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Human Trafficking

Volume 479: debated on Monday 21 July 2008

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when she plans to publish statistics on human trafficking including information from police and UK Border Agency operations that have taken place since 2005. (217968)

We have provided regular information on statistics in relation to human trafficking both in relation to Operation Pentameter 1 and more recently, on 2 July, the announcement on 2 July of the outcomes of Operation Pentameter 2.

There is no intention to produce a separate document on statistics on human trafficking given the large amount of information already available.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many trafficked persons have been placed in (a) the fast track system and (b) the new asylum model since March 2007. (219279)

Information on the numbers of people identified as subjects of trafficking who have applied for asylum and been considered under these processes is not available and could be available only by examination of individual case records at disproportionate cost.

Entry to fast track asylum processes is carefully assessed on an individual basis in accordance with suitability criteria. A person would usually be considered unsuitable for the detained fast track where there is independent evidence from a recognised organisation, such as the Poppy Project, that they had been a victim of trafficking.

On 14 January 2008 the Home Secretary announced that the Government intend to make the necessary legislative and procedural changes to ratify the Council of Europe Convention on Trafficking before the end of this year as part of its wider strategy to combat trafficking. These changes will include implementing a National Referral Mechanism to help co-ordinate the identification of victims and to ensure that their status is recorded centrally. Our plans are developing and we are on track to ratify at the end of the year.