Criminal and Immigration Law: Modern Slavery Act Case Analysis Report

This report provides a detailed analysis of a criminal and immigration law case centered around human trafficking. The scenario involves a 21-year-old Albanian woman, Anna, who is lured to the UK under false pretenses by an immigration consultant and subsequently forced into prostitution. The report examines the roles of various individuals involved in the exploitation, including the immigration consultant and the brothel owner. It highlights how these actors are involved in human trafficking, using deception and coercion to exploit the victim. The analysis delves into the legal aspects of the case, particularly focusing on the Modern Slavery Act 2015 in the United Kingdom, which defines and regulates human trafficking. The report discusses the charges brought against Anna, including controlling prostitution, engaging in sexual activities with a child, and the potential defenses available to her under the Modern Slavery Act. The analysis also references the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) for determining victim status and its implications for legal defenses. The report underscores the importance of victim rights and the legal frameworks designed to protect victims of trafficking, referencing relevant legal provisions and scholarly articles on the subject.

Running head: CRIMINAL AND IMMIGRATION LAW
CRIMINAL AND IMMIGRATION LAW
Name of Student
Name of University
Author Note

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The term victim under the criminal justice system can be defined as any individual
suffering from any harm or trauma, either physical, emotional, economic or in terms of loss
of property.1 The primary rights that are granted to the victims in the criminal justice system
include the legal rights for restitution, advocacy, right to testify for the proceedings in
criminal justice and the right to be included in the proceedings in the criminal justice.2 The
term Human Trafficking can be defined as transferring people from one place to other
unlawfully by way of fraud, deception and coercion with the purpose of the exploitation of
the person.3 The victims in human trafficking are the individuals who are transported
unlawfully from one place to other for the purpose of exploiting them by using violence,
force, intimidation, coercion or deception4. In the given scenario it was seen that a 21 year old
Albanian woman named Anna (A), aspiring for a better life, wanted to move to London. In
her initial enquiry she found that the entry clearance provided by the EW for moving to
London, UK will be difficult and time consuming for her to secure. Some days later she is
observed to meet Tito (T) who A finds out has similar ambition of living in UK. A finds from
A that he has a friend Victor (V) who is an immigration consultant and helps people to move
to UK and set them up with a job in the country. He further stated that as the job is set up
before A would move to UK therefore she would be allowed by the UK Border Services to
work in UK and in a few months she would be able to apply for permanent residence in UK
and she can take her child to the country as well. Believing T’s words A approaches V who
asks for $1000 equivalent to Albanian currency and the additional cost of flight tickets to UK
which would be arranged by V. V further states to A that he will also provide her with the
documents necessary for her to move to UK legally. At the scheduled date of her flight A
1 Narayanan, R.L., Nokia Solutions and Networks Oy, 2018. Network assisted automatic clustering to enable
victim to victim communication. U.S. Patent 10,051,439.
2 Pugach, D., Peleg, A. and Ronel, N., 2018. Lingual injury: Crime victims between the criminal justice system
and the media. International Review of Victimology, 24(1), pp.3-23.
3 Burke, M.C., 2017. Human trafficking: interdisciplinary perspectives. Routledge.
4 Breuer, G. and Daiber, D., 2019. Human Trafficking Awareness in the Emergency Care Setting. Journal of
Emergency Nursing, 45(1), pp.67-75.

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finds out that V had provided her with false documentations with false name, address and
description. On Questioning about the same she was asked about her want to live in UK.
After arriving in UK Anna further finds out that she has only been granted with a 6 month
stay permit in which employment is not permitted. After the clearance from the Border
Security Officers she was taken to a brothel by Sebastian (S) where she was threatened with
the safety of her child to work as a prostitute. In this context it can be seen that V and S are
involved in human trafficking, where they make false promises to people about providing a
well paid job in foreign countries. They provide fake documentations for immigrating those
people to other countries. After they received clearance from the Border Security Officers the
individuals were threatened or coerced by S to work in brothels. A was one such victim of
human trafficking, as she had initially been decepted and then coerced and threatened to work
as prostitute with a very low pay in one of the brothels in the United Kingdom.
In the United Kingdom human trafficking is considered as an offence and its
regulations are guided under the provisions of Modern Slavery Act 20155. Under section 2 of
the Modern Slavery Act 20156 the offence of Human trafficking has been defined as the
arrangement of the travel of any person by another person with a view of exploiting the
former individual. Under the subsection 2 of section 2 of the Act the consent of the person
travelling is not relevant in this context7. Therefore in the given situation it is not relevant
whether A consented to travel to UK or not she had still being the victim of human
trafficking as she had been exploited to work as a prostitute by threatening the safety of her
child in UK.
After one year A is observed to be stealing a chocolate from a shop. The owner of the
shop reports her to the police who finds her in the brothel with a minor named Mercy (M)
5 de Brouwer, A.M., de Volder, E. and Seah, C.M., 2019. Journal of Trafficking and Human Exploitation.
6 Modern Slavery Act 2015, s2
7 Modern Slavery Act 2015, s2(2)

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who is approximately 15 years of age. Both A and M are unable to provide the police with
proper documents as their documents have been taken by S upon their arrival in the country.
M was found with class C drugs which she told to police was provided to her by S for
minimising her pain before she met the clients. A was not prosecuted for shoplifting in public
interest. However, she is prosecuted for 3 charges. The first charge against A was controlling
prostitution for gain. The second offence she was charged with was her engagement in sexual
activities while a child was present in the scene. The third offence she was charged with was
her engagement in sexual activities with a child. Both A and M are referred to the National
Referral Mechanism (NRM) for the determination of their status, as whether they could be
considered as victims of trafficking. If the NRM finds them to be victims of trafficking then
as per section 45 of the Modern Slavery Act 20158 A can claim for defence against the
charges made against her. Section 45 (1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 provides that any
person would not be considered to be guilty of an offence if they are of 18 years or above of
age and have been compelled to conduct that offence9. As discussed earlier A is 21 years of
age and had engaged in sexual activities because S had threatened her the disclosure of her
identity to the Border Security Officers and also with the safety of her child. M would have
the defence under Section 45 (2) where it has been stated that any person would not be
considered to be guilty of an offence if they are of under the age of 18 years and have been
compelled to conduct that offence and are victim of the relevant exploitation10.
8 Modern Slavery Act 2015, s 45
9 Modern Slavery Act 2015, s 45 (1)
10 Modern Slavery Act 2015, s 45 (2)

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Reference
Breuer, G. and Daiber, D., 2019. Human Trafficking Awareness in the Emergency Care
Setting. Journal of Emergency Nursing, 45(1), pp.67-75.
Burke, M.C., 2017. Human trafficking: interdisciplinary perspectives. Routledge.
de Brouwer, A.M., de Volder, E. and Seah, C.M., 2019. Journal of Trafficking and Human
Exploitation.
Modern Slavery Act 2015
Narayanan, R.L., Nokia Solutions and Networks Oy, 2018. Network assisted automatic
clustering to enable victim to victim communication. U.S. Patent 10,051,439.
Pugach, D., Peleg, A. and Ronel, N., 2018. Lingual injury: Crime victims between the
criminal justice system and the media. International Review of Victimology, 24(1), pp.3-23.