15 / 10 / 2021
News
19 / 10 / 2015
Anti-Slavery Commissioner’s Strategic Plan
Please find attached a copy of my Strategic Plan, which I have launched today to coincide with Anti-Slavery Day.
The Plan outlines my objectives and priorities as Commissioner, the actions I will take, and indeed the changes I expect to see, to ensure that the UK is once again a world leader in the fight against slavery.
I look forward to working with many of you to improve the response across the UK and beyond.
Kevin Hyland OBE
Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner
17 / 10 / 2015
Support Protect Guernsey
Protect Guernsey has initiated a very innovative e-Rugby game, Pass2Protect, to fund-raise for organisations working to combat human trafficking, including the Purple Teardrop Campaign. The game has raised nearly £1000 so far. To take part, donate and help raise awareness of human trafficking, go to Pass2Protect here.
17 / 10 / 2015
Kingston Soroptimists at Heathrow
Members of SI Kingston are at Heathrow Terminal 5 on Anti Slavery Day as part of the Border Force’s ASD event. Our sincere thanks to Kingston Soroptimists for representing the Purple Teardrop Campaign at this high profile event when the Border Force will be distributing thousands of Purple Teardrop Campaign leaflets to help raise awareness of human trafficking and the signs to look out for.
17 / 10 / 2015
Bedford Soroptimists hold Conference
Congratulations to SI Bedford who held an Anti Slavery Conference on 16th October at Moggerhanger Park in Bedfordshire to coincide with Anti Slavery Day. This conference was aimed at a variety of first responders and others who may come into contact with people who have been trafficked and may be enslaved. The conference was hosted by BAMS (Bedfordshire Against Modern Slavery) but with Bedfordshire Police and SI Bedford recognised and credited as BAMS. This conference was possible by a successful bid to the Police Partnership Board.
Speakers included:
Kevin Hyland, Independent Anti Slavery Commissioner.
Diane Payne, Programme Development Manager for The Salvation Army.
Paul Connop, Tactical Advisor for The National Crime Agency.
Tatiana Jardan, Human Trafficking Foundation.
Andrew Selous MP
17 / 10 / 2015
Peterborough Soroptimists in the Great Eastern Fun Run
Our heartfelt thanks to SI Peterborough for supporting the Purple Teardrop Campaign in the Great Eastern Fun Run on 10th October. Thank you ladies!
17 / 10 / 2015
In Support of Lord McColl of Dulwich’s Private Member’s Bill
We urge Purple Teardrop Campaign supporters to provide practical support for the second reading of Lord McColl of Dulwich’s Private Member’s Bill, the Advertising of Prostitution (Prohibition) Bill. The second reading is on Friday, 23rd October and requires a minimum of 6 peers to be present.
Please read our rationale and then encourage peers to attend using this template letter.
26 / 7 / 2015
Report, ‘Open Your Eyes’, Conference on Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking, June 2015
Representatives from Kent Police, Migrant Help, the Gangmasters Licensing Authority and the Medaille Trust were welcomed as speakers by Soroptimist International Medway Towns member Wanda Wright to the ‘Open your Eyes’ conference in June, attended by SI Great Britain and Ireland President, Jenny Vince.
Our Purple Teardrop Campaign representative who attended reports as follows:
This was a jointly organised conference presented by SI Medway Towns and Kent Police, backed by Medway Community Safety Partnership. This in itself was a very fruitful relationship – not only in producing a good range of speakers, but also of audience members. I walked into the venue with a woman from Tesco; there was a number of police representing a range of departments; as well as a goodly selection of SI South East England clubs and Jenny Vince, our Federation President. Beside the Purple Teardrop Campaign stand, there was another for the Medaille Trust, manned by a Westminster and Southwark Diocesan Representative.
Keith Roberts, Kent Police, highlighted the sea change that has taken place with the passing of the Modern Slavery Bill and the requirement to meet statutory responsibility. This has meant a re-balancing of priorities from ‘easy quantity’ such as burglary to developing networks within the area, across the UK and internationally to deal with the big issues of gang-related crime, the criminal use of firearms and in particular the trading of people for exploitation.
Sgt McLean’s case studies were eye-opening indeed, as he described his work in two major operations where he used his own professional network in the UK and Europe to further the investigations. One operation dealt with the trafficking of women subjected to drugs and forced sex in both the UK and Ireland. The gang was finally caught at a Manchester hotel and the trial ended with a 23-year jail sentence. The second example he gave was the use of Nigerian girls controlled by ju-ju and traded across Europe for sex, using Stansted Airport as their entry point in to the UK. That operation resulted in a 20-year jail sentence at the Canterbury Courts.
Most chilling was his account of where the victims were first picked up – the variety of locations include cannabis farms, nail bars, brothels, hand car washes, and Police custody suites – beggars, shop lifters and pick-pockets.
Migrant Help’s Head of Human Trafficking and Victim Support, Christopher Gaul, demonstrated their tremendous work and recommended us to their website covering Canterbury, the South East and East Anglia. Mr Gaul told the audience the “Yvonne” story whereby it took a year of be-friending to get Yvonne to really talk. In her words, she said of her be-friender ‘She cried with me when I cried, she prayed with me when I prayed.’
The Gangmasters Licensing Authority’s Mark Heath began by reminding us that the Licensing Authority came into being after the cockle-picking disaster in Morecambe Bay in 2005. Working nationally with a staff of 68 means the GLA has to work with partnerships. He then proceeded to set out the subject from a business point of view – ‘Humans are a low risk, high profit opportunity.’ Once a gang gets control of human beings, the victims are forced to set-up bank accounts and these are then controlled by the gang. Individuals are sold from one gang to another and often housed through ‘agencies’ operating on behalf of landlords (who ask no questions). He also referred to problems in the ‘supply chain’ investigations.
Charlotte Kirkwood, Development Manager of the Medaille Trust, talked about the work the Trust was doing for victims in their 7 safe houses, and with funding from other sources, their work with victims outside the NRM system including some living with a ‘trusted person.’ They also work with preventative measures in supply countries, eg Albania, Nigeria and Vietnam, using partnerships with people in the victims’ home countries. By using Skype, they supply counselling, advice and raise awareness in those countries. They also have items on sale from Kenya from repatriates and vulnerable people. Currently, they are setting up representatives in RC Dioceses and the representatives for Westminster and Southwark Dioceses had a stand at the conference. The Trust will also supply a speaker to interested groups at no charge.
12 / 7 / 2015
Latest News on Lobby
For the latest news on the Purple Teardrop Campaign’s lobby petitioning against sex for sale advertising, here’s our June Progress Report. And to see the number of signatures by postcode, take a look at this bar chart.
1 / 7 / 2015
Kevin Hyland OBE, UK Independent Anti Slavery Commissioner, Human Trafficking Foundation Forum, 15 June 2015
Good afternoon and thank you to Tatiana and the Foundation for inviting me to speak to you today.
As the UK’s first Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner I have been afforded a great responsibility and duty.
My independence will be unwavering, whether that be toward law enforcement, government, the private sector or indeed any organisation.
My key immediate aims as Commissioner are to increase the numbers of victims of modern slavery that are identified and referred for appropriate support and in tandem to increase the numbers of prosecutions and convictions for the traffickers and slave masters.
And an important focus will also be to improve efforts to prevent these crimes from ever occuring in the first place – in the UK, but also crucially in source countries.
I am in the process of developing my strategic plan, which will be laid before Parliament later this year, and which will set out how I propose to exercise my functions.
The key priorities that I will set out in the plan will be clear and concise:
Firstly, improved care for victims.
Morally this is of course vital.
And evidence from across the globe also makes clear that without effective support for victims it is very difficult to increase the numbers of prosecutions, as victims must be made to feel safe and confident enough to come forward and give their accounts.
I will be working to understand and establish best practice in the provision of care for victims of modern slavery.
The Human Trafficking Foundation is today of course launching an updated version of their Trafficking Care Standards.
The handbook is an excellent tool for frontline practitioners and I commend the many organisations involved in its development.
I was pleased to be able to give it my full endorsement.
I believe that it is vital that high quality care is consistently provided throughout the UK by all organisations directly supporting survivors of modern slavery.
The framework and guiding principles laid out in the document provide a clear navigation of the pathways that can be followed to ensure that every survivor across the UK receives the high quality care that they need.
I am committed to working with the Foundation to ensure that the guiding principles and recommendations are consistently implemented and adopted across the country.
We will also work together to explore how this information can be most effectively included in training materials for statutory agencies, including law enforcement.
I will also of course be taking a keen interest in the reform of the National Referral Mechanism and I will be monitoring the implementation and evaluation of the new pilots.
I am pleased that there is now an enabling power to place the NRM on a statutory footing.
I very much agree with the conclusion of the Joint Committee on the draft Modern Slavery Bill, which stated that putting the NRM on a statutory basis will be important in ensuring greater consistency in its operation, decision-making and provision of support services.
Another key focus for me with regards to victim care will be in ensuring that the reformed process provides support that is much more focused on long-term healing, resilience and reintegration into society.
Secondly – effective training and victim identification
It is absolutely crucial that frontline workers must know how to spot the signs and just as importantly what to do next.
We cannot get away with shrugging our shoulders that this is “too hidden a crime”.
My immediate focus will be on law enforcement.
My office will be mapping and evaluating training that is currently provided to law enforcement across the country.
We will then support the development and delivery of high quality training across the UK.
I will also be promoting awareness amongst relevant statutory agencies and educational bodies.
Thirdly – partnership working
As you all know, combating modern slavery requires the expertise, resources and efforts of many different individuals and entities.
This is something I am very clear on.
In particular, close partnership working between statutory agencies, including law enforcement, and non-government organisations are crucial.
I will be working to understand and promote best practice in partnership working from across the country, and again, I look forward to collaborating with the Human Trafficking Foundation on this.
I will also be developing new partnership arrangements in particular with faith groups and also embassies in the UK.
These two groups will be essential partners in uncovering what we believe to be numerous instances of modern slavery currently going unreported, to further bring this crime out of the shadows.
I also plan to develop prevention initiatives with homelessness charities, where we know many vulnerable people are targeted for exploitation.
Number four – Private sector engagement and collaboration
I am engaging with a number of trade bodies to identify and promote best practice in ethical supply chain practices and supply chain transparency.
I am also working on a number of initiatives with the financial sector to develop work to tackle the often unwitting facilitation of modern slavery by the legitimate economy. I of course strongly welcome the supply chain provision in the Modern Slavery Act and I believe that it is a key area for the UK to demonstrate global leadership.
Priority five is to encourage effective and targeted international collaboration
The Modern Slavery Strategy commits the Government to stepping up its international response to modern slavery.
Priority partnership countries are being identified.
This will include countries from which significant numbers of victims are trafficked to the UK –
and additional countries that suffer disproportionately from a high incidence of modern slavery and where we the UK has appropriate assets.
The UK Government will prioritise activity to tackle modern slavery in these countries by working with foreign governments and civil society organisations.
British Embassies and High Commissions will develop Modern Slavery Priority Country Plans, working with host country governments and other locally based partners.
I will both support the development of these plans and work to ensure effective implementation.
Over the next year I will in particular focus on the top five countries of origin of victims according to the last NCA Strategic Assessment and the annual NRM statistics.
That means Romania, Poland, Nigeria, Albania and Vietnam.
I will be working with my office to undertake research and analysis into how we improve our collaboration with these countries, with a focus on prevention and law enforcement cooperation.
I conducted a very positive visit to Romania earlier this month and came away with a number of concrete actions.
I also visited Edo State in Nigeria in May.
Despite the scale and volume of human trafficking originating from Nigeria, a significant proportion of it is a highly localised phenomenon.
As many of you will know, victims who are trafficked to Europe disproportionately originate from the state of Edo in the south-central part of the country.
The population of Edo State is about 3.2 million, which represents less than 2% of Nigeria’s total population of 174 million.
The UNODC and Nigeria’s anti-trafficking agency together state that over 90% of victims rescued from human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation who are discovered outside of Nigeria are from Edo State.
The trafficking of women to Europe is now a well-known phenomenon in Edo State, and following the establishment of networks, infrastructure, and expectations, migration flows have increased.
I travelled to Edo because I wanted to see the situation on the ground for myself, and to talk to experts, officials, NGOs and potential partners on the ground.
I have come away with a number of ideas about how the UK can help to tackle this unique and very sad phenomenon, including in terms of awareness raising in vulnerable rural areas that are now being targeted by traffickers, the provision of alternatives and economic development, and law enforcement capacity building.
I look forward to working closely with Offer and his Modern Slavery Unit team, as well as the FCO and DFID, to understand how these suggestions might be most effectively implemented.
Another key priority for me is to push for a significant increase in bi-lateral and multi lateral Joint Investigation Team operations.
I had the opportunity to lead on many of these operations in my previous role as head of the London Metropolitan Police’s Human Trafficking Unit. They are absolutely vital when dealing with organised groups that operate across national borders.
I want to encourage all forces in the UK, where it is apparent that the modern slavery crime is transnational, to immediately think about applying for JIT funding.
I met recently with the President of Eurojust and she would very much welcome this.
I am also pushing to ensure that modern slavery is given adequate focus in the post-2015 UN development agenda.
The Sustainable Development Goals are a proposed universal set of Goals, Targets and Indicators that United Nations member states will be expected to use to frame their agendas and policies towards international development over the next 15 years.
The Goals will build on the progress achieved through the Millennium Development Goals, which will expire at the end of this year.
A draft proposal of 17 Goals and 169 Targets was published in 2014, which, whilst mentioning the trafficking of women and girls and the issue of forced labour, in my view needs strengthening.
Pope Francis will open a summit at the UN in September where the Goals and Targets will be agreed.
The Pope has of course made the fight against modern slavery one of the priorities of his pontificate and I have been working with the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences at the Vatican to work up some small amendments to the current drafting, at least in the textual sense, which I believe would make a major difference to the anti-slavery movement.
We are told there is still likely to be time for small drafting improvements and the support of the UK Government is key.
Ensuring action to end slavery is prioritised in the Goals is actually one of the commitments in the Modern Slavery Strategy and I know that Offer has been working over the past few days with his senior colleagues to see how this can be most effectively progressed.
The Goals and Targets will directly inform international development funding and priorities until 2030, and we will not get another chance to influence this.
And last, but by no means least, I will be evaluating the law enforcement response to modern slavery across the UK
I will introduce a new framework to assess the response of all forces across the UK to modern slavery crime. I want to highlight good practice and effective levels of performance and to provide feedback and advice where the response requires improvement.
I will finish with a statement that I will continue to make wherever I speak, and which will inform the ethos of my office and all of our objectives.
If anyone is a victim of this serious crime, we must all be clear of our priority, that their nationality, background or immigration status must not be a bar to them receiving support and justice.
And I very much look forward to working with groups and individuals present here today, to build the platform and opportunities provided by the new legislation to achieve the aspiration that I know we all share to improve support for survivors, increase the numbers of prosecutions and have a sustained impact in significantly reducing the footprint of this cruel trade in human life, in the UK and beyond.
Thank you.