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Trafficking laws are
Anti-Immigration
laws...... |
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Recent Immigration
News
:-
UK
Legislation and
Immigration
:
09
December 2010:-
Trafficking laws
are
Anti-Immigration
laws
Anti-
trafficking laws
are
anti-immigration
laws, according
to research by
sex worker
rights network,
x:talk project.
Their report,
Human Rights,
Sex Work and the
Challenge of
Trafficking, was
recently
released and is
an appraisal of
anti-trafficking
measures from
some of the
people who have
been most
affected by
them: sex
workers.
While no one
would want to
underplay the
gross human
rights violation
that trafficking
amounts to, the
x:talk report
argues that laws
and measures
introduced to
address
trafficking have
been more
effective at
rounding up
migrant sex
workers and
charging them
with
prostitution and
immigration
crimes than
supporting and
assisting
genuine victims
of trafficking.
‘Rescuing’
victims of
trafficking?
Take, for
example,
Pentameter 2, a
joint policing
and UKBA
operation aimed
at ‘rescuing’
victims of
trafficking.
This series of
raids on 822
indoor sex
venues across
the UK resulted
in the
conviction of
just 15 people
on trafficking
charges, in
contrast to the
122 people who
were arrested
for immigration
offences during
the operation.
Human
trafficking has
been framed in
the UK in terms
of a sexual
offence whose
victims are
women, and with
little
distinction made
between
trafficking and
prostitution per
se. The x:talk
report expresses
concern that
this policy
focus has the
effect of
creating a moral
panic around
women working in
the sex
industry. And
that is
particularly the
case for migrant
women, who have
become the
target of
immigration
round-ups and,
as a result,
have been pushed
into more
underground,
less safe
pockets of the
industry.
Irregular
immigration
status has also
been a major
mechanism of
blackmail and
control by
people who do
seek to exploit
or control these
women.
Not just
women
The report also
argues that
anti-trafficking
efforts are
failing to
recognise or
address the
needs of men and
transgender
people who are
trafficked, as
well as people
trafficked into
non-sexual work.
Between 2003 and
December 2008, a
total of 92
people were
convicted of sex
trafficking,
compared with
four convictions
for labour
trafficking.
In terms of
protecting the
human rights of
trafficked
people, the UK
offers no
national
coordinated
framework for
providing
services to
victims of
trafficking. As
recently as
August this
year, the SOCA
website defined
trafficking as:
“the movement of
illegal
immigrants for
exploitation
within the UK,”
which it
isn’t—trafficking
does not always
involve
cross-border
migration or
breaches of
migration law,
yet it would
appear it has
been adopted by
the UK
authorities as
yet another
front in the
protection of UK
border
integrity.
The report calls
upon the
Government to
rethink its
trafficking
policy. It
recommends that
to protect the
human rights of
migrants against
exploitation in
the UK (sexual
or otherwise),
the UK must sign
and ratify the
Convention on
the Protection
of the Rights of
All Migrant
Workers and
Members of their
Families and
that, in
general, a
migrant’s
immigration
status cannot be
invoked to
undermine their
human rights. (JCWI
Publication)
< Click Here for
Further Advice
and
Representation >
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