Attorney General's Office

Solicitor General: Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU) Seminar on Human Trafficking

The UK is primarily a destination country for human trafficking but in tackling this crime through successful law enforcement and prosecution, we rely on effective international co-operation. The UK has experienced CPS prosecutors working in France, Italy, Spain, Pakistan and the USA. Known as liaison magistrates, their function is to facilitate extradition and advise on matters concerning mutual legal assistance between the host country and the UK. All are fluent in the official language of their host country. CPS prosecutors have also recently been appointed to work in Sierra Leone and Ghana where their role is to work with local criminal justice agencies to assist in capacity building.

I am going to outline to you some of the ways in which we co-operate with other jurisdictions through exchange of information and mutual legal assistance, border measures and extradition. The UK is also reliant on Europol, Eurojust and Frontex to support this work.

In cross border investigations law enforcement can exchange information on an informal basis (police force to police force) or work through Europol who will co-ordinate joint operations between EU Member States. Europol has a number of tools which are of assistance in developing cross border investigations into human trafficking. Through the Europol Information System, member states can insert current intelligence "objects" e.g. names, addresses, vehicles, etc into the system to allow cross checking/cross matching against other law enforcement activities. Additionally, Europol's Analytical Work Files provide another mechanism by which member states contribute intelligence to Europol who analyse it and provide operational opportunities for relevant member states. Europol currently has two Analytical Work Files dealing specifically with human trafficking and smuggling; the UK is a member of both.
Most cases of human trafficking require assistance from other jurisdictions in bringing a prosecution. The principal mechanism for obtaining or exchanging information between different jurisdictions is through mutual legal assistance.
Within the EU that mechanism is established in the 1959 European Convention on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters and which to date has been ratified by 25 member states. Additionally the UK has a number of bilateral treaties with other states including the USA and Hong Kong and is part of the Commonwealth Scheme on mutual legal assistance which provides for similar forms of assistance between Commonwealth States.
The Convention specifies how mutual assistance is provided between member states and includes specific process for service of documents, hearings by video conference, joint investigation teams and covert investigations. mutual legal assistance is requested through a letter of request, which is a legal document issued by either a judge or a Crown Prosecutor requesting assistance in obtaining evidence specified in the letter for use in criminal proceedings or to support an investigation.
In a multi-handed trafficking case from South Yorkshire involving 5 defendants from Slovakia who were trafficking their victims into the UK, the CPS prosecutor required evidence of the victims travel through Slovakia to support the prosecution case. He prepared a letter of request which was served on the public prosecutor based in Tranava in Slovakia, who caused relevant investigations to be made there. The Slovak authorities obtained evidence of their travel from bus companies there and sent the evidence in admissible form to the CPS prosecutor. This evidence corroborated the victim's testimonies and all the defendants were convicted.
However, prosecutors can also seek assistance from states with which the UK does not have formal mutual legal assistance arrangements. Such requests are simply a request for assistance without there being any obligation on the part of the recipient.

The UK is also able to provide a full range of legal assistance to judicial and prosecuting authorities in other countries for the purposes of criminal investigations and criminal proceedings.

In a recent prosecution of 3 human traffickers who trafficked young Nigerian girls into and across the UK, mutual legal assistance was provided by the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Spain, Netherlands and Nigeria resulted in the traffickers being convicted and sentenced to a total of 10 ½ years imprisonment.

In addition to obtaining evidence, mutual legal assistance can be used in Restraint (Freezing) and Confiscation of Assets and Requests for confiscation or forfeiture of property.

E-Borders is a key component of the Government's border transformation programme which aims to deliver a more effective and modernised border control that is more efficient and secure to meet the operating needs of the border agencies. The main purpose of the e-Borders programme is to collect and analyse passenger, service and crew data provided by carriers (air, sea and rail), in respect of all journeys to and from the UK in advance of their travel and supporting an intelligence-led approach to operating border controls. Data will be checked against watch-lists, analysed, risk assessed and shared between UK border agencies to improve border security and assist in the fight against organised crime and illegal migration.

In tackling human trafficking through border measures, the UK Border Agency has developed compulsory training for all front line staff to recognise trafficked victims, but particularly identification of child victims. This has been delivered through a comprehensive e-learning package developed last year.

Specialist teams 'Paladin' and 'Newbridge', which are based at Heathrow and Gatwick airports, are multi agency teams of police officers, UK Border Agency staff and Local Authority children's services. The object is to target cases of vulnerable children and intervene to protect child victims and keep them safe and investigate those who are bringing them into the country through immigration control.

UK BA Risk Assessment Liaison Officers Network overseas was established following the creation of the UK Border Agency International Group on 1 April 2008 and is an amalgamation of the former Airline Liaison Officer Network and Risk Assessment Units at visa services. A number of officers are in locations that have been identified as major source or transit countries for inadequately documented passengers arriving in the UK. Their role is to offer advice and expertise to airlines with a view to preventing or disrupting the carriage of inadequately documented passengers. They do this by providing training to airline staff and maintaining effective working relationships with airlines.

Frontex's remit focuses on improving operational co-operation between EU member states and facilitating integrated border management at the EU's external borders, aimed at identifying and preventing threats including illegal migration flows to the EU.

The UK have participated in a number of Frontex joint operations and activities which included operations in the Mediterranean as well as on the Eastern land borders. The practical co-operation co-ordinated by Frontex brings additional security in terms of stronger borders, combating illegal immigration, and immigration crime such as human trafficking.

The European Arrest Warrant process was brought into effect in the UK on 1st January 2004 through the Extradition Act 2003. Based on the concept of mutual recognition of judicial decisions, it is seen within the EU as the 'cornerstone' of judicial co-operation in criminal matters as it has significantly speeded up the extradition process between EU Member States. By including trafficking in human beings as one of the 32 stipulated framework offences, there is no dual criminality requirement for this offence; thereby removing a potential barrier to extradition.

In seeking the return of a suspect to the UK from an EU jurisdiction, CPS prosecutors draft and oversee the issuing of European Arrest Warrants in their own cases. Where a suspect is outside of the EU, prosecutors must go through the extradition unit, a small specialist unit of lawyers overseeing extradition requests, or use the liaison magistrates to assist in extradition proceedings.

CPS has used extradition proceedings in many cases of human trafficking. In an ongoing trafficking case in Manchester, 2 of the main suspects have recently been extradited from Romania and Spain to stand trial for trafficking and sexually exploiting large numbers of Romanian women in the UK. In another case the defendant, a Slovakian woman based in England, was convicted of trafficking Slovak women into the UK for sexual exploitation. Her husband, who was responsible for recruiting the women and arranging their travel, remained in Slovakia. The CPS prosecutor drafted a European Arrest Warrant for his arrest and he was brought back to the UK to stand trial for his role in the trafficking. He too was convicted of trafficking for sexual exploitation.

And finally, the UK can refer requests through Eurojust, which is the EU's judicial co-operation unit created in 2002, tasked with promoting and facilitating co-operation in the investigation of serious cross-border crime, particularly organised crime.

Eurojust encourages and improves judicial co-operation between EU member states (and third countries) in cases of serious, organised transnational crime. In the UK context "judicial co-operation" means co-operation by the investigating and prosecuting authorities. They plan and oversee co-ordinated actions across member states in supporting enforcement and prosecution. The UK has had recourse to Eurojust in a couple of trafficking cases where an investigation has revealed victims and suspects in more than one jurisdiction; Eurojust is involved to determine which jurisdiction is best placed to institute proceedings and support the investigation and prosecution.

In a trafficking case referred to prosecutors in UK, it was clear that a number of the traffickers were residing and operating in Lithuania. Eurojust organised and facilitated a conference between police and prosecutors from England and Lithuania. During discussions, it was decided that the case should be split, with each jurisdiction bringing their own prosecution against the defendants arrested in their respective jurisdictions. However, evidence would be shared where appropriate to support each case. The UK dealt with 3 Lithuanian suspects; the remaining 3 were dealt with in Lithuania. The outcome was successful prosecution in both jurisdictions.
In summary, as I have outlined, we have a number of different mechanisms by which we share or seek information from our international colleagues. Only by standing together can we hope to win the battle against human trafficking.

This has become a high profile issue in the UK in the past few years and we are determined to enforce the law against it and to use all of these mechanisms to optimise the international co-operation we need to do so. We are lucky, in the UK Parliament to have a very active All Party Group on Trafficking which has members who work together to inform themselves, to work with the NGOs and the public authorities and to scrutinise the work Ministers like me do, in working on this issue. They do excellent work and I pay tribute to them

In the UK, too, we have recently legislated to criminalise those who pay for sexual services of a prostitute subjected to force and exploitative conduct. This is a new departure for us and it is an absolute offence which means that the buyer will be guilty whether he does or does not know that the prostitute was forced or coerced. It is a new application of the ancient nostrum "Let the buyer beware". There is a lot of information in the public domain making clear that the majority - it may be 80% - of prostitutes, working in the UK, are trafficked and that others are coerced in other ways. He makes a choice to take that risk if he decides to pay for sex and thus to boost the market, which in turn fuels trafficking.

It may be that we outlaw advertisements for prostitute services, in local newspapers and on the internet, where often, side by side with the football results there are ads like "East European girls, fresh every day" "Lovely new Thai Beauties" The Newspaper Society has helpfully tightened its guidance about taking such adverts. It was thought that it was hard to refuse them, since they present as legitimate businesses as masseuses or escort agencies. Thanks to the Newspaper Society, some of the advertising has declined but there is still a lot of it and it is a form of pimping to which we need to put an end if we are seriously to tackle the demand end of the trafficking problem

As a government we have established an Inter Ministerial Group with representatives from all the relevant Ministries - and we have a wide definition of relevance - so that we can be confident that we are countering this threat across government, with input at a senior level, in a coherent way. I am pleased that the IMG or representative Ministers meet every few months with the NGOs the Third Sector and the pressure groups involved in this issue so that we reach out to inform ourselves, from these frontline sources and ensure that we track developments and stay closely engaged with the reality of the issue.

Clearly we face an escalating threat with the advent of the Olympics and will need all these measures and these structures if we are to meet the challenges that the Games will bring. We intend to meet the challenge, I hope that you have a good discussion and enjoy the rest of the day.