Opportunity from Crisis? Organisational Responses to Human Trafficking in the UK Alex Balch and Andrew Geddes This article analyses the effects on key organisations responsible for immigration control and law enforcement of the UK’s signing in March 2007 and ratification in December 2008 of the Council of Europe Convention on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings. It shows how opportunities for organisational change and innovation arose from the 2006 crisis in the UK immigration system and also looks at how narrative constructions of the issue of human trafficking, of migration control and of public management more generally provided important frameworks for interpretation of ostensibly new and challenging issues. We show how the 2006 crisis in the immigration system caused by the ‘foreign prisoners’ scandal’ created opportunities for adaptation of existing organi- sational roles and narratives and for the development of new ways of working which, in turn, prompted some innovation and change in UK responses to human trafficking. Keywords: human trafficking; migration control; United Kingdom Introduction In this article we show how from crisis there can arise opportunity. A more general crisis of the UK immigration system following the ‘foreign prisoners’ scandal’ in 2006 was accompanied by innovations in response to very specific issues associated with human trafficking. We do not argue for a simple, causal link between the two, but aim to show how this crisis opened a window of opportunity for new ways of working, organisational change and innovation which drew from, but also involved amendment of, existing organisational cultures in the police service and immigra- tion administration. We demonstrate this through analysis of the period of time before, between and after the UK signing (March 2007) and ratification (December 2008) of the Council of Europe Convention Against Trafficking in Human Beings during the third New Labour government. The article is not an attempt to evaluate whether or not these measures designed to tackle human trafficking have been effective or successful but, rather, to show how, why, when and with what effects narrative constructions of trafficking, of migration management and of public administration more generally acquire purchase at particular points in time and have important effects on how issues are understood and responses to them develop. We begin the article by dealing with some basic conceptual and definitional issues associated with human trafficking. We then outline key aspects of the UK response doi: 10.1111/j.1467-856X.2010.00437.x BJPIR: 2011 VOL 13, 26–41 © 2011 The Authors. British Journal of Politics and International Relations © 2011 Political Studies Association