Shadow Communities Secretary and North Wales Assembly Member Mark Isherwood has raised concerns in the Assembly Chamber that human trafficking through Holyhead port is getting worse.
Questioning the Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Children, Carl Sargeant, last week, he said:
“Concern has been raised with me that human trafficking through Holyhead port is getting worse, but that not enough of the victims desperate to be found are being found, and that, despite this, it’s so far been impossible to get the six north Wales county representatives around the table.
“How, therefore, do you respond to the findings of the North Wales Police Serious and Organised Crime Local Profile Modern-day Slavery report that there’s evidence of organised crime groups operating in North Wales by trafficking victims through Holyhead port to Ireland or employing victims in nail bars or pop-up brothels, and of groups based in north Wales, tied by familial bonds, who target vulnerable males for manual labour and canvassing?”
The Cabinet Secretary replied: “Oh, believe me, human trafficking is alive in the UK, and we are the only part of the country that has an Anti-human Trafficking Co-ordinator. My team work incredibly hard with the police and other agencies to ensure that we are trying to keep on top of this issue, but we are part of a larger island. I would encourage the Member and other Members to speak with other parts of the administrations of the UK to come together to create Anti-human Trafficking Co-ordinators across the whole of the UK in order to ensure that we can tackle the issues that the Member rightly raises about the trafficking of human beings.”
Mr Isherwood added: “It seems incredible that Mr Sargeant is still unaware that the UK’s Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner has been in office since 2015, or that North Wales lost its North Wales Anti-Slavery Coordinator after three year funding expired. The North Wales Anti-Slavery Project was funded by the Welsh Government through local statutory agencies”.