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Human Trafficking

I am talking about trafficking, Mr. Martlew. I am referring to trafficked women. We have to get the facts and figures right. Since the majority of trafficked women come from the countries to which the good professor refers, I have to make the point. A reductio ad absurdum argument obtains in the mindset of those who argue not for a reduction of sex slave traffic, but for its regulation—indeed, its legalisation. I am not sure whether the Home Office deals with the English Collective of Prostitutes. We know nothing of its figures or its financing, whom it represents or who controls it, but it argues on its website—I checked this morning—that Government feminists and Christian fundamentalists have joined forces in claiming that prostitution is violence. Those 18,000 people, according to Pentameter 2, were trafficked into Britain for sexual purposes—they are the prostituted women at the heart of our debate. I therefore state that the use of prostituted women occurs in a context of violence. The Ipswich murders might have been a good example. None of those poor victims were trafficked from outside the UK. Perhaps, as the hon. Member for Totnes said, they were trafficked within the UK. Trafficking is about what happens inside the UK. It affects the most vulnerable of young girls, many of whom are in care, without parents and without a social framework or other support. We need to tackle the demand side, as we did with kerb crawling. The original idea of naming and shaming kerb crawlers was rejected as being an interference with the men's right to go up and down a street and, if they wanted, to pick up a woman and take her away in a car to have sex. Such actions were deemed to be acceptable, but councils and local communities nevertheless went out on the streets and named and shamed. Taking the same approach to brothels and massage parlours—and now internet sex and mobile telephone sex—will be an interference in the liberty of the individual, but I am all for it because, if we do not do so, the trade in sex slaves can only increase. I join the hon. Member for Totnes in calling for the speedy ratification of the Council of Europe convention. The Government have signed it, but signature is not ratification, as the people of Ireland and the President of Poland know. We need a network of centres in every major conurbation to which these young women feel that they can go. However, they will have to be protected. They have such centres in Belgium, but the pimps patrol around the centres trying to lure the girls out. We need investment. I agree with the hon. Gentleman about the problem of finding funds to allow local authorities to act—although, my goodness, we ask our local authorities to do far too much as it is. I remember when the first women's refuge was opened in Chiswick by Erin Pizzey 40-odd years ago. That was the first in Britain, but thank goodness, there are now many more. In each conurbation, we need a safe refuge for trafficked girls and women. I ask the Minister to give us some indication of when the Council of Europe convention will be ratified. I ask him also to increase the amount of statistical evidence. I shall not ask him to commit himself to acting on the demand side of sex slavery this morning, but the issue will not go away. I ask him to pay little attention to Professor Julia O'Connell Davidson, who is deeply negative and unhelpful on this issue. I hope that the Minister will confirm that she has not been consulted by the Home Office. Finally, we need time in the House for a broader debate. This should not be a party issue. It would be a huge interference in the right of the British male to buy sex as he wishes on whatever terms he wishes without being responsible for the prostituted women with whom he has that sex. The men are not going to check whether the girls are 17, 18 or 19—or even 16—or whether they come from Lithuania, Thailand or Cameroon or whether they have been trafficked or are here legally. However, until we deal with the demand side, the supply of sex slaves will never dry up.