Philippa Southwell spoke about the landmark ECtHR judgment of VCL and AN v United Kingdom. She addressed the impact of prosecuting victims of human trafficking and ramifications of this leading judgment. In particular, she discussed the prevalence of child trafficking and modern slavery in the UK, risks in the criminal justice context, practical issues for practitioners as well as best practice approach.
She was joined by a panel of experts including Gemma Loughran, Emma Fitzsimons, Stephen Clark, Steven Galliver-Andrew, and Fatima Jichi (Chair). The panel provided an introduction to the National Referral Mechanism, the framework for identifying and referring potential victims of trafficking and how to challenge decisions of the National Referral Mechanism.
The panel also provided an overview of the immigration implications (including rights to citizenship, rights of residence, deportation) of different criminal justice disposals and discuss the impact of EU withdrawal and lowering of deport threshold for EEA nationals.
To read more about the event, please see here.
