‘Beacon to the World’
Proposed New Legislation in Scotland
Scottish Labour Party member, Jenny Marra, is proposing new human trafficking legislation. The proposed Human Trafficking Bill would make it illegal to punish people forced to commit a crime as a result of trafficking, calls for a survivor service for victims and calls on the Scottish government to publish an anti-trafficking strategy every three years and to establish a new single criminal offence of aiding, abetting or attempting to commit human trafficking.
In a September 2013 BBC News report Ms Marra said “One victim of human trafficking is found in Scotland every four days, yet only five people have ever been convicted of human trafficking offences in Scotland… The Anti-Trafficking Monitoring Group has found evidence that victims of human trafficking, including children, are being held in Scottish jails for crimes they were forced to commit by traffickers.”
