It Happens Here: Child Trafficking in Scotland

Kelly Giles – University of Stirling

Working Title: Unidentified and Disbelieved? A critical ethnographic exploration into the discourses and processes that

surround the identification of child trafficking victims in Scotland.

Contact: kelly.giles1@stirling.ac.uk

Quick question

• For what purpose(s) do you think children are trafficked into Scotland?

What is human trafficking?• Human trafficking falls under the United Nations Palermo Protocol and is defined

as:

“Trafficking in persons" shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs... The consent of a victim of trafficking in persons to the intended exploitation set forth [above] shall be irrelevant where any of the means set forth [above] have been used”

• Child trafficking refers to those who are under 18 years of age

– Scottish legislation is in line with this definition and therefore classifies victims under the age of 18 as children regardless of whether they are a UK national or foreign national

Setting the scene – Current reading• Anti-trafficking policy removes the connection of how neoliberal markets can

cause trafficking

– ‘individualizes’ responsibility which allows the government to decrease their level of responsibility in tackling the crime (Sharapov 2015)

• UK anti-trafficking measures focus primarily on specific populations

– government uses trafficking as a way to create more complex forms of domestic and overseas regulation (FitzGerald 2016)

• Starting to get into the wider discussions around globalization, the securitization of immigration, the immigrant as a social construct, states trying to retain power (idea of ‘failed’ states) and their interest in developing technologies of control and surveillance

Setting the scene - Child trafficking in Scotland

• Child trafficking is a complex and challenging issue as there is no ‘classic’ victim, and no typical pattern of trafficking

• The full extent of CT in Scotland is unknown (Rigby, 2009).

• From the period of January to March of this year 10 children were identified as trafficking victims, 2 of those victims were UK born nationals

• Little research exists on CT within a Scottish context, and research that has been undertaken concluded that knowledge on CT was extremely varied (SCCYP, 2011)

• It is not clear how trafficked children are being identified in Scotland, therefore this research will seek to address that gap and will be the first to do so.

Problems with identification

• Has been a tendency for issues of immigration and border control to overshadow child protection concerns (Rigby & Whyte, 2013)

– Relates to age assessments (young people not being believed), young people not opening up about their experience during Home Office interviews (more often than not because they are suffering from trauma and mental health issues)

• Previous research has also highlighted two central discourses regarding CT: immigration-centered and child-centered, with the former displaying discriminatory and xenophobic attitudes towards victims (Pearce, Hynes & Bovarnick, 2009).

• practitioners are facing other difficulties when trying to identify whether a child has been trafficked (Harvie, Hornsby & Sattar, 2015; Pearce, Hynes & Bovarnick, 2009; Pearce, 2011).

– Lack of knowledge on CT, lack of training, disbelief that it happens here, don’t want to re-traumatise the young person, can find the Home Office/National Referral Mechanism a challenge

Research – Unidentified and disbelieved?

Research aims to:

• Analyse how child trafficking is understood by immigration and child protection agencies, the discourses staff construct around CT and whether these impact on identification.

• Observe and explore what specific processes and assessments these agencies work through to identify a non-EU national victim

• Understand any challenges staff may face that may impact upon identification

Research – Theoretical underpinnings

• Critical criminology• Social Construction• Foucault’s work on governmentality and

power

Research – Methods• Critical ethnographic research will be carried out.

• What is the problem represented to be (method of analysing policy) may also be utilised

• This work will be undertaken at two airport visa and immigration departments (UKVI), two child protection teams situated within areas where CT is a concern in Scotland, and the Scottish Guardianship Project (SGP)

• general staff practices including application of CP and CT guidelines and inter-agency work will be observed

• Semi-structured interviews will then be carried out with individual staff members to have a more in-depth discussion of how CT victims are identified, their understanding of CT, and any challenges they may face that make identifying them problematic

The End

• Any questions?