Online forums and recordings

Thank you to our speakers and attendees who joined last week’s online forum on Brexit and the Immigration Bill. If you were unable to join, you can watch the full meeting here.

The recording of our joint forum with BASNET on Diversity and Inclusion is available here and you can view the meeting actions summary here. Please keep an eye out in our newsletter for details of the next steps soon.

Next online forum – save the date:
Leicester and labour exploitation – where do we go from here?

Our next online forum will take place on 21 September 2-3.30pm. It will focus on the exploitation in the clothing factories in Leicester, brought to the public’s attention during the Covid outbreak. To register to attend the meeting, please click here. If you think you would be interested in presenting on an area related to this topic, please email [email protected].

Online forums: Please share your feedback

As we plan our next online forums, we would like to hear from you on how these meetings can best support you. What have you found helpful? What could we do better? And what topics would you like us to focus on in future forums?

We would appreciate it if you could please take around 4 minutes to complete this short survey so that we can make these meetings as useful as possible.

Recovery Needs Assessment updated guidance has been published

The updated guidance includes:

• clarification on how the RNA decision will be communicated to the victim
• explanation of the process to be followed if a confirmed victim does not wish to participate in the RNA process
• clarification on expectations for victims exiting support where no ongoing recovery needs have been identified

Download here.

GRETA update

GRETA’s evaluation visit to the UK this year will need to be virtual and is likely to be the week of 28th September to 2 October.

The Anti-Trafficking Monitoring Group (ATMG) will be helping to facilitate GRETA’s meetings with civil society organisations. These will be public meetings and all are encouraged and welcome to attend. ATMG will be in touch with more info soon.

Read the UK Civil Society submission here. Please also see the UK Government’s reply to GRETA’s third Questionnaire, received 30 June 2020.

For more information or to discuss the above please contact [email protected].

Tackling child exploitation – call for bespoke support applications

The Tackling Child Exploitation (TCE) Support Programme is accepting applications from local areas to develop their strategic response to tackle child exploitation and extra-familial harm.

Commissioned by the Department for Education, led by Research in Practice, in partnership with The Children’s Society and University of Bedfordshire, the programme aims to support local areas to develop an effective strategic response to child exploitation and threats from outside the family home (‘extra-familial harm’). This covers child sexual exploitation and child criminal exploitation, including county lines drug trafficking.

Details here. Deadline for applying 11 September 2020. Delivery will begin in local areas in October 2020.

New ‘fixed fees’ for asylum and immigration legal aid work found to be unlawful

The campaign by Young Legal Aid Lawyers (YLAL) against new “fixed fees” for asylum and immigration legal aid that would prevent vulnerable migrants and asylum seekers with complex cases accessing legal aid has been a success. The Government has conceded that these fees would be unlawful. Download YLAL’s press statement here.

A review of what works in multi-agency decision making and the implications for child victims of trafficking

The Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner Dame Sara Thornton and ECPAT UK, have examined what works in existing multi-agency decision making frameworks to help inform future thinking on potential pilots for devolved National Referral Mechanism (NRM) decision making for child victims of trafficking. Read the review here.

Campaign: COVID-19: Call for survivor and migrant access to healthcare

The COVID-19 crisis is laying bare the gaps in protection that exist for modern slavery survivors and at-risk migrants around the world. During this global pandemic, many modern slavery survivors and vulnerable migrants cannot safely access healthcare and government support. Sign this petition from Freedom United to demand that governments treat healthcare as a human right, not a privilege, and protect vulnerable migrants in the face of this pandemic.

Report: Modern slavery risks for care-workers in England during the Covid-19 pandemic

This report by Nottingham Rights Lab has found that Covid-19 has placed extra strain on the care sector. More challenging working conditions and a move to digital recruitment and monitoring have led to an increased risk of exploitative labour practices. Download the full report here.

Report: Parallel societies: slavery, exploitation and criminal subculture in Leicester

COVID-19 has put under the spotlight the fast fashion industry in Leicester East, and its exploitation of thousands of (mostly immigrant) workers. Exploitation that ranges from unsafe working conditions through to slavery; from staff being paid below the minimum wage to fraud. Read the full report from the Centre for Social Justice here.

Unseen 2019 Impact Report

This latest impact report from Unseen presents the work done to support survivors and their advocacy work to influence legislation and policy last year. Download here.

Skills development training programme for modern slavery survivors – IOM seeks delivery partner

The International Organization for Migration UK (IOM UK) is looking for a delivery partner (individual consultant or company) to design and co-deliver a part-time skills development training programme for survivors of human trafficking and modern slavery. The same training programme is due to be delivered three times in the period November 2020 to September 2021, firstly online and then face-to-face in London (circumstances permitting). Apply here by 4th September.

Vacancies at FLEX

Focus on Labour Exploitation are recruiting for two roles:

• Senior Policy Manager (deadline 7th September)
• Operations and Comms Assistant (deadline 1st September)

Vacancies at IJM

International Justice Mission are recruiting for two roles:

• Public Affairs and Public Relations Coordinator
• Regional Lead, Strategy & Portfolio

Information about both roles is available here.

Vacancy at Pan Intercultural Arts

Pan Intercultural Arts works with marginalised young people and female survivors of trafficking to give them a voice through the arts. Pan is now looking for a Company Manager. If you have at least 3 years of experience and are passionate about arts for social change, click here. Deadline: 12pm Monday 7th September.

Vacancies at The Children’s Society

The Children’s Society are recruiting for four Prevention Officers. Deadline 25th August.

• West Midlands Prevention Officer
• East Midlands Prevention Officer
• South Wales Prevention Officer
• North West Prevention Officer

Vacancy at AFRUCA

AFRUCA are recruiting a County Lines Child Trafficking Family and Community Worker, to be based in Manchester. Deadline: 5pm Monday 7th September. Details here.

Anti-Trafficking Covid-19 Google group

HTF’s email platform to support the anti-trafficking sector’s response to Covid-19 provides a shared forum to ask questions and share examples of best practice, resources, updates, etc. with one another.
To access the platform, please subscribe by entering your email address using the following link: 
https://groups.google.com/a/humantraffickingfoundation.org/group/covid-19/subscribe  

Victim Support MSSIG Information-Gathering

The MSSIG (Modern Slavery Strategy Implementation Group) Victim Support sub-group have been submitting questions to the Modern Slavery Unit (MSU) in the Home Office to support their understanding of the impact of the pandemic on survivors and support providers.

The MSU policy team has been reviewing the questions and where possible has been sharing responses in their newsletter. Questions submitted and any answers provided have been recorded on two documents found here.

Please contact [email protected] and/or [email protected] if you would like to raise any additional questions for the Home Office Modern Slavery Unit to consider.

Survivor Support Emergency Fund

The Human Trafficking Foundation established the fund with a grant from the Vandervell Foundation. We supplement this with funding from other supporters.

The fund is available to help survivors of human trafficking and modern slavery with small one-off grants to meet their immediate needs when no other sources of funding are available. Further information including how to apply is available on our website.

HTF: Mapping Survivor Support Services

Our map of UK survivor support services aims to be a useful tool for people working with survivors to see what services are available in their area. View the map here.

If your organisation provides support of any kind to survivors of trafficking and would like to be added to the map, please complete the surveys which relate to your organisation’s work: Accommodation, Post-Identification Casework, Outreach Support and/or Individual Advocacy, Drop-in Services, Legal Advice – Legal Aid, Legal Advice – Non-Legal Aid, Specialist Psychological or Therapeutic Support, and Vocational Training or Education.

Please email [email protected] for further information.

London Modern Slavery SPOC Directory 2019-2020

The Human Trafficking Foundation has been working with local authorities in the Greater London area to support the development of their response to modern slavery and human trafficking.

As part of this, we produce an annual directory of modern slavery Single Points of Contact/Champions in statutory authorities across London including representatives within the NHS, police and local authorities. The updated 2019-2020 directory is now available. Please contact rachel@humantraffickingfoundation.org to request a copy of the directory.