UK urged to sign people trafficking convention

Monday, 16 May 2005 12:00 AM

The Government is being urged to sign up to a new European convention providing the victims of people trafficking with additional rights.

Four UK charities want the Government to sign up to the convention, which would allow them at least a month to recover and receive support.

The convention, which could also provide them with temporary residence permits in certain circumstances, is formally opened for signature at the Council of Europe's summit in Warsaw.

The charities, comprising Amnesty International, Anti-Slavery International, the National Federation of Women's Institutes and Unicef UK, believe the Government has failed to develop measures to support people who have been trafficked into the country, despite it being a problem in the UK.

Research by the Home Office shows that in 2000, up to 1,420 women were trafficked into the UK for sexual exploitation. Victims are often tricked or forced into leaving their homes.

Support exists for women trafficked into prostitution and prostituted in the UK, but not for people subject to other forms of trafficking.

Amnesty International UK director Kate Allen said: "The trafficking industry brutalises people and destroys lives all over Europe on a daily basis. Victims of trafficking have had all of their very basic human rights violated - we must turn the system around so that they are recognised as the victims and not the perpetrators of crime.

"The European convention is an opportunity to protect these people. The UK government must sign up to the new convention."

The new European Convention on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings is formally opened for signature in Warsaw on May 16 and 17.

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