I read in The Independent on Sunday that the government is to scrap safeguards for people who are trafficked into the UK for use in the sex industry and elsewhere, and could not believe what I was reading. This government has really sunk to the depths of callousness. Below is a letter I have sent to Lynne Featherstone, Lib Dem MP for Hornsey and Wood Green and Minister for Equalities. When she replies, I will publish it here on this blog.
To: Lynne Featherstone MP, Minister for Equalities
Dear Ms Featherstone,
I am writing to you after reading a very disturbing story in the Independent on Sunday, about the coalition government’s plans to scrap safeguards on human trafficking into the UK.
The piece reports that some 4,000 people, mostly women are brought into the UK each year to work in the sex trade, and many more, including children, are smuggled in to work as domestic servants, farm hands and drug cultivators.
It goes on to say that government plans will:
Close The Gang Masters Licensing Authority
Close The Metropolitan Police’s Human Trafficking Unit
Close the government’s Human Trafficking Centre.
Cut funding by almost a half for The ‘Poppy Project’ which provides shelter for trafficked women
The Border Agency’s ‘reflection’ time for deciding whether a person has been trafficked is to be reduced from 45 to 30 days
The EU directive against trafficking has not been adopted in the UK
The Independent does say that there is some disquiet amongst Lib Dem MP’s and ministers, but is disquiet going to be enough to put right this disgraceful state of affairs?
I am asking you, as my constituency MP and Minister for Equalities, to use all the means at your disposal to reverse these planned changes, which would be a callous dereliction of duty to the abused people who suffer this abhorrent treatment.
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