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Chamber and committees

Protecting Refugees and Making Scotland a Hostile Place for Human Traffickers

  • Submitted by: Bill Kidd, Glasgow Anniesland, Scottish National Party.
  • Date lodged: Monday, 28 March 2022
  • Motion reference: S6M-03629
  • Current status: Achieved cross-party support

That the Parliament notes with concern reports that human traffickers are targeting Ukrainian women and child refugees, who are amassing in the countries bordering Ukraine and also in Germany; understands from reports that German, Romanian and Polish police are reporting of lone women and girls being approached by suspected traffickers and procurers, who, it believes, are using deceptive tactics of offering rooms and work, which would lead to dangerous exploitation and abuse; considers that these developments confirm the findings of the Report of the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, as submitted to the UN Human Rights Council in December 2015, stating that "humanitarian crises or conflicts can also foster the demand factor. The ensuing chaos and lawlessness empower offenders to target vulnerable children in order to sell and/or sexually exploit them"; understands that two thirds of victims of human trafficking for sexual exploitation are women and one third are children; notes that the charity A21, which re-shelters victims of trafficking, and the UNHCR, have released statements highlighting the vulnerabilities of women and children fleeing Ukraine; further notes that the UNHCR has emphasised the importance of family reunification schemes to protect children who have been split up from their parents while fleeing Ukraine, and has urged countries receiving refugees to adopt official blue dot safety points; believes that, when refugees arrive in Scotland, including in Glasgow, they must be protected by proactive safeguarding schemes and not be subject to the same prospects of abuse and forced prostitution; notes reports of the violent nature of the prostitution system and its facilitation of mass rape and commends the Equally Safe strategy and the A Model for Scotland campaign for seeking to addressing this; further notes the calls for Scotland to become a hostile environment for human traffickers and, to this end, to make the purchase of sex illegal, and notes the view that the vulnerabilities and plight of Ukrainian refugees reinforce the need to address what it sees as the systemic violence against women and children, and that this underlines the urgency of tackling the demand for prostitution, which, it believes, fosters trafficking, in Scotland.


Supported by: Clare Adamson, Joe FitzPatrick, Gillian Martin, Paul Sweeney