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Human Trafficking

Every few months, we debate human trafficking in the House and, with wringing of hands and tearing of garments, every speaker highlights how awful it is. Ministers are abject with apology and say how dreadful it is, and the Government say that they are doing everything they can to stop it. Let us give the Minister his due. He is thoroughly decent and is doing a difficult job with conviction and humour. We all know that he is a good egg. He travels the world searching for answers, studying the problem and meeting officials and, rather like ““The Pilgrim's Progress””, is bedevilled, I hope, by obstacles rather than temptations. I pay tribute to his commitment. I had not considered human trafficking before 2005, although I was trained in the caring professions. I first became aware of its horrors when, as a member of the Select Committee on European Scrutiny, I visited Romania and Bulgaria before their accession to the EU. I had never travelled to eastern Europe before 2005, and I had no idea of the extent of the abject poverty there, nor that fraud was a recognised way of life and that the judiciary and the police were riddled with corruption. I was also oblivious to the fact that there is, and has been for generations, a Roma community with 6 million to 8 million disadvantaged people living in a similar way to that in the middle ages in Britain. Some 70 per cent. of people in most towns and villages live on the breadline, and their only means of transport is a horse and cart, with the horse sharing the accommodation with the family. In that environment, there are inevitable risks of young people in such communities being trafficked to more prosperous western European countries. Children are often sold through debt bondage to successful gangs who prey on the poorest members of their own communities. Some are duped by the lover-boy syndrome, and are persuaded by lucrative jobs that do not exist but are under the illusion that the Elysian fields are not far away. Three years ago, trafficking in Britain was hardly acknowledged. There is relatively little mention of it in Hansard before 2004. Trafficking tended to be confused with prostitution, and I believe that it still is. Child trafficking was considered to be something to do with adoption from families who had too many children and wanted to find homes for them. It was something that charities dealt with. What is the reality? Human trafficking is one of the most lucrative businesses in the world, comparable to drugs and arms dealing. If it were not lucrative, traffickers would not do it. However, when the going gets tough, traffickers become craftier. If the risks become greater and the money less certain, traffickers switch to another country or another field of criminal activity. There is a pan-European criminal network, but much trafficking is conducted by a loose association of men and women who make a living by exploiting poor and vulnerable younger people who are looking for a better life. Two years ago, the media were in full cry. A week did not pass without lurid pictures of grotty rooms inhabited by loosely clad women. The horror stories abounded. More recently, the police raid in Slough resulted in middle-page spreads in the tabloids depicting Roma children, many under 10, pickpocketing, stealing from ATMs and shoplifting. The media captured vividly the discovery of so-called cannabis factories on the edge of northern towns and cities with Vietnamese boys tending the plants for rich and influential bosses. We must not be too surprised that the result of Pentameter 2 was 167 victims discovered, 528 criminals arrested, 822 premises visited, 6,400 police intelligence reports gathered and £500,000 recovered. Of the victims, 13 were children. That is hardly surprising, but what is surprising is that, apart from the BBC, which ran the news item all day, the media did not give it much media attention. It is as though they have grown bored with the subject, the public are anaesthetised to horror stories that no longer shock, and the media are moving on to something else. Furthermore, MPs do not see many votes in the fight against trafficking. Constituents are not too concerned about exploitation, provided that it is not in their street. In Devon, most people tell me that it simply does not happen there, but they are wrong. Pentameter 2 found evidence of trafficking in many west country areas, and quite a lot in Plymouth. The fact is that it is all over Britain, and perhaps the Minister will confirm that if he has half a chance and sufficient time. There is some confusion about nomenclature. The difficulty is the culture of disbelief and the inability of trafficked people to disclose and articulate what they have been through. They are fearful of reprisals. Some of the young people who are trafficked to Britain are carefully schooled so that they can escape quickly from a local authority into whose hands they may be placed. Just yesterday, The Western Mail in Wales, which I read regularly, reported that 35 children were missing without trace from major cities in Wales, raising concern about child trafficking there.