Witnesses: Ahmed Aydeed, Director and Solicitor, Duncan Lewis
Solicitors, James Wilson, Deputy Director, Detention Action, and
, Director, Jesuit Refugee
Service.
: In terms of support for people,
the Salvation Army reported that victims in detention are less
likely to enter its support system and wait much longer to receive
support. In a sense, people who have had very difficult backgrounds
are not then receiving the support. If they had not ended up in the
detention centre, that support would be far more available.
: I think people find it
very difficult to engage with support when they have been through
so many experiences of institutional responses that are so
hostile. The further traumatising impact of being held in
detention makes you less likely to engage with support that is
available.
: There is a question in that
sense of public confidence over here that, when people come over,
they are safe when they are in the UK but this is not the process
for doing that.
James Wilson: No, and the question of whether somebody else is
able to stay in the UK is a separate question.
To the point that we touched on earlier, it is particularly
notable that often when we talk about criminal convictions for
these potential victims within the UK, they are convictions such
as working in a cannabis farm, which is a neon light indicator of
potential trafficking, which should be addressed and explored and
is just being overlooked.
In terms of the Salvation Army report on delays in access to
support, that certainly ties with things that we are seeing in
recent cases where there seems to be a long delay between the
potential victim of trafficking in detention having the right
advice that they need to be referred to the NRM, and then for the
NRM referral and the reasonable grounds decision to be acted
upon. I do not have the comparison figures to hand, but it does
seem that, if you compare it to the rate of positive reasonable
grounds decisions for potential victims outside of detention,
there is a clear discrepancy that suggests that people in
detention are less able to access the support they need.
Janet Daby: In terms of a safe house, what would a safe house
provide for a person who has been involved in slavery or been
trafficked? What would that look like?
: That is something I
cannot comment on because it is not an area that we work in. When
we refer people into a safe house we refer people on to another
organisation to look after them at that point. We have referred
people into Salvation Army accommodation on a number of
occasions. I cannot comment beyond that.
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