Half of Fayed's Accusers May Be Trafficking Victims, MPs Told
Almost half of the women who reported allegations of sexual abuse by Mohamed Al Fayed to the Metropolitan Police are potential victims of human trafficking, MPs have been told. Senior officers said a review this year found seventy survivors’ accounts bore the hallmarks of trafficking. The Home Office has so far confirmed at least five as victims of international and domestic trafficking.
The detail that turns this from a historical abuse case into a live policy question is where the women were taken. Officers running the Metropolitan Police investigation told the all-party group for survivors of Fayed and Harrods that some were moved from Harrods to his private offices and residence in Park Lane, and others taken out of the United Kingdom and abused overseas. That is the legal definition of trafficking rather than a description of it. The gap is in recognition: several survivors have said the Home Office declined to treat them as trafficking victims because they now live abroad, which would exclude precisely the people the overseas allegations concern. The group’s co-chair, the Labour MP Dave Robertson, said the number trafficked “is certainly much higher” than five, and his fellow co-chair compared the scale of the abuse to Jimmy Savile’s. Watch whether the Home Office revisits the residency test.