Eaves’ Poppy Project welcomes High Court judgment that Home Office failed to identify victims of trafficking in detention

Eaves’ Poppy Project welcomes today’s High Court order on the detention of victims of trafficking in the case of PU, K and Y in which we acted as interveners. The High Court declared that the Home Office breached their own guidance in failing to identify the claimants as victims of trafficking and failed to conduct any further investigations into the cases.

The Detained Fast Track process (DFT) is counter to the aims of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and The Poppy Project has long said the use of the DFT hinders identification of potential victims of trafficking and modern slavery.

Poppy Project Manager, Irina DoCarmo says: “We have supported women who have escaped trafficking and exploitation only to be detained by immigration authorities when they seek safety. We find this unjust and unjustifiable. Detention violates human dignity and we are pleased that in these cases the detained fast track has been found to breach the human rights of the claimants.”

It is imperative that those who are not parties to this litigation also have the opportunity to have their trafficking decisions reviewed by the Home Office as part of their obligation to proactively identify victims of trafficking. We now call upon the Home Office to engage fully with the sector and those working in detention to better understand and identify potential victims of trafficking and slavery. We hope that there will be a space for trafficking organisations and detention organisations in any review of the DFT and any next steps taken following the decision of James Brokenshire to suspend the DFT.

Read our full press release here