Modern Slavery and Trafficking

Part of 2. Questions to the Leader of the House and Chief Whip – in the Senedd at 2:53 pm on 14 November 2018.

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Photo of Julie James Julie James Labour 2:53, 14 November 2018

Yes, indeed, and we've done a lot of work. The Gwent police and crime commissioner, who's a well-known and regarded previous colleague of ours, has been very active, and members of the leadership group. And now, actually, all of the police forces of Wales have active groups in this area, but he was very much at the forefront of that and he funded a number of anti-slavery awareness-raising conferences, and he jointly hosted the event that my colleague Joyce Watson AM held at the Senedd, which was called 'making our collective commitment to eradicating modern slavery and human trafficking', which was attended by a number of Assembly Members, including David Melding. That was making that exact point, and I've also made that point to a number of UK Government Ministers when I've met with them. But what we have to be sure of is that we don't have any unintended consequences that prevent people from coming forward, thinking that they will be prosecuted themselves for some minor involvement in whatever activity and masking out the bigger problem. That is a very good case in point that he makes—the one where you've been involved in some kind of drug issue and, therefore, you think you're liable to prosecution and don't come forward—but there are many others where people think that they are falling foul of the immigration rules or a number of other things, and we've been at great pains to ensure that people see the bigger crime behind the front and also see the crime ring behind the individual who is caught up in it.