Submission to the Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) call for evidence on the Nationality and Borders Bill
In September 2021 the Modern Slavery PEC responded to the UK Joint Committee on Human Rights' (JCHR) call for evidence on the Nationality and Borders Bill, to inform its legislative scrutiny.
The response focuses on the modern slavery provisions in Part 4 of the Bill. The response also provides an assessment of the published data on the scale of misuse of the National Referral Mechanism (NRM), as the Government has stated that measures contained within the Bill are intended to “reduce misuse” of the NRM.
Key recommendations include:
- Further evidence and data are required to establish the scale of actual misuse of the NRM.
- The Committee may wish to ask the Government for further explanation as to how the Bill is compatible with the state’s positive duty to investigate cases of human trafficking, which is set out in relevant human rights standards.
- The Committee may wish to ask the Government for further explanation as to whether the modern slavery provisions in Part 4 apply to children affected by slavery and trafficking.
- The Committee may wish to seek further clarification about how several provisions will operate in practice, to ensure the Bill does not give rise to a risk of breaches of human rights in individual cases.
- The Home Office should collect data to monitor how these modern slavery provisions are operating in line with stated policy objectives.
