Human Trafficking & Exploitation

We are a lead agency working with Scottish Government and committed to tackling exploitation as GBV and strategically influencing not only our workforce but also our national and international partners. Police Scotland have a global influence in this field beyond our geographical reach due to concerted efforts over the past few years to tackle this crime.

In June 2023 at the Scottish Crime Campus, Police Scotland hosted the Santa Marta Summit to tackle modern slavery across the UK. The summit brought together senior law enforcement leaders, third sector partners and civil society with a shared vision to identify and prevent human trafficking and exploitation and pledge to work together to bring perpetrators to justice. Due to the success of the summit, An Garda Siochana hosted the second summit in July 2024.

We provide training and guidance to officers with changes in reporting systems to recognise women who have been exploited in prostitution and work in partnerships with victim care providers to rescue and support them. International Joint Investigation Teams have been set up with Romanian and Bulgarian authorities to investigate trans-national exploitation of women. Partners are amplifying voices of women through survivor advisory groups to actively inform and improve our practice.

Two Romanian Police Officers were seconded to us in 2024 funded by the Home Office Modern Slavery Fund. We worked together to tackle sexual exploitation of Romanian women and to help our officers understand barriers to women’s engagement with criminal justice processes. A media campaign is in development to support this work in the UK and Romania. Furthermore, we have engaged directly with the Albanian, Brazilian, United States, ROI and Romanian Embassies and law enforcement to develop international cooperation on tackling trafficking and exploitation.

National Referral Mechanism (NRM) trafficking victim referrals to Police Scotland continues to rise sharply. 2024 YTD saw a 36% increase in referrals. The number of women and girls reported to be in slavery has risen by 61%. We engaged with the Trafficking Awareness Raising Alliance (TARA), who have established a lived experience group made up of women who are survivors of human trafficking with a view to them presenting to Police Scotland.