Slavery claim women to receive payout from the Metropolitan police

This article titled “Slavery claim women to receive payout from the Metropolitan police” was written by Matthew Taylor, for The Guardian on Friday 20th May 2011 18.49 UTC

Four women who claim they were forced into slavery in London have won a payout from the Metropolitan police after a high court judge found their allegations had not been properly investigated.

The women, who have been awarded a total of £20,000, say they were smuggled to the UK from Nigeria before being forced to work as unpaid servants for families in north London where they were beaten and emotionally abused.

In a ruling handed down on Friday, Mr Justice Wyn Williams said the Met had breached the victims’ rights under articles 3 and 4 of the European convention on human rights, adding that the police “did nothing to commence an effective investigation”.

One of the alleged victims, referred to in court as RFT, had approached police seeking help in 2004 while she was still being held by the family. On Friday she said: “It took all the courage I had to walk into Southgate police station and Enfield social services to ask for help in 2004 but they sent me back to my abusers and then blamed me.”

The other three women sought help once they had escaped their abusers in 2007 with the help of organisations including Hackney Community Law Centre (HCLC) and the campaign group Africans Unite Against Child Abuse (AFRUCA).

The Met agreed to undertake an investigation into the claimants’ allegations of abuse in 2009 after being threatened with judicial review.

The subsequent inquiry led to the conviction of a church pastor who was found guilty of trafficking children into the UK for use as domestic “slaves”.

According to Bhatt Murphy, the women’s solicitors, the ruling will mean police forces across England and Wales owe a duty of care under the Human Rights Act to investigate credible allegations of “ongoing or past servitude”.

Following the ruling, a Met spokesman said: “It is of course a matter of deep regret that the claimants did not receive the levels of service which they expected. We will now carefully consider the judgment.”

Tony Murphy, of Bhatt Murphy, criticised the police for fighting the case. He said: “[The] decision to fight this case sends a dangerous message to officers that combating human trafficking is not a priority for the Met.”

Campaigners praised the women for their bravery in pursuing the case.

Debbie Ariyo, executive director and founder of AFRUCA, said: “I applaud the courage of these women and hope this judgment will result in victims of slavery receiving the support they so desperately need from the authorities.”

Nathaniel Matthews, of HCLC, said: “It is a depressingly familiar pattern to see victims of crime blamed for the failings of the criminal justice system. We have seen this happen with rape victims, the mentally ill and now with trafficking victims.”

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010

Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.