In The Press

The Guardian have reported on the ‘super-complaint’ brought by Hestia on behalf of victims of modern slavery being failed by the police, who, instead of referring their case through the National Referral Mechanism (NRM), are treating them as immigration absconders. This is an issue which Duncan Lewis has encountered when instructed by clients who present with clear indicators of a history of trafficking and/or modern slavery; many are too afraid to go to the police and report their traffickers because of the treatment that self-reporters are being subject to when they come forward. A team of solicitors based in our Birmingham branch are challenging this practice, including caseworker Karen Staunton, who has commented: “In almost all of these cases, the police completely ignore any trafficking indicators and focus on them instead as immigration absconders…In one instance, one of our clients self-reported to a police station saying that he had been trafficked to the UK and forced to work. He was not referred into the national referral mechanism, which identifies and provides support to potential victims of slavery, but was instead referred to immigration enforcement, and shipped off to detention the next day.”