Torture victims who endured slavery escape deportation by matter of hours after lawyers intervene (The Independent) (26 February 2020)

The Independent reports on how at least 16 people who were issued removal directions have been granted a last minute reprieve after it emerged they were trafficking victims and should not have been detained. Immigration trainee solicitor Isabella Kirwan , said she and the team had successfully deferred the removal of six people due to be on the flight, all of whom had disclosed indicators of exploitation to the Home Office which she said should have triggered referrals to the National Referral Mechanism (NRM), the UK's framework or identifying victims of modern slavery and trafficking. “The Home Office intended to remove these refugees from the UK without even looking at whether they had been forced into labour or had survived of human trafficking before arriving in the UK,” she said. “The clients all disclosed indicators of exploitation to the Home Office which should have triggered referrals into the NRM for the Home Office to investigate this further. All of the clients we took on were Eritreans who had passed through Libya. The Home Office has a legal duty to protect refugees who have survived torture and human trafficking. They are routinely failing in this duty.”