Message from Mears regarding communication with new arrivals – w/c 7th June 2021

Following the recent trend of seeing groups of Vietnamese service users leave hotels shortly after arrival, I would like to share with you some information regarding what is currently on going in order to discourage this from happening and to then identify these people if it does.

A working group has been set up to look at what more can be done to protect Vietnamese individuals, involving reps from Police, HO Safeguarding and X-BICs teams.

The Home Office is in regular communication with the Modern Slavery and Organised Immigration Crime Unit.

The process currently being taken on these SUs is:

• The UKVI OP mandate is completed on all new arrivals, which will establish known identity (if there is one) or any adverse immigration, criminal or CT history
  A screening form is completed for adults. A welfare interview is completed for UASCs
  Any other referrals to the NRM/Police etc would be made on the basis of what is disclosed at interview.

Mears will issue a fact sheet to these people on arrival to IA and discuss it with the SUs where possible to explain the signs and dangers of modern slavery. This has been created with advice from MH. We are seeing in most cases that these groups are absconding within the first 24-48 hours of arriving in IA so the timing of delivering this is vital.

When it has been identified that any SUs have absconded Mears will create an incident report and notify the Home Office. The HO safeguarding team then make an assessment of whether the person is an absconder (left of their own free will) or if they are a missing person (not left of their own free will). If they are identified as a missing person a missing person report will be completed and send to the local police force.