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Home Office

Answer

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many cases of trafficking of people were reported to his Department in each of the last three years; [196008] (2) how many cases of illegal trafficking of women from Moldova were reported to his Department (a) last year and (b) within the last six months. [196009] Mr. Browne: Until the recent introduction of legislation specifically criminalising trafficking, prosecutions for trafficking have been for a variety of associated offences. These include amongst others facilitation of illegal entry, kidnap, false imprisonment and living off immoral earnings. The UK keeps detailed statistics on all court proceedings in a national database and publishes these on an annual basis. While information on convictions for all these offences is available, it is not possible to determine which of the prosecutions for associated offences related to cases of trafficking. We have recently introduced legislation to criminalise trafficking comprehensively. We introduced an offence of trafficking for prostitution in the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002. This was replaced by more wide-ranging offences of trafficking for sexual exploitation in the Sexual Offences Act 2003. A new offence, of "trafficking for exploitation", which includes, for example, trafficking for forced labour and the removal of organs, has also been included in the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc.) Act 2004. All these offences carry a tough 14 year maximum sentence. We are starting to see charges brought for the offences in the 2002 Act and 2003 Act but are not yet aware of any successful prosecutions. We are committed to supporting effective enforcement action against trafficking. Reflex, a multi- agency taskforce, was set up in 2000 to deal with organised immigration crime, including trafficking. Its remit is to co-ordinate the enforcement response to such issues, both nationally and internationally, and to develop the intelligence and strategic planning to underpin this. We are seeing successful disruptions and prosecutions of cases of human trafficking including cases which have involved women trafficked from Moldova. In February 2004 three people were convicted of offences relating to the trafficking of women from Moldova and Lithuania to work in the London vice trade. The principal defendant was convicted of controlling prostitutes and false imprisonment and sentenced to six years imprisonment. Another example is the case of Luan Plakici. Plakici was involved in the trafficking of women from Romania and Moldova into prostitution. He was convicted of facilitation of illegal entry, incitement to commit rape, false imprisonment and kidnapping in December 2003, and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment. The Attorney General considered the sentence unduly lenient and appealed to the Court of Appeal. The court agreed and imposed a sentence of 23 years imprisonment.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

426 c1592W;426 c1595-6W; 196008;196009

Session

2003-04

Subjects

Women Undocumented migrants Human trafficking Organised crime Moldova

Link

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