Home Secretary Suella Braverman has withdrawn new rules that would make it harder for trafficking victims to have their cases accepted months after introducing them.
Braverman withdrew the new rules and plans to provide replacement rules by 10 July. Until then, she has agreed that ‘no negative reasonable grounds decisions will be made’ about trafficking victims, as reported by The Guardian.
The new policy – which was introduced in January – required victims to provide immediate evidence of trafficking in order for the government to deem them potential victims of slavery.
In 2022, 88% of cases received a decision that they were potential victims of trafficking (nearly 17,000 cases), according to the Home Office.
In the first quarter of 2023, this figure had dropped to 58%, according to The Guardian, which further reported that the withdrawal came from a challenge against the policy that was brought forth by two potential trafficking victims who received negative decisions, despite the Home Office believing that their evidence was genuine.
“This is an incredible win for our clients and many other survivors of trafficking who would have otherwise received negative reasonable grounds decisions due to the policy,” said Shalini Patel of Duncan Lewis Solicitors, who represented the two potential trafficking victims.
(Sofia Stuart Leeson | EURACTIV.com)
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