Officers hope it will mirror the success of an inquiry into the Island’s sex trade which saw hotels, guesthouses and the ports checked in a drive to ascertain the number of sex workers – many of them travelling to the Island from the UK – in Jersey and safeguard them from coercion and exploitation.
Detective Chief Inspector Mark Coxshall, the States police lead on modern slavery and human trafficking, said: ‘We are not saying this happens in Jersey, or if it does, on the scale seen in the UK or Europe. We don’t think it involves organised crime groups but the very fact is that we do not know enough about it.’
There are areas of St Helier, the detective said, where migrant workers knew they could gather in the mornings and be picked up to do a day’s work. The detective said there was no evidence or intelligence to suggest the workers were being exploited but the force needed to establish better relationships with migrant workers from minority groups to ensure they knew whom to turn to in a time of need.
Earlier this year, a police visit to staff accommodation in St Helier uncovered a teenage girl who DCI Coxshall says the force ‘strongly suspect’ was the victim of child sexual exploitation. A man was arrested and inquiries are taking place.
In 2014, the force launched Operation Phoenix – an inquiry into the scope of the sex trade in Jersey and the possibility that prostitutes were being ‘coerced or exploited’. Every week, numerous sex workers, some charging over a thousand pounds a night, travel to Jersey to sell sex. DCI Coxshall said that investigation was successful and the police now had a good relationship with many regular visiting sex workers in Jersey and the hotels they work from. Modern slavery and human trafficking, one of 12 priority areas of focus for the States police, now falls under the remit of Operation Phoenix.
DCI Coxshall said: ‘Operation Phoenix and sex work in Jersey was a difficult idea for lots of Islanders to take. But there is an industry here and now. Following the work in 2014 and 2015 with partner agencies, we have a better understanding and relationship with sex workers. I feel this investigation will be the same.
‘This is not about saying this is definitely happening in Jersey and it is a problem – it’s about identifying if there is an issue and what we can do to combat it.’
Earlier this year, the Island’s Modern Slavery and People Trafficking Working Group, which involves public, private and third-sector agencies, was ‘rekindled’. And DCI Coxshall said there was a plan to meet and work with retailers, the finance industry and schools to help educate people on the signs of human trafficking and slavery.
The UK Home Office identifies three main areas of modern slavery: labour exploitation, domestic servitude and sexual exploitation. Anti Slavery Day is being marked across the British Isles on 18 October.
DCI Coxshall said that a rape case involving five Romanian men, who raped a woman at Les Platons car park, highlighted to the force that there were sections of the Island’s population that the police knew very little about. The five men, all farm workers, were jailed for a total of 50 years this year.
The Island’s children’s commissioner, Deborah McMillan, who used to work for English charity Safe from Slavery, said: ‘I do not doubt at all that modern slavery will touch Jersey in some way. I am really pleased the police are looking into it.’
She added that she had visited farm accommodation earlier this year which exemplified good living conditions for children whose parents worked in the industry.
