Trafficking victims should be granted leave to remain in UK, high court rules

Landmark judgment will apply to thousands who may otherwise have been sent back to home countries

Thousands of victims of trafficking who have been left to languish in the immigration system for years should be granted leave to remain, the high court has said in a landmark ruling.

Prior to the ruling, people the UK government accepted were foreign victims of trafficking could be sent back to their home countries, where they might be at risk of being trafficked again by the same criminals.