Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of the UK's departure from the EU on the effectiveness of processes for working with French authorities to prosecute (a) small boat gangs and (b) other people traffickers.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)
Since the UK left the EU in January 2020, we have strengthened our bilateral relationship with France on migration. This included establishing, in July 2020, the UK-France Joint Intelligence Cell (JIC) which is located in France and has co-located UK and French officers working together to support the prosecution of small boat gangs. Since it was established, the work of the JIC has led to the dismantling of 24 organised crime groups involved in small boat crossings, with 12 of these groups being dismantled in 2023 alone.
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the reply by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon on 25 April (HL Deb cols 642GC–644GC), whether they plan to provide official development assistance to the government of Pakistan for the purposes of seizing assets of owners of brick kilns illegally using bonded labour so that those assets can be reused for the education and welfare of families trapped in bonded labour.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK is committed to eradicating all forms of modern slavery, forced labour and human trafficking anywhere in the world. In Pakistan, our Aawaz II Accountability, Inclusion and Reducing Modern Slavery Programme and Asia Regional Child Labour Programme are working with partners, including the Government of Pakistan, to reduce child and bonded labour. Meanwhile, our Girls and Out of School Action for Learning programme is improving education outcomes for marginalised children from the most vulnerable sections of society. The UK is aiming to triple Official Development Assistance to Pakistan this financial year. We will continue to use our funding to support Pakistan's long-term development, focusing on improving human capital (health, education, gender equality), governance and human rights, macroeconomic stability and trade, and climate resilience.
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the reply by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon on 25 April (HL Deb cols 640GC–644GC), whether any development funding for Pakistan will be allocated to providing advice and assistance to the government of that country to create a national trust fund to support the education of children from the families of bonded labour.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK is committed to eradicating all forms of modern slavery, forced labour and human trafficking anywhere in the world. In Pakistan, our Aawaz II Accountability, Inclusion and Reducing Modern Slavery Programme and Asia Regional Child Labour Programme are working with partners, including the Government of Pakistan, to reduce child and bonded labour. Meanwhile, our Girls and Out of School Action for Learning programme is improving education outcomes for marginalised children from the most vulnerable sections of society. The UK is aiming to triple Official Development Assistance to Pakistan this financial year. We will continue to use our funding to support Pakistan's long-term development, focusing on improving human capital (health, education, gender equality), governance and human rights, macroeconomic stability and trade, and climate resilience.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, if he will make it his Department's policy to ensure that all Ukrainian organisations in receipt of overseas development assistance train all staff to be able to identify indicators of (a) modern slavery and (b) human trafficking.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
The Government is committed to eradicating modern slavery and human trafficking. In Ukraine, as well as other countries currently hosting millions of refugees from Ukraine, we are working closely with delivery partners to protect the most vulnerable from the risks of modern slavery. The UK has committed £357 million in humanitarian assistance to Ukraine and the region since the start of the invasion, with a focus on protecting the most vulnerable groups, particularly women and girls. We are providing life-saving assistance, including targeted gender-based violence services, legal support and crisis accommodation to help tackle safeguarding concerns and trafficking risks.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, how much and what proportion of overseas development assistance for Ukraine has been allocated to helping Ukraine to develop specialist capabilities to prevent (a) modern slavery and (b) human trafficking in the 2024-25 financial year.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
The Government is committed to eradicating modern slavery and human trafficking. In Ukraine, as well as other countries currently hosting millions of refugees from Ukraine, we are working closely with delivery partners to protect the most vulnerable from the risks of modern slavery. The UK has committed £357 million in humanitarian assistance to Ukraine and the region since the start of the invasion, with a focus on protecting the most vulnerable groups, particularly women and girls. We are providing life-saving assistance, including targeted gender-based violence services, legal support and crisis accommodation to help tackle safeguarding concerns and trafficking risks.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of Overseas Development Assistance for Ukraine in (a) identifying and (b) safeguarding the most vulnerable people from modern slavery and human trafficking.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
The Government is committed to eradicating modern slavery and human trafficking. In Ukraine, as well as other countries currently hosting millions of refugees from Ukraine, we are working closely with delivery partners to protect the most vulnerable from the risks of modern slavery. The UK has committed £357 million in humanitarian assistance to Ukraine and the region since the start of the invasion, with a focus on protecting the most vulnerable groups, particularly women and girls. We are providing life-saving assistance, including targeted gender-based violence services, legal support and crisis accommodation to help tackle safeguarding concerns and trafficking risks.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he has had discussions with the Northern Ireland Minister for Justice on tackling female (a) trafficking, (b) exploitation and (c) sexual exploitation in Northern Ireland.
Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)
Criminal justice is devolved in Northern Ireland, with responsibility for the policy and legislative response to modern slavery resting with the Northern Ireland Executive. However, we recognise that trafficking can involve the movement of vulnerable individuals across borders, and we work closely with our partners in the Northern Ireland Executive to ensure that our response to modern slavery across the UK is joined-up and the legislation is complementary.
This includes, at official level, regular engagement with representatives from the Devolved Administrations, through quarterly meetings and the Modern Slavery Engagement Forums. These Forums focus on key policy areas, including enforcement, prevention, adult victim support, and child and victim support policy. Officials also engage in quarterly meetings with representatives on commercial sexual exploitation.
The Home Office also engages with First Responder Organisations, across the whole of the United Kingdom. In Northern Ireland this includes the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), Health and Social Care trusts and Belfast and Lisburn Women’s Aid. First Responders are trained by their respective organisations to identify indicators of modern slavery and refer potential victims into the National Referral Mechanism (NRM). In 2023, there were 462 NRM referrals sent to the PSNI for investigation, accounting for 3% of all referrals received, as published in the National Referral Mechanism statistics on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Baroness Cox (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the second-order effects of mass displacement in central Nigeria, especially on (1) educational outcomes, (2) the use of narcotics among young people, and (3) the risk of trafficking.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Displacement in Nigeria has a significant impact on children, who are often no longer able to attend school and therefore lack education provision for an extended period of time. This can also increase vulnerability to trafficking and other safeguarding issues. While the UK funds development initiatives in some Middle Belt states, our humanitarian assistance is aligned with the UN Humanitarian Response Plan which focusses on North-East Nigeria, which is most impacted by displacement. The UK is also supporting Nigeria's National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency to increase the local law enforcement agencies' capacity and capability to disrupt narcotics flow across Nigeria, in line with human rights standards.
Asked by: Baroness Cox (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the sources of weapons used by perpetrators of recent violence in Plateau State, Nigeria.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The proliferation of weapons is exacerbating security challenges across Nigeria, although exact sources of weapons used in the recent violence in Plateau state remain uncertain. We are supporting Nigeria to address the proliferation of weapons by providing x-ray image interpretation training to the Nigerian Drugs Law Enforcement Agency to assist them with detecting weapons and weapon parts when screening baggage, fast parcels, and air freight. Furthermore, we are supporting Nigeria to strengthen its borders, including through the Collaboration Against Trafficking and Smuggling (CATS) programme. This programme operates along the Nigerian-Niger border and aims to build the capability of the border agencies to tackle cross-border human trafficking and smuggling.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they intend to take to tackle modern slavery.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Government is committed to tackling modern slavery to ensure that victims are provided with the support they need to begin rebuilding their lives and that those responsible are prosecuted.
The Home Office continues to fund specialist support for adult victims of modern slavery in England and Wales through the £379 million Modern Slavery Victim Care Contract and for children, who receive support through local authority safeguarding structures, we are also continuing to work with Barnardo’s to provide additional and tailored support through the Independent Child Trafficking Guardian service.
Since 2016, in addition to core police funding, we have invested £17.8 million in the Modern Slavery and Organised Immigration Crime Unit, a specialist police unit which supports all police forces in England and Wales to improve their response to modern slavery.
In addition, between 2016 and March 2023, the Home Office spent over £40.4 million through the Modern Slavery Fund to combat modern slavery overseas and reduce the threat of human trafficking to the UK. We continue to work across operational partners and the sector to deliver on modern slavery.