On 21 June the Court of Appeal of England & Wales quashed the convictions of four victims of human trafficking and issued guidelines to protect others in the future. The case, L, HVN, THN and T v R, concerned three minors who had been trafficked into the UK and who became involved in offences relating to the growing of cannabis, and one adult woman from Uganda who was held captive and forced into prostitution.
One of the minor defendants, THN, had been trafficked to the UK to work in a cannabis farm and was seventeen when arrested. He pleaded guilty but it was subsequently accepted that he was a victim of trafficking. Tragically, THN disappeared and it is believed he was re-trafficked.
Another defendant, HVN, was accepted to be a victim of trafficking and was sixteen when arrested. However, when being prosecuted for drugs-related offences, neither the prosecution nor defence were informed of his status as a victim of trafficking, and HVN pleaded guilty.
The Lord Chief Justice of England & Wales said in the judgment, “The criminality, or putting it another way, the culpability, of any victim of trafficking may be significantly diminished, and in some cases effectively extinguished, not merely because of age, always a relevant factor in the case of a child defendant, but because no realistic alternative was available to the exploited victim but to comply with the dominant force of another individual, or group of individuals.”
The Children’s Commissioner for England and the Human Rights and Equality Commission intervened in the case. The Children’s Commissioner made submissions on the proper approach to age assessment in criminal prosecutions. The Court of Appeal held that when a child victim of trafficking is facing criminal prosecution his or her best interests are not only a relevant consideration, but are a primary consideration. This is in accordance with Article 3 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and Article 24 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU.
The Court of Appeal also stressed that the justice system should protect the rights of trafficking victims by overseeing the prosecutor's decision and by refusing to countenance any prosecution which fails to acknowledge and address the victim's subservient situation.
Klara Skrivankova, programme coordinator for Anti-Slavery International's Trafficking Programme said, "We know there are hundreds of cases of men, women and children trafficked into the UK for forced criminality and many of them end up being prosecuted instead of the traffickers. This judgement as [sic] a milestone in making sure that victims of trafficking are protected against criminalisation."
Click here to read an article about the case on Renaissance Chamber's Free Movement blog.
Click here to read the full judgment.
Click here to read a press release from Anti-Slavery International about the case.
Meanwhile, a report from the US State Department has described Ireland as “a destination, source, and transit country for women, men, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labour.” The report identified 48 victims of trafficking last year in Ireland, 23 of whom were children. 19 were involved in the commercial sex trade. The Immigrant Council of Ireland called on the government to act on the recommendations in the US State Department report “to ensure that those still trapped in a life of threats, abuse and violence are offered hope.”
Click here to view a press release from the Immigrant Council of Ireland.
Click here to access the US State Department's Trafficking in Persons Report 2013.