Understanding The Nexus Between Socio Economic Background

Analysis

In the analysis section, data, including statistics is used to explain the relevance of socio-economic background and minority status to human trafficking. Recent research has explored links between minorities and human trafficking, which shows that there is a greater vulnerability to human trafficking that is found in the minorities (Hynes, 2016; Hynes, 2015; Pearce, et al., 2013). Minority ethnic populations in the UK are especially susceptible to trafficking due to a range of factors, including but not limited to socio-economic background, migrant status and family conditions (Pearce, et al., 2013). Community knowledge about trafficking and the ‘wall of silence’ described as an environment of disbelief, denial and silence that surrounds the issue of human trafficking, in particular, child trafficking, is also an important aspect of human trafficking and minorities’ link (Pearce, et al., 2013, p. 76). For people who are victims of human trafficking, this wall of silence can serve to both stifle their own voices as well as the deliberate ignorance of the community in recognising or acting on the issue of human trafficking. In minority ethnic communities, this can be even more problematic as it may create additional impediments in reaching out to agencies other that the existing impediments in form of language barriers, migrant status and community disapproval for contacting agencies of the government (Box, 2011).

Trafficking is not a one off event but a process which includes organisations that are involved in trafficking of vulnerable populations for the purpose of illicit business. This is explained by the development of transnational criminal networks, and proliferation of organised criminal groups that are using the open markets and transportation means in the developed countries like the UK for the purpose of human trafficking (Potter, 2006). The development of human trafficking as a business activity is also related to the development of groups of organised criminals who work in small to large criminal organisations for the purpose of developing trafficking as a business process (Picarelli, 2009). The basic model that is being followed by these organisations is to ‘smuggle’ people into the UK from other countries where victims are bought from, or lured into trafficking, or kidnapped (Hynes, 2014). This process also creates a space for vulnerable populations fleeing war or inhumane conditions through the routes that are developed for smuggling victims of human trafficking and many such vulnerable populations fall into the gaps that are exposed by the smuggling processes (Hynes, 2014).

In other words, there are points of vulnerability, rooted in the socio-economic or minority ethnic status of people in different countries of the world, which is taken advantage of by human trafficking organisations. Many such organisations combine kidnapping, buying, promising jobs or promising aid in asylum to vulnerable populations, in order to victimise them for the purpose of human trafficking (Hynes, 2014). Therefore, there is a link between asylum and human trafficking, which affects the minorities in the UK. The asylum seeking process itself is complex and many children and young women face violence through the process of transit as indicated in the research by Thomas, et al. (2004), which found that almost 50 percent of the unaccompanied asylum seeking children have experienced violence, including rape when they are transported to the UK for asylum. This becomes significant in the context of victimisation due to routine activities or lifestyle theories of crime victimisation.

To explain this link further, the data from asylum authorities on asylum seekers who are also victims of human trafficking may be noted here. Although, there is a limited availability of data on asylum procedure and victims of human trafficking, an indication into the scale of the problem was given during a respense to a written parliamentary question on the issue, which revealed that “between 1 January 2010 and 30 September 2015, 1,200 applications for asylum were submitted by individuals recognised as victims of human trafficking by the National Referral Mechanism. Of those, 782 individuals (65.2%) were successfully granted some form of leave to enter/remain in the UK as a result of their asylum application” (TRACKS, 2017, p. 29). This response indicates that there is a link between asylum seeking and human trafficking, which may show the victimisation of asylum seekers by networks of organisations involved in human trafficking. Unfortunately, there is a paucity of statistical information in the public domain that can clarify the matter further, however, based on the response noted above, a link between the status and activities of the people and their victimisation by human trafficking can be explored further through the theories of lifestyle exposure and routine activities. These theories have been evolved to explain the link between victims and their victimisation by understanding the convergence of offender, victim, and the absence of capable guardianship, these being the three elements of victimisation (Pratt & Turanovic, 2016).

Lifestyle exposure and routine activities theories are different in that the former thinks of the risk to the victim from the perspective of the behaviours that may expose the victim to risk of criminal victimisation, while the latter views risk from the perspective of the event of victimisation wherein victimisation event is avoided if there is an absence of one of the three elements of victimisation (Pratt & Turanovic, 2016). Lifestyle exposure theory and routine activities theory focus on the passive contribution of the victim to the victimisation (Fisher & Lab, 2010). In the context of human trafficking, the response to the written parliamentary question above shows that those seeking asylum, are vulnerable to human trafficking. This vulnerability can be explained by the fact that the victims are involved in a process of transit, which may expose them to criminal organisations that are involved in human trafficking and sex trade.

The UK has a National Referral Mechanism which is a framework for identifying victims of human trafficking and providing care to the identified victims (TRACKS, 2017). National Referral Mechanism framework contains detailed data on the victims of trafficking seeking support and formal identification but the statistics maintained by the Mechanism are not reflective of a complete overview of the scale of the phenomenon (TRACKS, 2017). With respect to the UK, it has been noted that “only a small proportion of victims ever encounter authorities, and among those that actually do, they are not all being recognised and referred and are thus not captured in the NRM’s statistics” (TRACKS, 2017, p. 26). Nevertheless, the data from the National Referral Mechanism can provide a good indication of the phenomenon of human trafficking or the extent of the problem in the UK and the latest data is provided here.

Data from National Referral Mechanism statistics from the year 2017, shows that there is an increase in potential victims by 35 percent from 2016 (National Crime Agency , 2018). In 2017, 5145 potential victims were submitted to the National Referral Mechanism and the victims belonged to 116 nationalities. The most common nationalities represented in the data were from Albania, Vietnam and the UK (National Crime Agency , 2018). The victims were exploited for labour and there was also criminal exploitation involved. Of concern was the increase by 66 percent in minor exploitation referrals. These referrals stood at 2118 in 2017, while referrals in this category stood at 1278 in 2016 (National Crime Agency , 2018). The statistics of the National Referral Mechanism are an important indicator of the trends in human trafficking and the statistics show a worrying trend in increase in child trafficking with those who are from countries that are hit by violence and conflict being significantly impacted. The statistics maintained by the National Referral Mechanism are related to human trafficking within the UK as well as human trafficking into the UK from other countries. With respect to child trafficking, the statistics indicate that the most prominent country of origin for trafficked children is the UK, with a total of 255 reported cases during the year. This was followed by Albania with 227 reported cases, Vietnam with 227 reported cases, Afghanistan with 74 reported cases and Eritrea with 48 reported cases (National Crime Agency , 2018). Countries like Sudan, Pakistan and Syria also show an increase in child trafficking into the UK (National Crime Agency , 2018). All these countries are significantly impacted by war or have a significant amount of internally displaced populations. The at risk populations in these countries are those that are poor, come from rural areas or belong to minorities (Box, 2011).

Within the UK as well, there is a significant number of people who are victims of human trafficking from the UK to other countries. Many of these are children as noted by the National Referral Mechanism (National Crime Agency , 2018). In fact, out of the total number of child referrals of human trafficking, a third were British (National Crime Agency , 2018). An interesting finding of the study is that many of these children who were victims of trafficking were used as drug runners (National Crime Agency , 2018). Therefore, the drug trade may also be using victims of human trafficking as slaves, or the trade may be responsible for encouraging human trafficking. The recent National Referral Mechanism data reveals the link between drug trade and human trafficking in a disturbing way as UK nationals have for the first time been the majority of the cases reported to the National Referral Mechanism (Dixon, 2018). British children who are victimised by human traffickers are also used as drug runners in the drug distribution model which is known as "county lines" (Dixon, 2018). The city gangs that are involved in drug trade branch out into county or coastal towns to sell heroin and crack cocaine and they use children who are trafficked for the purpose (Dixon, 2018). In fact, drug trade employs children from other nationalities also who are trafficked into the UK, particularly, Vietnamese children who are used as ‘Cannabis slaves’ to tend to cannabis plants in hidden homes and dangerous conditions (Gentleman, 2017). These children are often kept in captivity for years at a time and may also be forced into sex trade (Gentleman, 2017). One of the commonalities between the British and the other trafficked children who are used as drug runners is that they are usually from poor families and therefore belong to a low social economic status background (National Crime Agency , 2018). Some of the victims may also be those who have run away from home and are living on the streets, thus being exposed to criminal groups who are involved in human trafficking (National Crime Agency , 2018). Again, this presents the possibility of routine activities or lifestyle exposure that may be responsible for the victimisation of certain individuals by human traffickers. A recent case involving prosecution of two individuals under the Modern Slavery Act, for luring a teenage girl into human trafficking for the purpose of drug trade exposes the link between socio economic conditions of victim’s family, and human trafficking (Metropolitan Police, 2017). The girl was lured into human trafficking through Social Media, and later held in captivity for the purpose of being used as a carrier of drugs for the criminal gang that is involved in ‘country lines’ drug pedalling (Metropolitan Police, 2017). The victims are usually children from broken homes and girls who have been sexually abused or are victims of violent relationships (Hynes, 2014).

Despite the social and criminal implications of human trafficking, at its heart, it is an economically driven offence as human traffickers respond opportunistically to the tensions between the economic necessities and the social and economic restrictions that impede the fulfilment of such necessities (Wheaton, et al., 2010). Both the human traffickers as well as the victims may be responding to the economic compulsions in their lives which leads to the creation of structures within which human trafficking is facilitated. The statistics from the National Referral Mechanism show that the majority of the victims of human trafficking in the UK are those that belong to minorities ethnic groups (National Crime Agency , 2018).

As mentioned earlier, the statistics of the National Referral Mechanism are not representative of the true extent of the problem of human trafficking and modern slavery (TRACKS, 2017). The estimates of different reports developed by the government agencies points to a more serious problem, with much greater number of victims of human trafficking (Department of Justice, 2017). Other than the National Referral Mechanism, there are two other methods by which the numbers of victims can be ascertained. These are the referrals of potential victims under the provision of ‘duty to notify’ under the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (Department of Justice, 2017). This duty is placed on specified public bodies if they encounter an adult victim of modern slavery (Department of Justice, 2017). Adding the number of referrals under this provision to the number of referrals under the National Referral mechanism, the total number of potential victims in 2016 can be put at 4,586 (Department of Justice, 2017). The third method is through the police records, as per which the number of recorded cases with the police in England and Wales stands at 2,255 modern slavery offences (Department of Justice, 2017). This brings the number of human trafficking victims as per the records by that much. However, the actual estimates of the victims of human trafficking as per the Department of Justice (2017) is significantly higher, which the department putting the number of victims between 10,000 and 13,000 in 2013 alone. Out of these, it is hard to estimate the socio-cultural background and minority status of the victims. There are no numbers other than the National Referral Mechanism data that bifurcate the victims as per their race and economic status. Therefore, it is difficult to ascertain with certainty the extent of the human trafficking crime with respect to minority ethnic victims.

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