Scotland needs to adopt its own strategy to take down criminal gangs which are illegally trafficking people into the country, according to a Dundee-based MSP.
A new UK Government Bill on modern-day slavery was launched on Monday, introducing a maximum sentence of life imprisonment for human trafficking, in a bid to clamp down on a problem which is believed to have increased in recent years.
Scottish Labour’s Jenny Marra has lodged her own version at Holyrood, which she believes trumps the Westminster alternative by focusing on local communities to root out the organised criminals and offering more support for victims, who would not be prosecuted if caught committing illegal acts they were forced into.
She said: “I think it’s a good thing that the UK Government is legislating on human trafficking and the Scottish Government needs to enact the Bill I have brought to Parliament.
“Trafficking will be tackled properly in Scotland if we use devolved powers to tackle it in our communities through the police, social workers and Scots law.”
Dr Anne T Gallagher, a leading global expert on the international law on human trafficking, has said Ms Marra’s plan “would be the most innovative and comprehensive piece of anti-trafficking legislation in the world” if passed.
Cases of trafficking are rarely publicly known but some of the most shocking in Scotland have hit the headlines locally.
Three people from Slovakia, who smuggled a couple from their own country into Perth to force the woman into a sham marriage, were jailed in Dundee last year for a total of nine years after the victim phoned her mother.