2017 Summer Symposium

@ St Catharine’s College, University of Cambridge

Children in Forced Migration and Human Trafficking Risk

We took out from the Pandora’s Box which we had laid out for us, and was unpacked by world class lecturers, and some heroic champions of Human Rights working in challenging locations in international ‘hubs’ of trafficking risk,   the treatment of Children in forced migration, Children unaccompanied and separated from their families,  Child Sexual Exploitation, Children caught in Criminality and recruited into criminal gangs and drug production,  Children deliberately maimed and disabled for begging,  the growing trade in Organs particularly in the Southern Hemisphere, Children caught in armed conflict as soldiers, domestic slaves and ‘comfort children’.

Lecturers in the 2017 2nd CCARHT Symposium on Children and Trafficking included:

Nazir Afzhal  OBE Chief Executive of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners

Mike Dottridge Independent Child Migration Consultant. Author of multiple UN, EU reports on Children’s Rights and Protection. Former Director of Anti Slavery International.

Professor Nair  Professor at TISS, the Tata Institute of Social Sciences Mumbai, India.

Dr Sara Silvestri  Senior Lecturer  Department of International Politics, City University of London

Glynn Rankin  Lecturer at Liverpool University, former joint Director of the UK Human Trafficking Centre  and Crown Prosecuting Service

Dr Carrie Pemberton Ford  Director of CCARHT and UNITAR Fellow (GENEVA) on Gender, Peace and Conflict Studies

Dr Elif Cetin – Von Hugel institute

Dr Sarah Steele  CCARHT Research fellow and specialist in Public Health Impacts and Human Trafficking  BiFellow Jesus College University of Cambridge

Mary Honeyball MEP The potential impacts of Brexit on the protection of vulnerable persons and minors across Europe

Pooja Bhalli (Formerly International Organization for Migration (UN Migration Agency)  Khartoum, Sudan

Michael McHugh Youth Refugee Service project co-ordinator working in Calais

Markella Papadouli The Aire Centre

Clowns without Borders USA

The NO Project   –  USA and Europe

David Ashcroft  Chair of the National Local Safeguarding Children Boards  UK

Dr Halleh Seddighzadeh  A.R.M.A.N (Asylee, Refugee Migrant Assistance Network)Division of Human Trafficking (HHC)  USA

The multiple vulnerabilities of Human Trafficking  were laid bare before the delegates, and together the symposium responded to the challenge to innovate, to think large, to elaborate their networks and their power to influence and change, and what working towards some sustainable mitigation and increased social protection would look like in their workplace, discipline, and neighborhoods.  Thinking Global and acting locally was something of a theme of the week – with the internet enabling us to also consider the power of networks and supporting the work of others engaged in the challenge of addressing Trafficking of Children in their contexts internationally.

The 12th Annual Symposium of the University of Palermo’s Migration, Human Rights and Democracy summer school 2018dug deep into the present challenges of ‘the externalisation of European Border controls’, the ‘resource deficit’ in migration integration programmes, and pioneering work in enlarging the welcome offered secured for refugees from the countries of conflict, currently fuelling the forced movement of millions of individuals in search of safety internationally.   Papers from this symposium will be available shortly.

• One year after Oliver – had the Swedish perspective on Trafficking for Sexual Exploitation assisted in child protection from sexual exploitation? And what are the consequences of BREXIT looking like, in relation to Child Protection and the security of Children crossing borders and undertaking hazardous journeys.
• Mary Honeyball MEP Labour, offered her views on the challenges which lie in store for appropriate protection, and the opportunities of the Swedish perspective on Trafficking for Sexual Exploitation
• What does Innovation look like in the counter Trafficking space?
  The symposium devoted a full day looking at how to develop innovative thinking and praxis across the 4 Ps of trafficking, and how this works in Policing, Health Care, Social Protection, aswell as in disruption of trafficking routes and ‘deployment’ of those recruited.  We were joined by specialist legal firm Mathys and Squire to discuss the challenges of working in ‘collaboration’ across multi-agency innovative projects.
• We reviewed the major handbooks and guidelines for Best Practice in working with Children in Migration and vulnerable to Trafficking, there will be a catch up on the latest International data on Human Trafficking  through a lens focused on Children, some of the leading outcomes of legal challenge in the UK and Europe and around the effective protection of the State.  Crime Commissioner UK chair Nazir Afzal brought the lessons of Rotherham CSE, home to the delegates with great power and urgency from his former role as Chief Prosecutor for the CPS.  Former Crown Prosecutor Glynn Rankin reflected with Mary Honeyball MEP and Markella Papadouli  on the potential negative impacts of Brexit for effective child protection and resistance to trafficking, if urgent work is not undertaken to address the gaps in provision which will open up as the European Framework is dismantled in its direct application to UK law.