Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the risk of children displaced from Ukraine being targeted by smugglers and traffickers.

We stand with Ukraine and will always defend the Ukrainian people’s right to choose their own destiny. Thousands more Ukrainians will be welcomed to the UK as the Government continues its support for Ukraine in their fight against the Russian invasion.

The Government is committed to tackling the heinous crime of human trafficking. We will continue to clamp down on those who continue to exploit vulnerable people while providing tailored support for victims to help their recovery. We will continue to monitor the risk and threat of our Ukraine schemes being exploited by smugglers and traffickers.

The Government’s Ukraine Family Scheme and Homes for Ukraine Scheme have been designed to ensure we meet our safeguarding obligations, particularly for vulnerable children. For example, here caseworkers have concerns about the identity and relationship of an applicant to the Ukraine Family Scheme and their sponsor, they will undertake background checks on the sponsor.

In the Department’s operations, Border Force has a network of specially trained Safeguarding and Modern Slavery officers. Border Force has a key role in identifying victims and perpetrators of human trafficking as they cross the UK border to prevent modern slavery from happening, safeguard other vulnerable persons and help bring to justice those who commit crimes against them too.