« Previous | Contents | Next »
Listen
Executive Summary
This report results from an initial research project carried out by Scottish Government Analytical Services during 2007/2008 to improve the evidence base around human trafficking in Scotland. It aims to construct a more detailed national picture of the nature and extent of the phenomenon whilst also examining the issues and challenges for policing and victim care in a Scottish context. It draws on data from a range of sources namely interview, documentary and open source material from law enforcement agencies, victim services and other relevant non-governmental organisations. 1
In total, this research showed that 79 individuals believed to be victims of human trafficking came into contact with agencies in Scotland between April 2007 and March 2008. The majority of cases involved adult female victims who had been trafficked into sexual exploitation, and a smaller proportion represented groups of both males and females who appeared to have been trafficked for exploitation in other industries. In cases of trafficking for sexual exploitation, victims and suspected victims were normally recovered in private flats or houses being used to operate brothels. In the small number of cases of labour exploitation encountered, victims were found to be working in restaurants or takeaways.
The nature of individual victims' experiences varied widely. Many of the victims recovered by police presented as illegal migrants whose travel and work had been facilitated by a third party. In the main, these individuals claimed to be working in prostitution of their own free will, but many reported having been debt bonded, and some cited this debt as their main reason for remaining in the sex industry. However, the experience of agencies which provide services to victims was somewhat different. Few of the (mainly) women and girls encountered by these agencies had been paid for work, the sole purpose of which was usually solely to repay a discretionary debt imposed by traffickers. Few of these individuals had freedom of movement once they were trafficked and most felt under threat in their countries of origin.
Interview and documentary police data evidenced multiple links between human trafficking and other forms of organised crime, such as Class A drug distribution, cannabis cultivation, money laundering and other serious fraud.
Overall, this research echoes the message of that carried out in other jurisdictions: human trafficking is a complex area of policing and victim care with many challenges. These include difficulties in engaging with 'closed' communities, gathering robust intelligence, identifying and retaining victims, language barriers and securing prosecutions. There are also broader challenges for multi-agency working in terms of reaching a common understanding of the meaning of victimisation and of the respective roles of the agencies involved.
« Previous | Contents | Next »