Justice (Sexual Offences and Trafficking Victims) Act (Northern Ireland) 2022

Support for victims of trafficking etc

21.—(1) The Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Criminal Justice and Support for Victims) Act (Northern Ireland) 2015 is amended as follows.

(2) In section 17 (interpretation of the Part)—

(a) before subsection (1) insert—

“(A1) For the purposes of this Part, there is a conclusive determination that a person is, or is not, a victim of—

(a) slavery or servitude, or

(b) forced or compulsory labour,

when, on completion of an identification process corresponding to one required by Article 10 of the Trafficking Convention, a competent authority concludes that the person is, or is not, such a victim.”;

(b) after subsection (1) insert—

“(1A) A reference in this Part to—

(a) slavery or servitude, or

(b) forced or compulsory labour,

is to be construed in accordance with Article 4 of the Human Rights Convention.”.

(3) In section 18 (assistance and support pending determination by competent authority)—

(a) for “victim of trafficking in human beings” wherever occurring substitute “qualifying victim”;

(b) in subsection (4), after “days” insert “, or such longer period as the Department thinks necessary,”;

(c) in subsection (9), after “further period” insert “of up to 12 months, or longer than 12 months,”;

(d) after subsection (10) insert—

“(11) In this section, “qualifying victim” means—

(a) a victim of trafficking in human beings, or

(b) a victim of—

(i) slavery or servitude, or

(ii) forced or compulsory labour.”.