Seminar: The Unseen Slave Next Door - Addressing the Trafficking of Children for Domestic Slavery  

Date: Friday 1^st July 2011
Venue: Hogan and Lovell International LLP, Central London
Time: 9:30 am to 4:00 pm

Seminar Fee: 

£40 per delegate. Profits went toward supporting victims of trafficking

Target Group:Child Rights Practitioners, Policy Makers, Immigration and Borders officials, The Police, Social Workers, Lawyers, Barristers and Immigration practitioners, Faith groups,  NGOs – local and international

Introduction: Domestic servitude is a shocking reality whereby children and adults are treated as mere chattel. They are bought, owned, controlled, exploited and enslaved in people’s houses. Children who should be at school are working 18 hours a day, seven days a week. They are exposed to inhumane and degrading treatment, which includes physical, emotional and sexual abuse. Domestic Servitude takes place next to us, in our community, in our environment.  Domestic servitude is modern day slavery and one of the most hidden forms of child cruelty.

This year in the UK there have been 2 successful convictions against individual for trafficking and exploiting humans as domestic slaves[1]. A group of four young women successfully brought a suit against the Metropolitan Police Service for professional negligence for failing to investigate their trafficking claim for domestic servitude. In other instances, a local authority agreed a settlement figure with a former victim of domestic slavery.  It is certain that many more cases like the above will come to the fore.

Yet despite all the above legal achievements, this is still just a drop in the ocean. Domestic servitude is a too often an overlooked crime, despite the deeply concerning large numbers of victims. In 2010 CEOP[2] (Child Exploitation Online Protection) recorded 25 children exploited for domestic servitude and 19 children exploited for forced labour. Although Section 71 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 makes it an offence to hold someone in slavery or servitude or require them to perform forced or compulsory labour, too often human traffickers are still able to avoid detection and prosecution.

Experts in the field believe agencies and government do not see Domestic Servitude as being on a par with Trafficking for Sexual Exploitation – hence the low level of intervention involved in detecting and protecting victims. This gap in intervention and prosecution of traffickers means the practice is continuing unabated yet the impacts and consequences of this abuse are as devastating for victims and survivors.

In addition, according to the Anti-Trafficking Monitoring Group, the National Referral Mechanism put in place by the UK Government to help victims of trafficking for exploitation, is “not fit for purpose”[3]. Recent NRM statistics show that out of 187 referrals of children from countries outside the UK only 32 children (17%) have been granted a positive final decision that they are accepted as victims of trafficking[4]

This conference will bring together a range of practitioners with responsibility for counter trafficking work.  It will explore many of the factors that continue to fuel the growth in the trafficking of children for domestic servitude as well as gaps in the system that makes the safeguarding of victims difficult. It will examine recent court cases with a view to identifying lessons to be learnt by agencies in putting together strategies and protocols for addressing the problem.

Speakers: Chair: Debbie Ariyo, AFRUCA Director | Ms. Christine  Beddoe, ECPAT Director | Cherifa Atoussi, AFRUCA, Anti Child Trafficking Officer – The Challenges of Supporting Victims of Domestic Slavery | Mr Tony Murphy, Partner, Bhatt Murphy Solicitors: Using the  Human Rights Act to ensure trafficking is effectively investigated | Survivor of Domestic Servitude “Buki” – My Experience as a Victim of Domestic Slavery

[1] A case of modern day slavery in the suburbs, BBC News, March 2011 and Pastor Jailed for trafficking African Slave, BBC News, March 2011

[2] CEOP Strategic Threat Assessment 2010

[3] Wrong kind of victim? One year on…an analysis of UK measures to protect trafficked persons, Anti-Trafficking Monitoring Group, June 2010  

[4] Child Trafficking In the UK, A Snapshot, ECPAT 2010