'Where are the modern slavery prosecutions?'
| Published date | 31 January 2022 |
| Publication title | Evening Gazette |
Cllr Baldwin, who also intends to raise the matter at a meeting of Redcar and Cleveland Council in March, submitted a Freedom of Information request to the force, having received what he said was a "brushoff response" when raising the matter with a neighbourhood team police inspector. Cleveland Police said of the 18 crimes it revealed it had recorded, six involved a person being "held in slavery or servitude" and seven involved a person being required to "perform forced or compulsory labour".
While five cases were ongoing, the remainder did not result in a prosecution, with victims either declining to identify offenders or withdrawing their support for police action when a suspect had been named/ identified - or a suspect failing to be identified
If you prosecutions something wrong at all.
investigations Cllr Neil
The force, while not giving details, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) work by its dedicated complex exploitation team had led to successful prosecutions in the
Cleveland area and "significant safeguarding outcomes".
It said it was also part of a antislavery network and regularly took part in national operations looking into all aspects of modern slavery and human trafficking. But Cllr Baldwin, an independent who chairs a multi-agency strategic partnership in Redcar and Cleveland which considers immigration issues, said he remained dissatisfied by the answers provided by the force.
have zero there is drastically with the
He said: "I believe the only way for the prosecution level to be justified and explained is through another force peer review. "I can't judge their [Cleveland Police's] investigation methods, but another force can.
Baldwin "If you have zero prosecutions there is something drastically wrong with how these things are being investigated.
"I am not criticising the investigations that are going on. Some [victims] won't want to be identified and give evidence because they are too scared.
"But we are still on zero prosecutions over the last two years so the question is who within the police force judges that the investigations are thorough enough and how is evidence being obtained. The police may be culpable, or the Crown Prosecution Service, but I don't know, and would like an explanation."
Cllr Baldwin said asylum...
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