Conservative MP Anthony Steen has called for the establishment of a national human trafficking watchdog, to strengthen the UK's anti-trafficking programme.
Opening a debate in Westminster Hall, Steen said human trafficking was a "worldwide phenomenon" and despite various government initiatives to identify and support victims of human trafficking, the problem remained as "opaque as ever".
The Totnes MP raised his concerns that the existing UK Human Trafficking Centre is to be absorbed into the Serious Organised Crime Agency, a move he said would see the task of the UKHTC "diluted, if not washed away".
Steen told MPs the UKHTC was supposed to act as a "central repository for all information on human trafficking and offer strategic and operational support and a 24/7 support line for advice, including on the care of victims".
He continued that if it was absorbed into SOCA the achievements of these objectives would be "seriously questioned".
Outlining the case for a human trafficking watchdog, he stated that it would contribute to a "better knowledge and understanding of the root causes of trafficking, the modus operandi of traffickers and their criminal networks, and the different forms of exploitation".
He also pointed more specifically for the current national referral scheme to be handled by social and welfare workers as opposed to immigration officials, which is the case at the moment.
Home Office Minister Alan Campbell insisted the plans did not amount to a merger with the Serious Organised Crime Agency.
He told MPs: "It will not lead to a dilution of the centre's focus on the victim-centred strategy of human trafficking."
Campbell concluded that the government agreed with the conclusions of the home affairs committee which in its recent report found a national rapporteur would not benefit data collection and would instead merely "add yet another organisation to the multitude involved in analysing and combating trafficking".
