Trafficking victims “won’t come forward” because of Suella Braverman’s false claims about people gaming the system, the government’s own former anti-slavery commissioner told MPs today.
The Home Affairs Select Committee heard how the home secretary’s allegations that laws designed to protect victims of slavery are being abused are creating a “chilling effect on survivors and victims”.
Sara Thornton, who stepped down from the role in April 2022, told the committee that the Home Office has “not been forthcoming” when asked for evidence to back up Braverman’s incendiary claims.
The government’s proposed Illegal Migration Bill would disqualify people who arrive in the UK ‘irregularly’, including by crossing the Channel on small boats, from being able to seek protection from modern slavery.
The Covid-19 public inquiry is a historic chance to find out what really happened.
Braverman sought to justify the move in March by claiming that “our modern slavery laws are being abused”. But Thornton told MPs that she had used “statistics… in quite a questionable way”.
“The first argument is that – and the home secretary used this at the second reading [of the Illegal Migration Bill] – the fact that there were 3,500 referrals a year back in 2015, and now there are 17,000, must mean that the protections are being abused.
“I think there are three weaknesses there. The first is: you get referred into the [system]. You don’t make a claim. Secondly,...
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