LONDON: Victims of human trafficking could find themselves excluded from the “best legal protections” after Britain leaves the European Union, the chairwoman of a parliamentary anti-trafficking watchdog said on Tuesday.
British lawmaker Fiona MacTaggart told a UK anti-slavery conference that Britain’s membership of the EU had enabled lawyers to argue on behalf of enslaved people at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
But proposed changes to British law in the wake of the Brexit vote on June 23 would mean “ECHR rulings will not prevail,” the opposition Labour member of parliament said.
“Better protection for victims of slavery must be part of the Brexit agenda,” MacTaggart told a gathering of around 200 campaigners, lawyers and other delegates in London.
Prime Minister Theresa May said earlier this month that Britain, where an estimated 11,700 people are enslaved, would “lead the world” with its efforts to stamp out modern day slavery and human trafficking.
In July, the prime minister pledged to use 33.5 million pounds ($42 million) from the foreign aid budget to focus on combating slavery in countries where victims are known to be trafficked to Britain.
But MacTaggart said she had not heard any government ministers working on Brexit mention what new protections there will be for trafficked people after Britain leaves the EU.
“I call on those planning our exit from Europe to prepare and publish a plan to protect future victims of slavery and compensate them for their exploitation,” MacTaggart said.
The Home Office (interior ministry) and the Department for Exiting the European Union did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Delegates at the annual conference voiced concerns trafficking victims would suffer as a result of tougher immigration controls and Britain’s withdrawal from the EU’s international crime-fighting agency, Europol.
“If you want to slam your borders shut — in a Brexit model — how does that tally with what our prime minister wants to do which is lead the world on combatting trafficking?” said lawyer Parosha Chandran, who has represented victims of human trafficking.
Activists have welcomed Britain’s Modern Slavery Act, which came into force last year, as a milestone in the struggle against a crime affecting nearly 46 million people worldwide, according to the 2016 Global Slavery Index by Walk Free Foundation.
But MacTaggart said the UK law was too focused on prosecuting offenders, an approach which often fails.
“The witnesses, who are also victims don’t get the support they need to give evidence,” MacTaggart said.
Slavery victims in UK ‘worse off’ after Brexit, says lawmaker
Slavery victims in UK ‘worse off’ after Brexit, says lawmaker
At top UN court, Myanmar denies deadly Rohingya campaign amounts to genocide
- The country defended itself Friday at the United Nations top court against allegations of breaching the genocide convention
- Myanmar launched the campaign in Rakhine state in 2017 after an attack by a Rohingya insurgent group
THE HAGUE: Myanmar insisted Friday that its deadly military campaign against the Rohingya ethnic minority was a legitimate counter-terrorism operation and did not amount to genocide, as it defended itself at the top United Nations court against an allegation of breaching the genocide convention.
Myanmar launched the campaign in Rakhine state in 2017 after an attack by a Rohingya insurgent group. Security forces were accused of mass rapes, killings and torching thousands of homes as more than 700,000 Rohingya fled into neighboring Bangladesh.
“Myanmar was not obliged to remain idle and allow terrorists to have free reign of northern Rakhine state,” the country’s representative Ko Ko Hlaing told black-robed judges at the International Court of Justice.
Gambia filed genocide case in 2019
African nation Gambia brought a case at the court in 2019 alleging that Myanmar’s military actions amount to a breach of the Genocide Convention that was drawn up in the aftermath of World War II and the Holocaust.
Some 1.2 million members of the Rohingya minority are still languishing in chaotic, overcrowded camps in Bangladesh, where armed groups recruit children and girls as young as 12 are forced into prostitution. The sudden and severe foreign aid cuts imposed last year by US President Donald Trump shuttered thousands of the camps’ schools and have caused children to starve to death.
Buddhist-majority Myanmar has long considered the Rohingya Muslim minority to be “Bengalis” from Bangladesh even though their families have lived in the country for generations. Nearly all have been denied citizenship since 1982.
Myanmar denies Gambia claims of ‘genocidal intent’
As hearings opened Monday, Gambian Justice Minister Dawda Jallow said his nation filed the case after the Rohingya “endured decades of appalling persecution, and years of dehumanizing propaganda. This culminated in the savage, genocidal ‘clearance operations’ of 2016 and 2017, which were followed by continued genocidal policies meant to erase their existence in Myanmar.”
Hlaing disputed the evidence Gambia cited in its case, including the findings of an international fact-finding mission set up by the UN’s Human Rights Council.
“Myanmar’s position is that the Gambia has failed to meet its burden of proof,” he said. “This case will be decided on the basis of proven facts, not unsubstantiated allegations. Emotional anguish and blurry factual pictures are not a substitute for rigorous presentation of facts.”
Aung San Suu Kyi represented Myanmar at court in 2019. Now she’s imprisoned
Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi represented her country at jurisdiction hearings in the case in 2019, denying that Myanmar armed forces committed genocide and instead casting the mass exodus of Rohingya people from the country she led as an unfortunate result of a battle with insurgents.
The pro-democracy icon is now in prison after being convicted of what her supporters call trumped-up charges after a military takeover of power.
Myanmar contested the court’s jurisdiction, saying Gambia was not directly involved in the conflict and therefore could not initiate a case. Both countries are signatories to the genocide convention, and in 2022, judges rejected the argument, allowing the case to move forward.
Gambia rejects Myanmar’s claims that it was combating terrorism, with Jallow telling judges on Monday that “genocidal intent is the only reasonable inference that can be drawn from Myanmar’s pattern of conduct.”
In late 2024, prosecutors at another Hague-based tribunal, the International Criminal Court, requested an arrest warrant for the head of Myanmar’s military regime for crimes committed against the country’s Rohingya Muslim minority. Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, who seized power from Suu Kyi in 2021, is accused of crimes against humanity for the persecution of the Rohingya. The request is still pending.
