Scottish Anti-Trafficking & Exploitation Centre

We also serve as a hub for legal outreach, policy, training and research in the area of human trafficking and exploitation. We use our team’s expertise to contribute to the fight against trafficking and exploitation at both the national and international level. 

Our model of legal advice provision has been classed as a model of best practice by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

Legal Advice

We provide free specialist legal advice on all legal matters relating to an individual’s experience of trafficking and/or exploitation.

We provide legal advice and representation across a number of different legal areas including asylum, immigration, family reunion, employment law, compensation, housing/support and the criminal justice process. We advise individuals and at different stages of their ‘journey’ to facilitate early identification of victims as well as establish integration steps to prevent further harm/exploitation and keep individuals safe.

We ensure our legal advice, assistance, and representation is trauma informed, human rights focussed, and holistic.  

Legal Outreach

We have established collaborations with our partners at the Trafficking Awareness Raising Alliance (TARA) and Migrant Help to provide free weekly Legal Information and Advice Surgeries to victims of human trafficking in Scotland.  

Through these surgeries , we provide legal information and advice in the following areas:

• Identification of human trafficking through the National Referral Mechanism (where there is no other lawyer providing this advice) 
• Engagement with criminal justice processes as a victim of a crime 
• Immigration advice (where there is no other lawyer providing this advice) 
• Compensation 
• Rights and entitlements
• Other legal processes that may be relevant such as child protection, family law, family reunion, employment law etc. 

Policy, Research and Training

We are members of the Anti-Trafficking Monitoring Group (ATMG), a coalition established in 2009 to monitor the UK’s implementation of European anti-trafficking legislation. The group uses a human rights-based approach to examine all types of human trafficking, including internal trafficking and the trafficking of British nationals, to protect the well-being and best interests of victims of human trafficking.

We have been part of the team working with the Child Protection Team at Glasgow City Council developing and training on the Home Office pilot to devolve decision making for child victims of human trafficking and exploitation in Glasgow.  

We are a member of two Scottish Government Action Area groups in relation to the implementation of the Human Trafficking and Exploitation Strategy as well as members of the Scottish Parliament Cross Party group on Human Trafficking. We are also members of the Child Trafficking Working Group at Glasgow City Council.  

We have contributed to UK and international research since the start of the project. At the moment, we are contributing to a research project titled Pathways Through Liberation- Revealing Survivors’ Support Journeys Outside of The UK National Referral Mechanism which is led by the University of Nottingham’s Rights Lab in collaboration with a number of partners across the UK and funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.  

We deliver a range of bespoke training in the areas we work on and please get in touch with us if you would like to discuss any training needs.  

Peer Support and Mentoring Programme

The centre has been part of an innovative anti-trafficking project to assist trafficked migrant women funded by the European Union’s Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (EC AMIF: 821581).The project, called ASSIST, focused on the integration of trafficked women recovering from sexual exploitation, taking into account the gender dimension of trafficking in Europe and the gender specific harms and trauma associated with trafficking for sexual exploitation.

Through the project we brought together a group of inspiring women with lived experience of trafficking to develop and deliver a pilot Peer Support programme for female survivors of sexual exploitation focussing on their integration and recovery needs in Scotland post identification. They produced a powerful video about this work and the importance of raising the voices of survivors and their expert lived experience.  

This group of women also made important contributions to policy consultations in Scotland including the review of Scotland’s Human Trafficking Strategy. They also worked on co-production of the  know-your-rights leaflet referred to above.  

We made a commitment to continue the Peer Support  programme and we have now secured funding from the Endrick Trust to continue delivering this important work. with all of the funding going directly to the survivors taking part in the programme. .  

Resources

The ASSIST project has produced a report on best practice principles of working with women affected by human trafficking for sexual exploitation. The full report and summary report can be downloaded here:

• Assisting Trafficked Women: Best practice principles of gender-specific legal assistance and integration supports to third country national female victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation (PDF)
• Summary of best practice principles (PDF)

Through the project, women with lived experience of trafficking and JustRight Scotland have also co-produced a know-your-rights leaflet for trafficked migrant women on their rights and support in Scotland, which you can access below.

Funding

The important and innovative work of our centre is supported by funding from