A leading human rights lawyer has told the government how she is increasingly representing Albanian children trafficked into the UK for crime purposes.
Danny Bayraktarova told the Home Affairs Select Committee that Albanian teenagers make up a large proportion of her caseload with many being criminally exploited by “highly organised” international people-smuggling gangs.
The solicitor told MPs that the grip of the trafficking gangsters is so tight—they are easily able to threaten and intimidate their families back home in Albania if they refuse to cooperate.
“We must recognise that these trafficking groups are very highly organised,” she told the committee on Wednesday.
“They’re international, they’re cross border. They don’t just operate in the UK, that normally starts in Albania, for example.
“So they will have the means to actually track down my clients family and go and intimidate them and threaten them.”
Bayraktarova said many of the young Albanian nationals have been snared by gangs through misleading advertisements on social media.
“Traffickers do recruit children and the nature of the trafficking is that children are being deceived as to what their life potential in the UK might look like,” she said.
Increasing Figures
She also said that “socio-economic norms” within the Balkans were seeing children, particularly young males, willingly putting themselves into the hands of traffickers.“If their family, for example, is coming from poverty, those children might actually be expected to provide and to work and if there are no opportunities, say in Albania, they might actually be expected to go somewhere else because of that false narrative.
“And that false information that is being provided to them is that you will come to the UK, we will get you a job for example, in hospitality, you will work in a carwash and you will earn so much money you will be able to save so much money and then send back home.
“When the situation on the ground in reality is not like that. You will come to the UK and you will be exploited,” she said.
The leading lawyer was giving oral evidence alongside other child trafficking experts to MPs investigating the system used for identifying and supporting potential victims of modern slavery.
The National Referral Mechanism (NRM) is intended to be a gateway to services including legal advice, safe house accommodation, and other forms of support.
Adults given a positive reasonable grounds decision can have access to support if they need it. Support for child victims of modern slavery and trafficking, except for the Independent Child Trafficking Guardians service and Scottish Guardianship Service, is provided by local authorities and partner agencies under existing statutory obligations.
Potential victims of modern slavery can only be referred to the NRM by First Responder Organisations, which includes charities and government bodies.
The government says there is a statutory duty on public authorities to refer suspected victims to the NRM in England and Wales.
In 2022, there were 16,938 referrals to the NRM—the highest number of annual referrals since the system was put in place in 2009.
Immigration Deterrents
Asked by Tory MP Les Anderson if legislation, such as the Illegal Migration, would help stop the trafficking of children and gangs making millions of pounds through exploitation in the UK, he was told it would not.Laura Durán, head of policy, advocacy, and research at Every Child Protected Against Trafficking UK, said the smugglers would continue making money.
“What you’re going to facilitate with those policies is that children will never come forward, they’re going to remain an exploitation,” she said.
Anderson responded: “And so what is going to stop the traffickers in your opinion?”
Describing it as a “challenging question,” Durán said: “What’s going to stop trafficking is cooperation within the international community, having those programmes that really do tackle the root causes.
“But deterrents on immigration enforcement do not work.”
The bill, which is currently being debated in the House of Lords, would allow for the detention of children arriving in the UK by unauthorised means and contains the power to remove unaccompanied youngsters.
Those permitted to stay would be allowed to do so only until they turn 18 and would not be able to settle in the UK.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has previously responded to critics of the plans by saying children cannot be exempted as that could in turn create “a pull factor” for people to make the crossing.
Sunak has insisted children “will not be separated from families” and will be housed in “appropriate accommodation.”
Former prime minister Theresa May previously warned the Illegal Migration Bill to “stop the boats” could harm efforts to tackle human trafficking.
Braverman said victims “could claim an exemption,” but she stressed the need to tackle people “claiming to be victims of modern slavery when they patently are not” to thwart removal from the UK under the legislation.
