| October 18th is Anti-Slavery Day, a day marked to symbolize the importance of raising awareness and the need to eradicate all forms of slavery, human trafficking, and exploitation. Ironically, despite the U.K. government recognizing this day as a national call to action, they are in fact reversing protections. How? They passed legislation that undermines efforts to tackle modern slavery and human trafficking and attempts to justify asylum seekers’ deportation to a third country. Read more about the Illegal Migration Act and the U.K. government’s negligent justifications for its policies. |
| Read more |
| The Illegal Migration Act leaves victims without support or access to modern slavery protections, even if they are brought to the U.K. under force or coercion. All this does is put those who have already suffered exploitation further at risk of being re-trafficked and exacerbate conditions of vulnerability that will drive more people into modern slavery.[1] The Act uses threats of detention, deportation and denied access as a deterrence to people arriving in the U.K. The government’s plan is to forcibly send asylum seekers to a third country, Rwanda, a country that is not where they are seeking asylum. Given Rwanda’s failure to uphold international standards for asylum seekers, the evidence suggests that those who are trafficked are not in a position to safely go to authorities and get the support they need. Show your disapproval! The U.K. should offer protection, not put people in danger of trafficking. |
| Take action |
| The U.K. Court of Appeal ruled that the plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda was unlawful. Now the British government is challenging the ruling at a hearing that started on October 9th. The risks associated with this act are incredibly high for trafficking victims and survivors. Many arrive via irregular routes out of dire necessity including fleeing violence, exploitation or persecution. Instead of providing safe routes and working to support trafficking victims on arrival, the plan to deport them to Rwanda further endangers them and puts them at risk of being re-trafficked. The U.N. has made clear that this is against international standards, as well as U.K. law, to not offer protections to trafficking victims. |
| Sign our petition |
| We stand in unconditional solidarity with migrants and reject the Illegal Migration Act and its efforts to strip protections for trafficking victims and deportation of asylum seekers to Rwanda, a proven unsafe country for refugees. Sign our petition to call for genuine anti-trafficking immigration policies. |
