To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assessment her Department has made of the level of human trafficking from sub-Saharan Africa; and what her policy is on facilitating the reduction thereof. (100942)

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) monitors global levels of human trafficking to the UK. We assess that trafficking victims, predominantly women, come from a range of African countries, although it is difficult to give any firm figures on the numbers involved, given the clandestine nature of trafficking.

The FCO’s policy for reducing the scale of trafficking to the UK focuses on preventative work in source and transit countries. This includes awareness-raising among potential victims and the authorities in these countries; providing training and capacity building support for law enforcement agencies; and providing advice on effective legislation to prosecute trafficking gang members.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what representations her Department has made to the Sudanese Government over human trafficking of female detainees. (100944)

We are not aware of any cases of human trafficking in Sudan. However, we take the issue of human trafficking very seriously and would raise any cases of which we became aware with the Government of Sudan.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what projects her Department is funding to combat human trafficking. (100946)

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) is currently funding the following anti-human trafficking projects:

Albania: a non-governmental organisation (NGO) managed campaign to raise awareness among potential victims of the dangers of human trafficking;

Russia: a project to promote NGO and police co-operation to tackle human trafficking; and

Latvia: an NGO-managed anti-trafficking awareness raising project.

The total value of the projects in the financial year 2006-07 is £403,000.

In the last financial year the FCO also funded a programme in Lithuania which provided re-integration assistance and social support for trafficking victims returning from enforced prostitution in the UK. The FCO also contributed to the Association of Chief Police Officers’ “Operation Pentameter” through the production of multi-lingual awareness-raising material that was used in several east European source and transit countries.