Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many young people that were victims of trafficking have been removed from the UK after they reached 18 years of age in the last 12 months.

This Government is committed to supporting victims of trafficking and the introduction of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 has ensured we protect those in need and target those committing this abhorrent crime.

All applications are looked at on a case-by-case basis, with caseworkers giving careful consideration to the circumstances of each individual and no one who is found to be at risk of persecution or serious harm in their country of origin will be returned there.

Unaccompanied child victims who are not granted refugee status or discretion-ary leave to remain are not required to leave the UK unless we are confident that there are safe and adequate reception arrangements in the country to which they will be returned. Instead, leave to remain is granted for 30 months or until they are 17½ years of age, whichever is the shorter period. Upon turn-ing 18, they are expected to return to their home country or make a further ap-plication to the Home Office if they believe they have a lawful basis to remain.

The Government has also set out an ambitious funding programme to tackle modern slavery abroad. Last year the Government announced it would double its official development assistance spend to £150 million to tackle modern slavery internationally. This includes the £33.5m Modern Slavery Fund, which tackles modern slavery in key countries from which victims are regularly traf-ficked to the UK. For example, this Fund has programmes in Nigeria (£5m) and Vietnam (£3m). These programmes will help to catch offenders, support victims and stop people falling into slavery in the first place.

The Home Office record the number of all individuals referred to the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) and this information is published Quarterly by the National Crime Agency. This information does not distinguish an individual’s immigration status.

Providing the information requested would therefore require a manual check of individual records which could only be done at disproportionate cost.