Campaigners in human trafficking plea (From Enfield Independent)

Campaigners in human trafficking plea

7:30am Monday 12th October 2009 in News By Hannah Crown

PLANS to withdraw a Met Police human trafficking team have been met with dismay by campaigners.

The team was originally set up in 2007 and is now regarded as an international example of good practice.

A report from human trafficking charity the POPPY project, released in April last year, found that this type of abuse is rife in Enfield and involves children, sexual exploitation and ritual abuse, a major new report has found.

The year-long study, commissioned by Enfield Council, was a compilation of information from 400 organisations and 50 interviewees. It said the borough's counter-trafficking response was "greatly impeded" by a lack of clear policy and a "pervasive attitude that it was someone else's problem".

The POPPY project, the NSPCC and Amnesty International were two of several charities to write a letter to Met Police Chief Sir Paul Stephenson urging him to rethink the plan.

And Joanne McCartney, London Assembly Member for Enfield and Haringey, who sits on the board of the Metropolitan Police Authority, also wrote to Sir Paul last week.

She said: "We need a specialist team of police officers to fight this slavery of the 21st Century. If these proposals go ahead, a lot of knowledge and experience will be lost, making it harder for those sold for sex, forced labour, and domestic servitude to be saved.

"With the Olympics in 2012, there will be an increased demand for people trafficking for sexual services so the team is needed now more than ever. I am calling on the Commissioner not to abandon all the good work that this team does.”

Amnesty’s UK Director, Kate Allen, said: “We're extremely concerned that if the Met's highly specialised Human Trafficking Team is disbanded, the fight against people trafficking is going to suffer.

“People trafficking is a difficult crime to detect and combat, and there's a danger that transferring responsibility for combating trafficking to other police teams will mean that hard-earnt expertise will be lost within the police.”

The Metropolitan Police says the decision to withdraw the unit came as part of a review into all organised immigration crime and trafficking which recommended extra resources be given to the Vice squad who would then deal with the issue.

Last year’s POPPY project report found 19 sexual offences relating to trafficking, while the council referred 13 women to the POPPY Project between 2003 and 2007.