Home Office has conflict of interest over identifying victims of exploitation and deporting undocumented migrants, says report by charity Detention ActionVictims of trafficking are being wrongly sent to immigration detention centres despite police awareness that they are victims of exploitation, research by a migration charity indicates. After police raids on nail bars, brothels and cannabis farms, some victims are still being wrongly convicted of criminal offences relating to their exploitation, and many trafficking victims are detained for removal and subsequently deported. Very often they are sent instead to immigration detention centres, for immigration offences, where they are not given access to advice on how to speak out about their exploitation. “Locked up in prison-like conditions, detained victims of trafficking lack access to independent specialist advice, support and representation,” the report states. “Around 30,000 men and women are detained by the Home Office in prisons and immigration removal centres (IRCs) across the UK each year.

Source: The Guardian November 15, 2017 18:52 UTC