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Slavery

My Lords, I thank the noble Earl, Lord Sandwich, for initiating this important and highly relevant debate. We have already heard from many noble Lords about some of the horrors of contemporary slavery, which abounds world-wide today. There has been very little mention, as far as I can remember, of Africa. While researching the issue of slavery in the modern world, I found myself appalled by the differing statistics and the extent of the problem. The noble Lord, Lord   Alton, mentioned the League of Nations Slavery Convention of 1926, which first defined slavery as:"““The status or condition of a person over whom any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership are exercised””." A slave is forced to work, owned or controlled by an employer; is treated as a commodity, or bought and sold as property; and is physically constrained or has his movements restricted. I was fascinated by the argument put by the noble Lord, Lord Giddens, in his speech, which was, as always, eloquent. Nowadays, slavery manifests itself more obviously as internal and international trafficking, on which I shall concentrate today. The trafficking is predominantly of women and children for exploitation and cheap labour, usually in agriculture, domestic service, construction or the sex industry. When we consider slavery, we often imagine illegal sweatshops in third world countries. It is embarrassingly true that the problem of slavery is just as real in what used to be called the ““first world”” as it is in third world countries, as the noble Lord, Lord Brett, emphasised. In the past few years, we had the tragedy of the illegal immigrant cockle-pickers at Morecambe Bay, who were mentioned by the right reverend Prelate, the Bishop of Leicester. We have also seen a growing awareness of the problem of people trafficking for the sex industry, specifically of women and children being lured to the UK, or being brought over, and being forced to work as prostitutes, having had their passports removed. On an international scale, there is growing concern for the orphans of the Tsunami and a call for greater security to be provided to protect them from being trafficked, exploited or adopted illegally. ECPAT, an organisation that focuses on protecting children from trafficking and exploitation, has been highly involved with calls for action in this area. We now have before the House the Children and Adoption Bill, which, through legal adoption, cracks down on child trafficking. The noble Lord, Lord Hylton, rightly pointed out that it does nothing, however, to deal with the problem of controlling and registering international fostering. Perhaps the Minister can tell us whether there will be action to move in this direction to protect children such as Victoria Climbié. Recently, there have also been growing fears for the disappearance of young African boys from schools in London, with possible links to child trafficking. It is impossible to estimate, and equally difficult to tackle, the issue of trafficking and exploitation of children and women. A Home Office report of 2000 concluded that:"““It may be estimated that the scale of trafficking in women into and within the UK lies within the range of 142 and 1,420 women a year””." Those vague figures give us little idea of the size of the problem. Can the Minister give us any clear idea of the scale of the trafficking of people into the UK for the purposes of sexual and non-sexual trafficking? If not, can she reassure us that research into the issue will take place at the soonest convenience? I notice that the Government have not yet signed up to the European Convention on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings, which was formally opened for signature at the Council of Europe’s summit of heads of state in Warsaw on 16 and 17 May this year. That is the first ever international law specifically for protecting the rights of trafficked people. It guarantees a period of 30 days for the support, recovery and safe housing of trafficked people. It also gives them temporary residence, should they be in danger of returning to their own countries, and assists them with criminal proceedings. The Government claim that they have concerns about certain provisions of the convention and want to resolve those issues before signing it. Perhaps the Minister will tell us what those specific concerns are and how close the Government have come to resolving them. I hope that the Minister will reassure us that the Government are taking every possible step to take a hard line on trafficking in this country. There was certainly some criticism of how the Morecambe Bay incident was handled and how it could possibly have been avoided. ESPAT has warned that there is often an underlying tension between how the police view trafficked women as victims of crime and how the immigration services view them as illegal entrants and potential deportees. Can the Minister explain how, within the different parts of the Home Office the Government are working to harmonise the process of handling, assisting and supporting trafficked people? I end by saying that I share the sentiments of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who, in a speech in 1999, commented:"““Slavery  . . . I didn’t know about all these forms that existed. I think it’s largely because we aren’t expecting it. It is hidden. Generally people would not believe that it is possible under modern conditions. They would say, ‘No, I think you are making it all up’, because it is just too incredible””."