Our tenth anniversary celebration last month was an inspiring evening of hope and determination, and a chance to reflect on how the past decade can inform our fight for justice in the future. Hear from our Lived Experience Group, Lord McColl and Victoria Marks and Pragna Patel from ATLEU.

ATLEU has brought a legal challenge to the government’s Seasonal Worker Visa Scheme on the grounds that it breaches Article 4 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Julia Quecano Casimiro, who entered the UK on a seasonal worker visa, has been issued with an initial decision from the Home Office confirming that there are reasonable grounds for believing she may have been a victim of trafficking.

ATLEU joins over 90 civil society organisations condemning the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill as contrary to the rule of law and an abuse of Parliament’s role.

Anti-trafficking lawyers are facing huge challenges that impact on their mental wellbeing and the ability of survivors to access justice for the harms they have suffered, according to a new report, Working in the crossfire by Dr Samantha Currie.

ATLEU has responded to the Ministry of Justice’s latest consultation on the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme. Although the Scheme was amended in 2012 to explicitly include survivors of trafficking, few are able to access the Scheme and fewer still are able to obtain compensation.

Five months after ATLEU’s success at the Employment Appeal Tribunal, which confirmed the unlawfulness of the ‘Family Worker Exemption’, and following sustained coalition campaigning with partners, the government has finally taken measures to implement its March 2022 commitment to scrap the Exemption from National Minimum Wage regulations.

ATLEU is delighted to announce that it will be running ATLAW, its online anti trafficking training and mentoring programme for lawyers, from November 2023 to March 2024.

Access to compensation is a vital component of criminal justice and redress and recovery for survivors of trafficking and modern slavery.

The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) has had a devastating impact on the legal aid sector. It removed many social welfare matters from the scope of legal aid, thus delaying access for many other matters until crisis point.

As a coalition of 290 organisations representing the human rights, migrants’ rights, refugee and asylum, anti-trafficking, children’s, violence against women and girls, LGBTQI+, disability rights, health, housing, racial justice, criminal justice, arts, international development, environment, democracy, pan-equality, faith, access to justice, and other sectors, we condemn the passage of the Illegal Migration Act today, and stand in solidarity with all who will be affected.

The ‘Illegal’ Migration Bill is a charter for exploitation, trafficking and modern slavery. It will: 

• Dismantle the UK’s systems of trafficking and modern slavery protection

• Deny protection to victims of this crime 

• Drive trafficking and enable perpetrators to act with impunity.