(Ministry of Justice) £3.7m for victims of human trafficking

Victims of human trafficking will be helped to escape prostitution and domestic servitude following the award of a new £3.7 million Government grant to the POPPY Project, Justice Minister Maria Eagle announced today.

The POPPY Project has been providing places of refuge and vital support to hundreds of victims of human trafficking since 2003, backed by £5.8m Government support. This new investment will allow them to build on this work by:

* providing more victims across the UK with a safe haven;

* expanding the number of support workers available to assess the needs of individual victims and offer them specialised packages of support;

* ensuring increased access to counselling, health and psychological assistance for victims;

* expanding the community outreach team and locating workers within the UK Human Trafficking Centre to work in partnership with the police, UK Border agency and other partners to help identify victims in the community early and refer them into the appropriate support services;

* enabling more victims to access independent legal advice;

* creating a new national co-ordinator who will set minimum standards of support and help local areas deliver targeted support for victims.

Justice Minister Maria Eagle said:

"Human Trafficking thrives on the vulnerability of women. They are often subjected to multiple crimes including rape, physical violence, kidnapping and threats. This has no place in today's society.

"Very often the victims of these crimes are hidden from view and have no idea how to escape. Charities like the POPPY Project offer them the vital and specialist help they need.

"The funding we have announced today will offer victims of Human Trafficking across the UK much needed support."

Denise Marshall, Chief Executive of the POPPY Project, added:

"We are happy to be able to announce that the POPPY Project has been awarded the Government tender for work supporting trafficked women. As an agency long committed to providing high quality support services and promoting best practice nationally and internationally, we are gratified by this recognition of the work that we do.

"The funding will enable us to expand our services to include support for women trafficked into domestic servitude, and we are pleased that this form of exploitation has now been recognised as a gendered form of violence. We will also be working with new partners to expand our services on a national level.

"We look forward to working with the Home Office and UKBA regarding implementation of the European Convention and we will ensure that victims of trafficking are identified as such and receive the support they need and deserve."

This work is just one part of a wider strategy to make the UK a hostile environment for traffickers and identify and protect victims. The Government has published a comprehensive UK Action Plan to tackle trafficking head on, and last year the UK ratified the Council of Europe Convention on Trafficking in Human Beings.

The Government, Police, Serious Organised Crimes Agency and specialist organisations, like the POPPY Project, continue to work together to rescue and protect victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation as well as identify, disrupt, arrest and bring to justice those involved in criminal activity.