Hugo the Green
4 June 2001
by Cherise Fong

In a marginal constituency, a Green vote is a 'wasted' vote. If you want to make a difference, vote Tory or Labour. If you want to make a statement, vote Green. But in Westminster, where the traditional Tory victory is a foregone conclusion, all it takes is 2,000 votes to save the Green party's deposit. Consequently, this is where Hugo Charlton stands.

He is the lucid and logical criminal prosecutor by profession who attended the hustings at the Chinese Community Center more by "it's fun to be here" provocation than by political duty, who brought to our attention that he knows and loves the area well for having worked in Soho strip clubs [as a student], and who, when asked by the Daily Mail journalist what he would do to improve the greenness of Westminster if elected, replied quite literally, "Plant wild herbs."

His major contribution to society? He led the "Don't pay taxes!" anti poll tax campaign in 1990, before chairing the session that brought in the policy of Non Violent Direct Action three years later, and so killed the poll tax and got rid of Margaret Thatcher.

He defends 'terrorists' according to Home Office Jack Straw's "anybody who does criminal damage in order to influence the government" definition in the new Terrorism Act; more precisely he challenges the Act's failure to distinguish between malicious violence and technical vandalism.

So what does he have to say to the Chinese community? That he has no particular pitch to make, other than intrinsic respect for diversity and dissent, that the Green party is represented by one out of three Chinese councillors in the country by Chit Chong in Hackney, and that technically, it could be quite influential in dealing with the problem of police racism due to the fact that the police force is currently under the auspices of the Mayor and the Metropolitan Police Authority which counts three Green members.

So at the end of the day, walking through Soho at sunset pointing out the strip clubs where he used to work, Hugo Charlton is not just a revolted Luddite, much more than an environmentalist, and let us not forget, Home Affairs spokesman for the Green party. Most of all we appreciate his independence, his humanism, and more specifically his personal battle to protect those female asylum seekers who end up trafficked as sex slaves in modern Britain.

Because at the end of the day, Green is less relevant as a political party than as a state of mind: individualist by nature, anarchist at heart, BYOB and DIY. Wash your brain of British bureaucracy. The future's grim, or the future's Green. ( ... )

"A number of trafficked women from China were arrested in Chinatown during a raid last autumn. These were illegal immigrant women who had been through the shelter of Oakington Detention Centre, vulnerable single women, clearly with no support. Apparently they are let out the door in a minibus, a Chinese minder gets on, and they get taken off to brothels.

I tried talking to the police about that, but they can only do so much. I tried to get help, but the Home Office is being very unhelpful. The total number of trafficked women is about a thousand a year, so it's still a very manageable number. But I've been trying to get something done about that now for six months, and it's very difficult.

The police force knows about it. To be fair, the Mayor has a dedicated vice-squad, particularly in this area, who knows and does do something about it. But the traffickers on the whole get away with it. They never get punished because the women just get sent straight back as illegal immigrants by the Home Office. They are not protected, and they receive no support, so they never give evidence.

I don't know who the traffickers are. Snakehead gangs? Or is that just popular press? Different nationalities have different gangs. The majority of trafficked women are from Eastern Europe, but there is a substantial traffic in Chinese women. Again not floods, but very manageable numbers.

Women are brought here, then through a combination of coercion, embarassment and psychological pressure, their passports are taken away, they are locked up, and beaten. These are young adult women; some are lured here on the basis that they might have to do some 'occasional' prostitution, that they will make lots of money from some imaginary smoothie English Lord paying a thousand pounds a time. In fact, they end up locked in a room with at least six or seven guys a night.

It's a horrid, sordid series of pressures, one of the most pernicious aspects of modern crime. And it is a modern crime, a new crime, not traditional. Ten years ago most prostitutes were on the whole self-employed women (many with pimps) from the north of England, but not brought here from abroad. The whole point is that these women are brought over under various false pretenses, then adrift in a world where they don't speak the language, they have no proper immigration status, no contacts, no friends, they may have been raped as well in order to undermine their will, they are psychologically destroyed. It's a horrid, horrid business.

But it's very difficult to do anything about it. I've had a meeting with the police, I've had it raised at the GLA, I've told Ken Livingstone's Women's Issues advisor who chaired a meeting in which it was discussed but haven't heard anything since, I've spoken to a number of people at the Home Office on several occsaions, and I've hit a brick wall.

I know what we need is a refuge and an advice centre, a group for trafficked women to help each other to discuss their own problems. I've raised the issue and taken it to the appropriate people. Meanwhile they say it's very difficult to find the relevant people with the appropriate qualifications, because those who got involved in the past have all turned out to be unsatisfactory.

I've spoken to various people, and various reports have come out. But it's a funny subject, people don't want to do anything about it. I've spoken to academics from the University of North London and Southbank University who do agree that there is a substantial problem and are concerned that the Home Office is not acting on their recommendations. I rung up the International Organisation for Migration where one person said, "We get all sorts of funny people ringing up to do with prostitutes."

I tried to raise money for a refuge, and people said I have no experience, it's not my field. It's a Home Office issue... And the indolent, racist politics of these self-serving bureaucrats are my brief as Home Affairs speaker for the Green party."

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Lords Hansard text for 13 Feb 2001 (210213w03) Oakington Detention Centre

Lord Avebury asked Her Majesty's Government:

What investigations they have conducted into allegations that Chinese women passing through Oakington Detention Centre are recruited into the sex trade on being granted temporary admission; and why they have not answered letters on this subject from Cambridge Oakington Concern dated 1 November and 18 December 2000.[HL623]

Lord Bassam of Brighton: It is to be regretted that the Home Office failed to respond promptly to correspondence from Dr Louise Pirouet of Cambridge Oakington Concern and I apologise for this failure. The matter has been raised with the appropriate sections, and will be addressed as a matter of urgency.

I am assured that investigations are currently under way regarding the very serious allegations put forward by Cambridge Oakington Concern, though it would be prejudicial to speculate on the outcome of any enquiries at this stage.