“It’s based on a presumption that everyone who uses the system is lying. They’re conflating immigration offending, migration issues, with modern slavery. There doesn’t appear to be a real understanding of the victim typology in trafficking cases.”
Ms Haughey, who said she had not been approached by the government in the drafting of the bill, added: “They want me to do more prosecutions, they want us to lock up bad guys, they want us to protect the vulnerable – why then are they chopping off both my arms while I’m trying to do it?”
Sir Iain Duncan Smith, former leader of the Conservatives and co-founder of the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), has proposed a number of amendments to the bill, warning that in its current form it risks “undoing” the Modern Slavery Act and will lead to “vital intelligence” on trafficking cases being “lost”.
“The risk is that they’ll get fewer convictions and there will be fewer people making modern slavery disclosures, and more people continuing to work in this ghastly subculture of abuse,” he told The Independent.
The Tory MP said the Home Office was “over-egging” the issue of people falsely claiming to be modern slavery victims to evade deportation, accusing ministers of wrongly branding it a “crisis”.
The CSJ proposes that all confirmed victims should be offered at least 12 months of support and immigration status, that only “serious, sexual, violent or repeat” offenders should be disqualified from support and that “greater weight” should be given to reasons why victims may make late disclosures.
Conservative MP Karen Bradley, who co-chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery, supports the amendments. She said the bill would “make it harder for the police and law enforcement to arrest the criminals responsible for these heinous crimes”.
“I am concerned that by making changes like these in what is ostensibly an immigration bill we will water down our weapons in the fight against human trafficking and modern slavery,” she added.
During the second reading of the bill in July, former prime minister Theresa May said she was concerned about the defined period people would be given to disclose the abuse they suffered.
“We must have legislation that not only strengthens the government’s ability to deal with illegal immigration but continues to show that the UK is a country that welcomes those who are genuinely fleeing from persecution,” she told MPs.
Shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds has written to Ms Patel warning that the bill would “make it harder for victims to be identified and bring cases forward”, thus “undermining the UK’s position to lead across the world in addressing modern slavery”.
The Labour MP, who last week held a roundtable discussion with experts about the impact of the bill on the fight against trafficking described the plan to set a time limit for people to disclose they are victims as “dangerous”.
“Instead of improving the identification of victims at an early stage and providing support, this bill will allow organised criminal networks to continue operating,” his letter states.
Phil Brewer, who served as modern slavery lead for the Metropolitan Police between 2014 and 2019 and worked as a police officer for a total of 30 years, told The Independent the bill was “wholly worrying” for the UK’s fight against modern slavery.
“It hasn’t been properly thought through. They want to make it harder for people that want to take advantage of the system, but actually it will exclude a much higher number of genuine victims. It will empower exploiters to control and coerce people,” he said.
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Multicultural Meanderings 