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People Trafficking

Answer

It is difficult to make an accurate assessment of the number of people trafficked into the UK for sexual or labour exploitation and particularly by reference to the year and country of origin. An indicator of the number of victims involved in this type of trafficking is the number of referrals to the Poppy Project. Since the scheme's inception in 2003 a total of 184 women who met the criteria for the project have been referred to it (out of a total of 451 referrals between March 2003 and the end of March 2006). However, the scheme operates mainly in London and has tightly focussed criteria, so the number of victims nationwide is likely to be higher. A breakdown of the country of origin for women who met the criteria for the Poppy Project follows. Operation Pentameter, a police-led, multi-agency initiative aimed at tackling the trafficking of human beings for sexual exploitation has resulted in the rescue of 75 women since its launch on the 21 February. These cases are subject to on-going investigation and as such it would not be appropriate to disclose the country of origin of the potential trafficking victims. The Home Office has commissioned CEOP the Child Exploitation and Online Protection centre to conduct an intelligence gathering exercise to scope the problem of child trafficking in the UK; initial findings are expected in the autumn.There is currently little information on the scale of trafficking for labour exploitation and officials are considering ways in which our knowledge can be improved. Illegal working statistics may provide some indication of the possible size of the illegal working market. Statistical returns are provided on a monthly basis by local enforcement offices, showing the breakdown by nationality of those encountered during illegal working operations. There is currently no facility available to record whether those encountered have been trafficked for the purpose of labour exploitation. However, following are statistics available for illegal working operations for each financial year since 2002 with the top five nationalities identified (figures are not available prior to 2002). 2002-03—A total of 301 operations were reported; a total of 1,099 offenders were encountered. Poland, Lithuania, Brazil, Ukraine and Pakistan were the top five nationalities identified in descending order. 2003-04—A total of 697 operations were reported in 2003-04; a total of 2,304 offenders were encountered. Brazil, Poland, Lithuania, Bangladesh and Ukraine were the top five nationalities identified in descending order. 2004-05—A total of 3,314 operations were reported in 2004-05; a total of 9,227 offenders were encountered. Turkey, Bangladesh, Pakistan, India and Brazil were the top five nationalities identified in descending order.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

74856; 447 c1838W;447 c1837-8W

Session

2005-06

Subjects

Human trafficking

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk