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Human Trafficking

It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr. Pope. I congratulate the hon. Member for Totnes (Mr. Steen) on securing another Adjournment debate on this important issue. Other Members have congratulated him, and I join in those congratulations. I pay tribute to the work done on this matter by the hon. Member for Wellingborough (Mr. Bone), as well as by my hon. Friend the Member for Slough (Fiona Mactaggart) and my right hon. Friend the Member for Rotherham (Mr. MacShane), who have contributed significantly to the debate. I also thank the Liberal Democrat and Conservative spokesmen for the measured way in which they made their points. It is an extremely important matter to us all. If we continue to try to achieve unity of purpose, we might make more significant progress than we sometimes do. I congratulate the police and all the agencies involved—the United Kingdom Human Trafficking Centre, the UK Border Agency and the Serious Organised Crime Agency—on their work on Operation Pentameter 2, which involved not just the police, but a wide range of organisations. I will try to rattle through many of the points raised, although not necessarily in the order that they were raised, and to answer some of the specific questions. The Government will ratify the Council of Europe convention by the end of the year. That will not require any more primary legislation. We accomplished one part of it during the summer in the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill, and one or two small pieces of secondary legislation are necessary to deal with some of the health aspects. I confirm that we are on track to ratify, that no primary legislation will be needed and that some small points can be dealt with by secondary legislation. As hon. Members have said, Operation Pentameter 2 identified 176 victims, 13 of whom were children. Some 582 criminals were arrested and 822 premises were visited, of which 157 were massage parlours and 582 residential properties. I will return to the matter of residential properties in a moment. Five victims of forced labour were also rescued, three of whom were children. Although we concentrate, rightly, on trafficking for purposes of sexual exploitation and on child trafficking, we must remember that we know even less about trafficking for forced labour than about some other issues. We need to do more on that, and we will. The hon. Member for Totnes asked me to confirm that trafficking is everywhere. Pentameter 2 involved 582 residential properties, which made it significantly different from Pentameter 1 in terms of where victims were found and where intelligence led the police to conduct their operations. You might say that it was down your street, Mr. Pope. Significant numbers in all areas of the country were involved. It is not just an issue for some parts of some cities; it is significant for every area. A regional breakdown is available. In the south-west, 65 premises were visited, of which 56 were residential and nine were massage parlours, and 54 suspects were arrested. The hon. Gentleman asked about the seizure of criminal assets. Assets were seized across the country, but in his area, the south-west, £158,300 in cash was seized. Again, figures broken down area by area are available. The hon. Gentleman also asked about victim engagement. Of the 154 adult victims identified, 22 are in support and 31 have been voluntarily returned. I want to deal with this point, because it goes to the heart of the problem and is a public policy challenge recognised by every Member who takes an interest in the issue. It is one thing to send in police to rescue victims; it is quite another to build up those victims' confidence and trust to the point where they will work with the authorities and police. That is a huge problem. Many of the people offered support will not take it, and we should try to understand why. That has to do with deception, fear and intimidation in their own country and, particularly with respect to the Chinese, who made up a significant part of the nationalities rescued, it has to do with debt bondage. We must understand those issues if we are to do something about the problem. Of course, we must ensure that welfare services are available, but even when they are, it is sometimes difficult to encourage people to come forward. Hon. Members said that trafficking should be core police business. That is essential. On convictions, 100 people have been charged so far. There have been 20 convictions, and many other cases are ongoing. Hon. Members may be interested to know the nationalities of the 167 victims. There were 55 from continental EU states, 81 from China and south-east Asia, five from South America, one from the Indian subcontinent and four from non-EU European countries. I point out that 47 Chinese nationals were rescued; it is a growing problem that we will need to deal with. There were 27 from Thailand and 21 from Romania. There were victims of other nationalities as well, but those are the ones that I am looking at. Hon. Members will realise that I will not be able to answer all their questions; I apologise. I will deal with two: the demand review, and child trafficking and safety, which many hon. Members mentioned. Child trafficking is a real problem, not only in rescuing children, but in keeping them safe once they are in the care of the state. When I was in Amsterdam considering the demand review, as my hon. Friend the Member for Slough mentioned, I spoke to the Dutch Government. Hon. Members may know that the Dutch Government provide four 12-bed units. Clearly, many more children than that are trafficked there, as they are in our own country. Each child has individuals responsible for them 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The area is patrolled; that is perhaps the wrong word, but there are people around outside all the time. The children are not allowed out unaccompanied. Given all that—I take the point made by the hon. Member for Wellingborough—children still go missing. Fewer do so, but children still unscrew windows and do all sorts of things to get away from the authorities. The hon. Gentleman was also right to talk about more secure accommodation. Clearly, we cannot lock up children who have done nothing and are victims, but we must find a way to ensure that rescued children are kept in a more secure environment. It is a difficult problem, even within the Dutch Government model, which has been referred to. On demand, we have not yet come to any conclusions, but we are considering what to do. We understand that demand for prostitution results in many people being trafficked into prostitution, so we need to do something about that. Even Holland, which is held up as the liberal alternative, is extremely concerned about the impact that its laws have on trafficking. That is why Holland is shutting some licensed premises and managed areas and even considering making it a criminal offence to purchase sex outside the licensed and regulated sector. I apologise to hon. Members; huge numbers of other points could be made in the debate. I will talk to hon. Members outside this Chamber, so that we can take the debate forward.