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Migrant Domestic Workers (Visas)

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for saying that, although I suspect that his colleagues may not be. It is interesting to observe that, on the whole, we have avoided naming and shaming, whereas in other areas we do not avoid that. I have seen lists of parking fines for which various embassies in London are responsible. That information is in the public domain, and it is presumably put there by arms of the British Government. Parking illegally is irritating, but it is much less serious than the issues that we are discussing today. The Government could consider that. That answers part of the point made by the hon. Member for South Antrim (Dr. McCrea). If it is known on the diplomatic circuit around the world that if people come to this country and behave in the ways described, they will at the very least be removed from their country's embassy or high commission in this country and sent back to their own country, presumably in some kind of disgrace, that will act as a huge and effective deterrent. Indeed, it might quite quickly wipe out that type of behaviour. That would do a huge amount of good for what may be dozens or hundreds of people—we do not know. We should not give up on the criminal law and the criminal justice system. Everyone who is doing what has been described is committing a criminal offence in this country. To say that for various reasons it is difficult to collect evidence, and that we therefore have to find a new way of stopping people committing that criminal offence, seems to me a counsel of despair. I know that it is difficult for the police to collect evidence, but there are other areas of life where that is so. The hon. Member for Birmingham, Yardley, made the point about the paucity of prosecutions for exploitation more widely. It would be interesting to know whether any prosecutions have taken place in the area that we are discussing. I have a final detailed point. The issue must come under the Government's general anti-trafficking strategy. One of the things that most worries me is that the Metropolitan police's anti-trafficking unit has been absorbed into the clubs and vice unit. That sends a clear signal that that force is now looking at human trafficking purely as a sexual exploitation issue; the type of exploitation that we are discussing is therefore likely to fall below the radar. One conclusion that I reach is that our current anti-trafficking measures are not adequate, particularly in the area that we are discussing. That is one reason why a Conservative Government would introduce a specialist border police force. My second conclusion is that we should not give up on normal legal procedures and on naming and shaming embassies if necessary. My third conclusion—I know that this will disappoint the hon. Member for Reading, West—is that the long-term solution depends on harder evidence than we have before us today, unless the Minister is about to produce some. Individual cases are clearly hugely distressing and shameful, even if there is not a huge number of them. The long-term solution must depend on that evidence, but I can assure the hon. Gentleman and the House more widely that if there is a Conservative Government after the next election, we will regard the eradication of modern-day slavery in this country as a very serious and important part of our work.