Trafficked people being treated as criminals by officials, inquiry says

[The Straight Story]

Trafficked people being treated as criminals by officials, inquiry says

The victims of human trafficking, including women forced into the sex industry or trapped as unpaid domestic servants, are being unfairly treated as criminals and illegal immigrants, an inquiry has found.

The investigation by Lady Helena Kennedy QC has concluded that the police and immigration authorities fail to see the thousands of women, men and children trafficked into Britain as the innocent victims of organised crime whose own basic rights have been breached.

...

She said trafficked people frequently end up being forced to work in prostitution, domestic service, fruit and vegetable picking, food processing, benefit fraud and cannabis cultivation. But the issue is chiefly treated by the authorities as an illegal immigration, sexual offences or crime enforcement matter.

Victims were treated as part of the problem, or their needs and rights sidelined, as detectives focus on the brothel owner or the smuggler, since trafficking victims often emerged in raids for drugs, prostitution or immigration offences. By contrast, a British citizen who had been raped or seriously wounded in a normal setting would be given much greater support.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2011/nov/27/human-trafficking-crime-victims?CMP=twt_fd