Victims of trafficking

We have developed specialist expertise to help victims of modern slavery and in particular victims of human trafficking. We are committed to working sensitively and fearlessly in helping them to enforce their legal rights.

The status of being a victim of trafficking requires the state to provide a range of protections under domestic and international law. Our lawyers have considerable expertise on the legal issues that relate to that status.

For individuals, we act on a variety of claims that relate to trafficking. These include challenges to decisions by the competent authority failing to recognise a person is a victim of trafficking, challenges by the state in failing to carry out an adequate investigation as to whether someone has been trafficked, representing trafficked individuals being prosecuted against the public interest, helping ensure victims receive adequate post-safe house support, and bringing civil damages claims against individual traffickers.

For NGOs we provide advice and also representation as claimants and interveners on significant issues. We are currently representing several high profile NGOs on interventions in the Supreme Court and European Court of Human Rights. We work collaboratively with our NGO clients to address points of general importance that fit with their remit. This extends to policy work and training, in order to improve awareness and knowledge across the board, and to work on issues that affect victims.

We are aware of how different legal issues connect with each other and go the extra mile for our clients to enforce their legal rights as well as pushing the boundaries of the law. Our team’s breadth of skills, which span public and private law litigation, ensures that we can cover many of the inter-linking issues facing victims of trafficking. We have been involved in a number of significant cases that have helped shape the law in this area, and we continue to work innovatively and effectively in this area, whilst remaining aware of the bigger picture.