Human trafficking cases at record high in Scotland

Police in Scotland have released their latest quarterly report that shows human trafficking and exploitation cases are at their highest across the country.

According to the report, Albanian and Vietnamese nationals are among the most trafficked.

The National Referral Mechanism – a UK-wide framework to identify potential victims of human trafficking and exploitation – showed that Albanian nationals make up 22% of victims, Vietnamese make up 19%, and UK nationals make up 11%.

These numbers are at their highest since records began.

In May this year, it was discovered that the number of potential victims across the UK has drastically increased: 4,746 victims were referred to the Home Office from January to March, up from 3,773 in the same period in 2022.

Last year, four people were imprisoned for trafficking young women into Scotland from Thailand and China. They promised legitimate employment but in reality confiscated passports and forced young women to work in brothels across Glasgow.

Police Scotland included in its report that “Albanian nationals are the fastest growing nationality reported in the NRM in Scotland with most Albanian nationals encountered being adult males in immigration removal centres or the prison estate.

“The increase on reporting has been heavily influenced by socio-political events including the UK leaving the EU, COVID-19 restrictions, migration from conflict areas, and the large increase in clandestine entry by small boats and other irregular migration matters.”

Speaking on how to tackle this growing problem, the Police in Scotland highlighted the upcoming interfaith National Human Trafficking Conference held in conjunction with the Catholic Church’s Santa Maria Anti-Trafficking Group.

This event will bring together political and faith leaders, with the UK Police Forces Strategic leads in this area to discuss “more effective law enforcement”.

Michael Veitch, Parliamentary Officer at CARE for Scotland, underlined the need for a law criminalising the purchase of sex:

"The murky links between human trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation are well known. For as long as it remains legal for men to pay for sex, we are failing to tackle one of the principal drivers of trafficking at source. For the sake of the women who continue to be harmed in this way, the Scottish Government must move to criminalise the purchase of sex without delay."

Mr Veitch added:

"The UK Government's new Illegal Migration Act will make matters worse and be hugely detrimental to genuine victims of modern slavery in Scotland, as it reduced modern slavery protections. It is deeply sad that ministers failed to listen to the expert organisations urging them to rethink this law. We fear the consequences of the modern slavery provisions will be realised in broken lives.”