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Child Slavery

I welcome you to the Chair, Mr Hood. It is a privilege to serve under your chairmanship today. I rise to speak on this subject in the reassuring knowledge that on the general thrust of this debate, it is more than likely for the most part that party political differences will be set to one side. I say that not out of any sense of presumption but from my own experiences as a Member of this House and from the united opposition to the obscenity that is child slavery. We may differ in our responses to particular examples, but right hon. and hon. Members from all parts of the House have a shared abhorrence of the ongoing present-day shame and nightmare of child slavery. Recently, Save the Children UK reaffirmed the figures of the International Labour Organisation, which revealed that across the globe, something like 218 million children between the ages of five and 17 are working as child labourers or are in child slavery. 126 million of those children are involved in hazardous work. About 8.4 million are trapped in the very worst forms of illegal, degrading and dangerous work. That equates to the horrifying statistic that in the least developed countries, 30% of children are engaged in child labour in some shape or form. In sub-Saharan Africa, there are some 49 million children involved in this activity. It is further estimated that some 1.2 million children, both boys and girls, are trafficked every year and exploited as workers in agriculture, mining, factories, armed conflict and the sex industry. Those children are modern-day slaves, and the numbers are greater than when the old historical slave trade was at its height. Their sufferings are no less wrong, and the injustice inflicted upon them is no less real than those that were endured by slaves in a bygone era. I want to consider three main issues: forced marriage, which is a form of slavery for children as young as 10 and 12; the trafficking of children for sexual exploitation; and forced labour and the economic exploitation of children. When we consider the issue of forced marriages, it is worth remarking that the previous Government tightened up the situation, which is to be welcomed. However, the then shadow Minister, Baroness Warsi, had this to say in relation to the new laws:"““The onus to go for a civil protection order is actually on the victim of the forced marriage or somebody close to them. I know from speaking to victims of forced marriages that, when they're in those circumstances, the last thing on their mind or the last thing that they're able to do, is go to court and seek an order.””" Hon. Members will no doubt be familiar with the fact that between April 2009 and March 2010, the British high commission's assistance unit in Islamabad dealt with 121 cases of forced marriages, and there were 124 cases previous to that. In August 2008, 22 new cases were taken on by the unit—equivalent to one every working day of that month. In reference to those figures, Baroness Warsi said:"““Forced marriage ruins lives. It can lead to rape, abuse, and unwanted pregnancies. This is a serious problem, and these figures are just the tip of the iceberg. Forced marriages have no ""place in Britain today. The Government's current approach is clearly failing vulnerable people who need our help. It is now time for the Government to consider making forced marriage a criminal offence.””" I am sure that many hon. Members will also be aware of the story of 14-year-old Jasvinder Sanghera who was shown a photograph of a random man and told that she was going to marry him. She ran away from home. When she rang to say that she was safe, she was given an ultimatum: either marry the man in the photograph or, because she had ““shamed”” the family, she would be dead in their eyes. Later, she heard that one of her sisters was brought to such depths of pain and despair by her own forced marriage that she set fire to herself and died in hospital from 80% burns. I have no doubt that hon. Members will know of the letter that the then leader of the Opposition and now Prime Minister sent Jasvinder in which he said:"““As a country, I believe that we are half-asleep to these issues.””" I am sure that many hon. Members will share my concern about the recent report in The Times on 2 February that stated that of the 254 protection orders issued, only five families have been brought back to court for breaching the order and there have been no convictions. In the same report, Nazir Afzal of the Crown Prosecution Service said:"““You are easily looking at 10,000 forced marriages or threats a year. I keep asking myself how many unmarked graves are there where people are not even reporting that their child is missing.””"