Crime Reduction Toolkits

Trafficking of People

Who to involve and how to organise

It is clear that issues surrounding the trafficking of people require the expertise and resources of a wide variety of agencies if the problems are to be tackled effectively. Making this sort of multi-agency initiative work requires commitment, organisation and sustained co-ordination at both the strategic and the operational levels. 

At the strategic level there is a need for the various agencies and partners to be integrally involved in a local review and development of a strategic action plan. This will require a group of multi-agency strategic management representatives that will address trafficking to be identified. It may be decided, especially in those areas where there is not seen to be currently much of a problem with trafficking, to combine this remit with those for existing violence against women strategy review and development. Equally, the Crime and Disorder Partnership may well commission appropriate initiatives. 

At the level of operational initiatives there is a need for clear understanding of the various roles and responsibilities of the different agencies and, experience has shown, the development of a good working relationship between the various parties.  

It may be appropriate for an existing group to take responsibility for a specific aspect of the problem, for example ACPCs need to take a particular responsibility for trafficked children. Equally, the significant lessons learnt regarding the treatment of victims of sexual assault and domestic violence can have considerable relevance for the support of trafficked women. It follows that an existing group responsible for violence against women may be appropriate for taking responsibility for trafficked women. It is important that if this happens the overall co-ordination of all trafficking, including the prosecution of traffickers and the disruption of demand, is sustained. 

The key partners at both levels of organisation are:

• the police;
   

• the Immigration Service;
   

• social services
   

• crime and Disorder Partnerships
   

• CPS; and
   
• relevant local NGOs.

In addition it may be appropriate to have the formal involvement of health professionals, housing personnel and of labour monitoring agencies (for example health and safety officers). 

It is important to address, early on, the different interests and priorities that the various agencies will be bringing to the management groups. Multi-agency working is not easy, and is impossible if the different perspectives of the groups represented are not understood and acknowledged by all present.

A successful example of multi-agency work is the counter trafficking steering group (CTSG), a forum covering operational strategy, policing/media strategy, best practice, researching the problem, lobbying for legislation, educating on the scale of the problem especially to legislators, and feeding into a national and international strategy. CTSG was founded by Juliet Singer, Police Liaison, National Missing Persons Helpline, in September 2001. The group is based in London, but has representation from agencies throughout the South-East of England.

Since January 2002 the group has been chaired by Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service, Carole Howlett, who is also the ACPO lead for certain issues of child protection and child crime on the internet. The CTSG has helped the organisations come a long way in building up relationships between agencies, developing a media strategy, sharing information and in changing the way the statutory organisations can work with the NGOs.