Accommodation and Support
The POPPY Project can only provide accommodation and support to women aged over 18. In order to meet the criteria for assistance with the POPPY Project, women must have been:
- trafficked to the UK
- forced to work as a prostitute in the UK
- sexually exploited in the three months prior to the date of referral.
In order to qualify for longer term assistance women are encouraged to co-operate with the authorities. This might entail giving information to law enforcement agencies for intelligence purposes or agreeing to be a witness in court.
Women who do not meet these criteria may be eligible for support with the POPPY Outreach Service.
If POPPY are unable to accommodate a woman there are other ways that the project can help. There are very few services offering specialist support for women who have been trafficked in the UK, so POPPY has developed partnerships with:
- hostels working with homeless people
- refuges for victims of domestic violence
- embassies
- Refugee Legal Centre
- Immigration Advisory Service
- Refugee Arrivals Project
- International Organization for Migration.
Once accepted onto the project women are allocated a senior support worker and offered a range of specialist support services. These include:
- provision of a food/subsistence allowance
- a health and needs assessment
- registration with a GP in order to receive any necessary medical treatment
- access to counselling services
- access to education and English classes
- integration and/or re-settlement support including, where applicable, support with the voluntary return scheme
- education sessions covering areas such as equal opportunities, welfare benefits and healthy relationships
- help contacting family and friends
- support accessing legal advice, including information relating to immigration status and applications for asylum
- liaison with police and immigration services
- risk assessments and safety planning.
For more information about POPPY Accommodation and Support, or to make a referral, call 020 7840 7129.
