Our tenth anniversary celebration last month was an inspiring evening of hope and determination, and a chance to reflect on how the past decade can inform our fight for justice in the future. Hear from our Lived Experience Group, Lord McColl and Victoria Marks and Pragna Patel from ATLEU.

ATLEU has brought a legal challenge to the government’s Seasonal Worker Visa Scheme on the grounds that it breaches Article 4 of the European Convention on Human Rights. This is the first human rights claim to be brought against the scheme. To support this challenge, ATLEU is keen to hear from workers who have also been badly treated.

Julia Quecano Casimiro, who entered the UK on a seasonal worker visa, has been issued with an initial decision from the Home Office confirming that there are reasonable grounds for believing she may have been a victim of trafficking.

As the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill has its Second Reading in the House of Commons today, ATLEU joins over 90 civil society organisations condemning the Bill as contrary to the rule of law and an abuse of Parliament’s role. We are asking MPs to reject it in its entirety.

Anti-trafficking lawyers are facing huge challenges that impact on their mental wellbeing and the ability of survivors to access justice for the harms they have suffered, according to a new report, Working in the crossfire by Dr Samantha Currie.

ATLEU has responded to the Ministry of Justice’s latest consultation on potential changes to the scope and time limits of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme. Although the Scheme was amended in 2012 to explicitly include survivors of trafficking, few are able to access the Scheme and fewer still are able to obtain a compensation award.

Five months after ATLEU’s success at the Employment Appeal Tribunal, which confirmed the unlawfulness of the ‘Family Worker Exemption’, and following sustained coalition campaigning with partners, the government has finally taken measures to implement its March 2022 commitment to scrap the Exemption from National Minimum Wage regulations.

Trafficking and modern slavery is a heinous crime, which inflicts grave harm on those who are victims of it. Access to compensation is a vital component of criminal justice and redress and recovery for victims and survivors of trafficking and modern slavery.

The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) has had a devastating impact on the legal aid sector. It removed many social welfare matters from the scope of legal aid, thus delaying access for many other matters until crisis point.

As a coalition of 290 organisations representing the human rights, migrants’ rights, refugee and asylum, anti-trafficking, children’s, violence against women and girls, LGBTQI+, disability rights, health, housing, racial justice, criminal justice, arts, international development, environment, democracy, pan-equality, faith, access to justice, and other sectors, we condemn the passage of the Illegal Migration Act today, and stand in solidarity with all who will be affected.

The ‘Illegal’ Migration Bill is a charter for exploitation, trafficking and modern slavery.
It will: 

• Dismantle the UK’s systems of trafficking and modern slavery protection

• Deny protection to victims of this crime 

• Drive trafficking and enable perpetrators to act with impunity.

The Illegal Migration Bill poses a singular and catastrophic threat, not only to the rights of migrants, including refugees and survivors of trafficking and modern slavery, but to the rule of law, the UK's continued ability to comply with its international obligations, and its very ability to provide international protection.

The ‘Illegal Migration Bill’ creates the conditions for exploitation by criminalising people and denying them even the hope of safety. If the bill passes in its current form people who have been trafficked to the UK will be barred from protections due to the way they entered the UK, even if they were brought in against their will.

‘The UK is undergoing a horrific period of rollback of rights and protections for survivors of trafficking and modern slavery, with the Nationality and Borders Act and now the Illegal Migration Bill. If the Bill passes, we will have literally ripped up our systems of identification, support, and access to justice and remedy and we are tarnished.’

On 15 March, our Policy Manager, Kate Elsayed-Ali, gave oral evidence to the Joint Committee on Human Rights, which is conducting an inquiry into the human rights of asylum seekers in the UK.

One full year after the government pledged to remove a loophole for the exploitation of mainly female workers, the Family Worker Exemption remains in place. We urge the government to act without further delay to remove this exemption.

Today, ATLEU joined over 100 charities from the anti-trafficking, refugee and children’s sectors, in writing to the Prime Minister to express our grave concern about separated children seeking asylum going missing from Home Office hotels. The children are suspected of being exploited and trafficked.

The Trafficking Compensation Action Group (TCAG) aims to bring together practitioners who conduct trafficking and modern slavery compensation claims, in order to share best practice, improve access to justice and provide each other with advice and support.

Today, UN experts expressed alarm at the UK Government’s use of unevidenced claims and sensationalist language towards survivors of trafficking and modern slavery, stating these attacks on the credibility of survivors and their legal representatives have a “chilling effect.” Following this release, 21 anti-slavery organisations have released a statement calling on the Government to end its roll-back of rights and protection for survivors, and recommit to support, assistance and safeguarding for all victims of this grave crime.

We have written to Grant Shapps MP, Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, calling on him to deliver on the government’s commitment to remove the ‘Family Worker Exemption’ from National Minimum Wage regulations as a matter of urgency.