Shadow City - Exposing Human Trafficking in Everyday London
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See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/271190650 Shadow City - Exposing Human Trafficking in Everyday London Technical Report · October 2013 CITATIONS READS 0 123 1 author: Tamara Barnett University of London 2 PUBLICATIONS 1 CITATION SEE PROFILE All content following this page was uploaded by Tamara Barnett on 21 January 2015. The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. SHADOW CITY Exposing Human Trafficking in Everyday London Andrew Boff GLA Conservatives 2nd Revision Table of Contents Foreword by Anthony Steen 1 Methodology 2 Acknowledgements 4 Executive Summary 7 Introduction 17 Background to the research in this report 21 Nigerian victims of trafficking 41 Chinese victims of trafficking 88 The sex grooming and trafficking of British children 107 The labour trafficking of homeless and vulnerable men 134 Latin American victims of trafficking 155 Vietnamese victims of trafficking 172 Recommendations for the Greater London Authority 195 Recommendations for the Government 205 Return on investment model 208 Survey of teachers and social workers in London 216 Appendix I 220 Appendix II 223 Appendix III 227 Foreword by Anthony Steen Chairman of the Human Trafficking Foundation, founder of the APPG on Human Trafficking, and a former MP whose Private Members Bill led to the establishment of the National Slavery Day Human trafficking or modern day slavery, as it should be called, is starting to impinge upon public consciousness and affect the political landscape. Few people understand what it’s all about and the different kinds of slavery which exist, whether Vietnamese boys tending cannabis plants or Nigerian girls forced into domestic servitude. No one seems to care too much because there are few votes in it anyway. Yet the number of victims identified is increasing year by year and the number of traffickers convicted falling. Nearly 50% of the victims of modern day slavery are found in London and the Home Counties. Traffickers are traders in human beings; just as if they were coffee they are a commodity. Traffickers are business men and women who use the fact that human beings are recyclable to exploit new business opportunities. London, as the capital city, has a vast dark side to it that few of us see. London residents don’t believe they ever come into contact with it, but they are wrong. As Andrew Boff’s report shows, Londoners are probably never more than a few hundred yards away from a victim of trafficking. With 7500 cannabis farms being found in the UK last year, victims are close by and look the same as us, yet they are all unseen, hidden and not easily detected. Andrew Boff’s report shows why victims hidden away in closed communities are even more difficult to detect. The community closes in around them and prevents authorities discovering them. In exploring these issues, Andrew Boff has, once again, done a great service to all of us fighting modern day slavery and to Londoners in particular. His enquiring mind and detective-like qualities have produced a penetrating study exploring what is actually happening in London’s ‘closed communities’. By raising this issue in his capacity of leader of the Conservative Group on the Greater London Authority, he is doing exactly what is needed to make us all more aware of how we should be fighting back and rescuing victims caught in this ugly snare. This report is essential reading for those who are concerned to rid this country of modern day slavery. Shadow City | 1 Methodology Methods In this report I have used the following range of qualitative and quantitative methods: • Qualitative interviews with 64 stakeholders including representatives from the third sector, statutory services, trafficking consultancies, and government officials. • Formulated a survey for 30 teachers and 30 social workers in London to test their awareness of human trafficking and how to respond to it. • Data provided by the UKHTC, Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime, the Crown Prosecution Service, Anti-Slavery International’s RACE in Europe Project, the Metropolitan Police Service, the UK Missing Persons Bureau, and NGOs working with trafficking victims. • A review of some of the literature on the topic of human trafficking. • Produced a Return on Investment (ROI) model for the recommendations in the report Limitations This report is a collection of anecdotal and statistical evidence which I have collected over the past year about human trafficking in London. The aim of the report is partly to provide an overview of what various interested parties believe is going on, where disagreements exist, and where stakeholders' concerns lie. Indeed, some of the evidence I have heard in fact contradicts other evidence I have received. However, I wanted to give experts and communities in London a voice and therefore I have included quotations that may be controversial and may require further evidence. I hope these quotations, from experts on trafficking and exploitation, many of which were repeated consistently to me in various guises by other stakeholders, are examined by the authorities, who have greater resource to look into these concerns further. The nature of human trafficking is fluid and changing. The authorities and police are also constantly changing both in terms of their structure and their response. Indeed the UKBA was formally dissolved while I wrote this report and the name of the Human Exploitation and Organised Crime Command, which comprises the Metropolitan Police Service’s Human Trafficking Unit, has changed multiple times. Therefore some evidence may be out of date or could soon be following this report's publication. Anecdotal evidence may at times be unreliable. For practical and ethical reasons, the majority of victims’ case studies we cite in this report were heard second hand from those who worked with victims of trafficking. Furthermore, qualitative evidence can be unreliable due to possible vested interests of the parties involved, or may be distorted by different views by different stakeholders of, for example, what a victim of trafficking actually constitutes. Shadow City | 2 Data is also potentially unreliable. As discussed in the report, the data acquired may simply reflect those cases where police are proactively looking. Alternatively, it may predominantly include only those victims who are more easily able to escape, or be found, or who are more easily identifiable as victims of trafficking. What is not in the data may indeed be where we should be most concerned. The reverse however is also possible. The survey I have carried out involves only a small number of interviewees. This means that the results are not steadfast but simply give a broad brushstroke of possible gaps in London- based social workers’ and teachers’ knowledge around human trafficking. Shadow City | 3 Acknowledgements Tamara Barnett - Author and Researcher of the main body of the report Elizabeth Willmott-Harrop – Author and Researcher of the Return on Investment Model The survey was carried out by Censuswide Andrew Boff would like to thank these individuals and organisations for their time, as well as the many other individuals and organisations who have chosen not to be named, for all the valuable information they have provided and for all their assistance with this report. In alphabetical order: ⋅ Niki Adams, English Collective of Prostitutes ⋅ Dr Laura Agustín, author of Sex at the Margins: Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry ⋅ Carolina Albuerne, Refugee and Human Trafficking Specialist ⋅ Olori Grace Alli-Tijani, Executive Director, Domestic Violence and Sexual Abuse Counselling Service (DASAC) ⋅ Professor Bridget Anderson, Professor of Migration and Citizenship, and Deputy Director, Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS) ⋅ Debbie Ariyo, Founder and Chief Executive, Africans Unite Against Child Abuse (AFRUCA) ⋅ Cherifa Atoussi, Consultant, Anti Trafficking Consultant Ltd ⋅ Professor Kurt Barling, Professor of Professional Practice in Journalism & Television, Middlesex University London and Special Correspondent, BBC London News ⋅ Pam Bowen, Strategy and Policy Directorate, Crown Prosecution Service ⋅ Marcela Benedetti, VAWG Outreach and Prevention Coordinator, Latin American Women’s Rights Services (LAWRS) ⋅ Antony Botting, Human Trafficking and NRM Project Lead Officer in Croydon Borough ⋅ Vicky Brotherton, Project Assistant, Anti-Slavery International’s RACE in Europe Project ⋅ Myriam Cherti, Associate Fellow, Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) ⋅ Andy Desmond, Director, Anti-Trafficking Consultant Ltd, and UNODC Expert ⋅ Peter Dolby, Director and Co-Founder, Counter Human Trafficking Bureau (CHTB) ⋅ Andy Elvin, CEO, Children and Families Across Borders (CFAB) ⋅ Benjamin Flook, Intern, Greater London Authority ⋅ Lola Gani-Yusuf, Anti-Trafficking Project Coordinator, Africans Unite Against Child Abuse, (AFRUCA) ⋅ Carolina Gottardo, Director, Latin American Women’s Rights Services (LAWRS) ⋅ Hera Shadow City | 4 ⋅ Paul Hewitt, Head of Safeguarding Children and Quality Assurance, Hillingdon Council ⋅ The Home Office ⋅ Hope for Justice ⋅ Philip Ishola, Director, Counter Human Trafficking Bureau (CHTB) ⋅ Raven Kaliana, Director, Outspiral ⋅ Kids Company ⋅ Dr Tom Lam, fieldworker for Chinese migrants for COMPAS ⋅ Marai Larasi, Executive Director, Imkaan ⋅ Jaime Law, Project Coordinator, Chinese Information and Advice Centre (CIAC) ⋅ Dr. Lois Lee, Founder and President, Children of the Night ⋅