Modern day slavery law pledge a 'u-turn'

A Jersey politician has described the government's pledge to bring in a law to tackle modern slavery as a "u-turn".

Deputy Beatriz Porée welcomed the decision but said the government had shown little appetite to bring in regulation over the last three years.

In 2023 a review into the welfare of work permit holders, led by Porée, recommended that the government bring in Modern Slavery legislation.

The Home Affairs Minister admitted she would have liked to make more progress with the law but did not have capacity because her team was busy with other legislation.

Porée said: "I call it a u-turn because in my view there has been no appetite until now to address the issue of modern day slavery in our island."

"In terms of a fit for purpose definition of what constitutes modern day slavery, I can say it's been a u-turn because I've not seen the appetite for this to happen in this particular period of government."

The government made the announcement a few days after Deputy Philip Ozouf was sentenced to 120 hours of community service for breaking the islands immigration law.

The court heard that some of what he did when illegally employing Rwandan workers amounted to exploitation.

Porée said she felt the Ozouf case had put pressure on the government to make an announcement.

She said: "I think the pressure from the media has been obvious.

"I think the fact that the case we've just heard last Friday has been a very high profile case which involves a States member on top of his career been seen to have abused migrant workers for his own profit and his own needs, that has brought a spotlight on the real issue."

The Minister for Justice and Home Affairs, Deputy Mary Le Hegarat, admitted she would not be able to draft the law in this term of office and it would not be possible to bring it to the States Assembly.

However, she said the government announcing its commitment to the legislation was important.

Le Hegarat said: "Matters have been raised in the last week or so, to say this hasn't fallen off my radar, this has always been a priority for me and it continues to be a priority for me, but I think the thing is there is an acknowledgement that because of the capacity issues that it has not come forward as quickly I would have liked it to happen."

She explained that she had not been able to progress the planned law as much as she would have liked because her team had been busy drafting other laws.

Le Hegarat said: "There has been significant legislation that is being completed in relation to violence against women and girls, what we have also passed is the tall buildings in relation to findings from the Grenfell tower inquiry, so it is about capacity, it is about policy officers being able to do this work.

"Unfortunately we have not been able to do everything I would have liked to achieve."

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