guidance on how the NRM fits within the
best interests requirement and the duty to create a durable
solution for trafficked children in Article 16 of the EU AntiTrafficking Directive
-No statutory basis for the NRM, so no requirement to refer,
or for First Responders to participate in identification
-- Little known on the impact of NRM decisions on children
in the short and long term
- Lack of input by the child into the NRM process and a lack
of understanding of the NRM
- Lack of long-term evaluation of the NRM and support for
child victims of trafficking
Key principles of a NRM for
children
These include but are not limited to:
• A child-rights centred approach that puts children’s best
interests at its heart
• A non-discriminatory model that is purely about the
effective identification of trafficked children not conflated
with the consideration of the child’s nationality or
immigration status
• Building on existing child protection structures that
recognise child trafficking as child abuse and the provision
of an individualised, appropriate safeguarding response
Key principles of a NRM for
children
• Recognising that a child cannot give informed consent
• A fair and trust-based model that incorporates the views &
experiences of the child and does not base decisions on
the perceived credibility of the child
• A model involving skilled and experienced child protection
professionals, working together in a multi-agency setting
with other statutory agencies, civil society and other
relevant organisations
• A localised model that empowers professionals and drives
up awareness & understanding of trafficking and feeds into
a centralised intelligence picture to prevent trafficking
Key recommendations
• Multi-agency NRM for children that incorporates
best interests principle
• Quality and regular training for frontline staff and
First Responders
• Legal guardianship
• Specialist foster care for trafficked children
• Improved protocols on missing trafficked
children
• Non-prosecution
• Offence of child exploitation
Thank you
www.ecpat.org.uk
+44 (0)207 607 2136
[email protected]
[email protected]