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Theological Reflection ATLeP: The Anti–Trafficking Legal Project When I first began work as a court officer advocating the "voice of the child", I can remember a County Court Judge saying to me in chambers that, in order for a legal finding to be made, or a prosecution upheld, evidence needed to be before the court that was clear, factual and unbiased. It was important that a person's story be heard and I was to facilitate that process. His job was to weigh the evidence and come to some balanced judgement. He went on to say that often the evidence was clearly out there but not made accessible to the court. I was reminded of this when attending Garden Court Chambers in London for a free seminar given by ATLeP, the Anti-Trafficking Legal Project. They are a group of female barristers who have joined together to pool resources and good practice in order to give good legal representation to women caught in the criminal justice and immigration system after being picked up by the police, usually after a brothel raid. For a woman's evidence to be clearly heard within both arenas they advocated two aspects of good practice. Firstly, the woman needed to be able to provide a clear, detailed and consistently sequential account of her own trafficking experience, which would be particular and unique to her. She then also required a detailed body of evidence about the political, social, cultural and economic situation of the country from which she was trafficked. This information would contextualise her story; increase the reliability and validity of her evidence, and help to inform the issue regarding how safe it would be for her to return. ATLeP recognise that the average legal representative would not have the expertise in criminal, international and immigration law that was required. They also would probably not have the time or expertise to facilitate the woman to talk as freely as she could for the best evidence to be made available. However, they felt that a difference could be made on two counts. Firstly, as an organisation, they now had significant amounts of evidence on the main countries from which women were trafficked to the UK and this was available through their website or by calling them direct. They were keen as an organisation to share this acquired knowledge. Secondly, they could not emphasis enough the role of NGOs and other support agencies in facilitating and supporting a woman to try and record her story as sequentially and clearly as possible. They pointed to the valuable role that NGOs/other agencies/churches play in making clear what is before the barrister's eyes - something that they are unable to see because they do not have the time or expect to hear the story because of a lack of appreciation of the trafficked person's experience. I have just finished writing a sermon on the Road to Emmaus and there seems to me resonance with this story and that of ATLeP's experience. There is something about the importance of journeying with God as a stranger. The disciples journey with Jesus but do not realise who he is as they are unable to appreciate the full experience that he has been through. Jesus then tries to explain his story through the scriptures but this does not affect a great change of insight. However hospitality is the key to unlocking his identity and gaining insight and revelation. ATLeP in turn recognise the importance of the NGO's "hospitality" in making truth clear in order that they may then be facilitated in their role as advocate. Juan Francisco Martinez takes up a similar point in his article Undocumented, Illegal, or Unregulated Aliens? Getting Christians to Talk Together about Immigration Reform. He says "Choosing to talk about immigration reform does not mean that we will necessarily arrive at a common conclusion. It does mean that we consider our unity in Christ as more important than any specific political or national perspective. So we continue to seek ways to talk to each other."
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