An interim report on our Tackling Modern Day Slavery special initiative, which collates the significant progress made by the five funded organisations in addressing exploitation in the UK.
Key achievements, to which the funding has made a contribution, include:
- Government commitment to bring forward by two years its timetable for ratifying the Council of Europe Convention on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings. This enshrines a legal obligation to provide trafficked people with minimum standards of protection and assistance.
- The Government’s announcement that migrant domestic workers will retain their existing rights (above all to change employer), following an intensive campaign by Kalayaan (in partnership with others including Unite trade union and Oxfam) against threatened changes incorporated in the new Points-Based System for immigration.
- London Councils’ creation of a new funding stream for work supporting women to exit prostitution, partly in response to CPF’s grant for the unique new role of Exiting Prostitution Development Officer at Eaves.
- The Government now intends to lift the UK’s reservation to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, one of ECPAT’s three campaign calls. This will mean that all children in the UK have equal rights irrespective of their immigration status.
However, there are still major persistent challenges in this field, including the impact of immigration policy on trafficked people, and the translation of national policy into real changes on the ground.
The report was launched at a discussion event on 29 September, which brought together independent funders with NGOs in the field to explore how to move forward policy and practice in addressing human trafficking in the UK.
06 October 2008