Guide for police and labour inspectors working with migrants in the UK

Written on 15 June 2022.

Focus on Labour Exploitation (FLEX) and the Latin American Women’s Rights Service (LAWRS) published a guide titled Preventing and Addressing Abuse and Exploitation: A Guide for Police and Labour Inspectors Working with Migrants.

This publication highlights the negative impact of data sharing between the police/labour inspectors and immigration enforcement on migrant victims of crime, in particular domestic abuse and labour exploitation, and shows how the introduction of safe reporting mechanisms can help prevent and address abuse and exploitation. Building on international good practice, it outlines practical strategies to increase trust between these agencies and migrant communities to enable migrants to securely report abuse and exploitation and agencies to access valuable intelligence to prevent and address these crimes.

This work is especially important in light of recent debates in the House of Lords on two amendments to the Nationality and Borders Bill (Amendment 124A and 140), which would ensure that everyone can safely report crime without fear of their data being shared with immigration enforcement. Immigration enforcement undermines safeguarding of victims of crime and the new Immigration Enforcement Victims Protocol continues to prioritise this over the safety of victims and supporting cooperation with the police.

FLEX and LAWRS hope that police and labour inspectors will engage with the learnings and proposed strategies outlined in the publication to introduce and strengthen safe reporting mechanisms and build trust with migrant communities. The publication was launched with two accompanying videos on safe reporting for labour exploitation and on safe reporting for domestic abuse.