Returning home: ensuring safe repatriation

Numerous aftercare organisations have expressed the need to be better informed about the process that takes place when a survivor is required or chooses to return home, and to be kept up to date with the survivor’s wellbeing and progress when they have returned. At present, several aftercare providers are worried that survivors will return to unsafe environments and once again be at risk of trafficking and exploitation. Again, this betrays a lack of focus on the importance of reintegration.

63 Section 83, Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 [accessed via: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2002/41/section/83 (14/02/13)]

‘There is a UKBA office 15 minutes down the road, but we have to

travel to Croydon.’

Victim support worker, in evidence to the CSJ

Survivors of modern slavery who do not have the right to reside or stay in the UK, but who are helping the police with an investigation, may be eligible for a one-year residence permit. Police must apply to the UKBA for this permit. However, the CSJ has heard alarming evidence that individuals who receive this permit but who have also applied for asylum will not be allowed to appeal their asylum decision, should it be refused. This is because section 83 of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 states that the right to appeal asylum may only be given to an individual who ‘has been granted leave to enter or remain in the United Kingdom for a period exceeding one year’.63

It is the CSJ’s recommendation that the duration of a residence permit be increased to at least one year and one day. This will allow survivors, who are given a one-year residence permit because they have been trafficked but who have also applied for asylum, the right to appeal their asylum decision should they need to.

Residence permits

Recommendations:

„

„ All aftercare agencies should establish an agreement with local UKBA offices to ensure that asylum screening interviews are conducted locally:

„

„ One-year Residence Permits that are issued to survivors of modern slavery should be increased in length to at least one year and one day, in order to allow the individual to appeal their asylum decision should they need to.

The Government’s contract for facilitating the safe return of trafficked people sits with Refugee Action, a charity working with refugees and asylum seekers. Refugee Action works in partnership with the UKBA to facilitate the delivery of return schemes. Trafficked people who have also claimed asylum may apply to the Voluntary Assisted Return and Reintegration Programme (VARRP) which offers reintegration support upon arrival in their home country. Every person who applies to VARRP is entitled to this support.

However, the CSJ has identified a loophole in that, for those victims of modern slavery who have not applied for asylum and are ‘irregular migrants’, the Assisted Voluntary Return of Irregular Migrants (AVRIM) scheme is the scheme that is offered. Under this scheme, reintegration assistance will not always be an option. This is a serious concern for cases involving victims of modern slavery.

6.10.1 Assisted Voluntary Return of Irregular Migrants

A person who wishes to return to their country who is in the UK illegally, has no leave to remain and has not applied for asylum (is an ‘irregular migrant’) may qualify for help under the Assisted Voluntary Return of Irregular Migrants (AVRIM) scheme. It is important to note that in every case, the ‘decision about eligibility of the application for AVRIM rests with the

UKBA’.64 _{For a victim of modern slavery who has not applied for asylum and who has no}

leave to remain in the UK, this scheme would be offered in order for them to return home. This scheme entitles the person to help with: travel documents; flight arrangements; assistance at UK airport; possible assistance at home airport; and transport from home airport to final destination. This scheme is not available to citizens of the European Economic Area (EEA). The AVRIM scheme offers no financial assistance, unless it can be proved that the individual returning is ‘particularly vulnerable’.65 _{If a person’s vulnerability is proven, they will be entitled}

to up to £1,000 ‘vulnerability assistance’. This money has very specific conditions, and must be used to fund: accommodation; education; training; business; and healthcare or counselling. AVRIM vulnerability assistance must be applied for by a Refugee Action case worker, who makes the case to UKBA for the extra financial assistance. This vulnerability assistance is essential for a person who has been trafficked. However, unless a case worker recognises the specific vulnerabilities of a victim of modern slavery who is not allowed to stay in the UK or who has decided to return home, this assistance will not be given. The person would be

64 UKBA website, Assisted Voluntary Return of Irregular Migrants [accessed via: www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/aboutus/workingwithus/ workingwithasylum/assistedvoluntaryreturn/avrim (06/09/12)]

65 Ibid

‘The last thing you want to do is put someone on a plane, knowing

they are going to be vulnerable when they return home.’

It Happens Here | Supporting survivors 189

six

returned in the same way as other irregular migrants, with no specific provision to protect them from the risks they face in returning home, and no recognition of their particular vulnerability as a survivor of modern slavery.

It is appalling that there is no specific returns programme for survivors of modern slavery who wish to, or who must return home. The current system is dependent upon a case worker to highlight the elements of modern slavery to the UKBA. It relies on the UKBA to accept the person’s experience of modern slavery as a situation of vulnerability, in order for them to access reintegration support through vulnerability assistance. There is no guarantee that this assistance will be given to every victim of modern slavery who needs to return home, and the decision is at the discretion of the UKBA. Shockingly, there is also an annual limit on the number of AVRIM applicants who are allowed access to vulnerability assistance – a maximum of just ten per cent of applicants are allowed to access this provision per year. This means that if a victim of modern slavery is referred to the AVRIM scheme when it is at its limit of applications, they will be returned home with no financial assistance. In these cases, support for the survivor will end when they arrive in their home country.

It is not difficult to see the flaws in this system: a survivor may be returned to the country from which they were trafficked with no support, no assistance in reintegration and no safeguards against re-trafficking. Financial assistance can be invaluable in ensuring a survivor’s autonomy and safety, and it is imperative that every survivor of modern slavery is given the opportunity to access this crucial support: ‘If they are returned home and to the same socio-economic or cultural conditions which rendered them vulnerable to trafficking in the first place, such as poverty, age, gender or family circumstances, they will be re-exposed to the same or increased risks of trafficking and exploitation at the hands of other individuals or organised criminals’.66

The CSJ recommends that a specific returns programme for survivors of modern slavery is developed, and that any survivor who receives a positive Conclusive Grounds decision under the NRM but who is not entitled to stay in the UK is referred to this programme and vulnerability assistance is guaranteed. The programme should include financial reintegration assistance, as well as support in travelling to the country of origin. GRETA’s recent report on the UK’s response to human trafficking in light of the Council of Europe Convention requirements reinforces this point, and urged the UK ‘to review the appropriateness of existing assisted voluntary return programmes for victims of trafficking as a specific category and to adopt a clear legal and policy framework for the return of trafficked persons’.67

66 Chandran P and Finch N, ‘Residence for Victims of Trafficking in the UK: Humanitarian, Asylum and Human Rights Considerations’, in P Chandran (ed), The Human Trafficking Handbook: Recognising trafficking and modern-day slavery in the UK, London: Lexis Nexis, 2011, p243 67 Group of Experts on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings, Report concerning the implementation of the Council of Europe Convention

on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings by the United Kingdom; First evaluation round, Strasbourg: GRETA, September 2012, p87

‘The vulnerability to re-trafficking is likely to go up if a person has

no other income when they return home.’

There is scope, through facilitating the successful reintegration of survivors of modern slavery who are returning home, for the UK Government to work in partnership with governments and agencies in source countries to ensure that resilience is developed against re-trafficking or continued vulnerability. In only one case out of 292 referrals to the NRM between April and June 2012 was the country of origin of a potential victim unknown. It is the recommendation of the CSJ that the Department for International Development and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, in partnership with Refugee Action, develop work with the governments in, as a starting point, the ten most frequent source countries for victims of modern slavery arriving into the UK, to ensure that provisions are in place for survivors’ successful reintegration upon their return.68 _{Survivors should also be given assistance to claim}

damages from the authorities in their home countries, since this is where their exploitation began and, in numerous cases, could have been prevented.

The work of the recommended Anti-Slavery Commissioner is also significant here. The Anti- Slavery Commissioner should work with the Government to ring-fence international financial assistance to be used for aiding the recovery and reintegration of victims of modern slavery in those countries which are persistently in the top ten source countries for victims of modern slavery in the UK and are consistently doing little to solve the problem.

6.10.2 Assistance for EU and EEA nationals

There is currently no provision for assisted returns for EU or EEA nationals. The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) offers case-by-case assistance to individuals where funding is available, but there is no national policy of assistance for trafficked EU nationals. This must be rectified as soon as possible. IOM UK is making efforts to raise money for funds to return EU nationals, with the development of its Victim’s Fund to assist survivors from the EU or EEA who wish to return to their country of origin and receive integration assistance. If funding is available, IOM UK is able to provide help with access to travel and identity documents, travel assistance and help in the country of origin through its IOM field offices. Reintegration assistance may involve family reunification, medical and healthcare, temporary accommodation support, education or vocational training and support in activities to generate income, such as

68 Details on source countries, updated quarterly, can be found in UK Human Trafficking Centre statistics [accessed via: http://www.soca. gov.uk/about-soca/about-the-ukhtc/national-referral-mechanism/statistics (21/01/13)]

Recommendations:

„

„ All survivors of modern slavery from outside of the EU or EEA who are given a positive Conclusive Grounds NRM decision should be offered return and reintegration assistance when returning home;

„

„ The Department for International Development and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office should work together to ensure that source countries engage with the reintegration of survivors who are returning home. This should be done in partnership with the Anti-Slavery Commissioner, who should develop a programme which ring-fences international financial assistance to persistent source countries for victims of modern slavery in the UK.

It Happens Here | Supporting survivors 191

six

starting a small business. Other organisations such as Thames Reach, based in London, are able to offer some returns assistance for certain EU nationals who wish to go home, through their ‘reconnections’ programme. However this support is not tailored towards survivors. The UK should ensure the safe return of all survivors, including those who have been trafficked from the EU or EEA. This should not just be dependent on the work of IOM in sourcing voluntary and inconsistent donations.