UK -- Vanished: the child victims of trafficking

Vanished: the child victims of trafficking

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homea...172871,00.html

180 children missing from social care after being brought illegally to UK

Lucy Ward and Matthew Taylor
Thursday September 20, 2007
The Guardian

More than 180 children recently trafficked illegally into the UK have
since gone missing without trace from social services care, according to
a Unicef report warning that the government is failing to protect
vulnerable youngsters brought into the country.

The study published today calling for new safeguarding measures says
official figures significantly underestimate the "hidden crime" of child
trafficking, which sees children as young as five brought secretly into
Britain to work as domestic servants, in cannabis factories, or for
sexual exploitation or under-age marriage.


According to the report, Rights Here, Rights Now, even if trafficked
children are identified "their care and protection is inconsistent, ad
hoc and, in some regions, completely absent". To help plug "gaps in the
system", Unicef wants reforms including a professional guardian for each
trafficked child to protect their interests.

Most children identified and put into care, usually living in hostels or
bed and breakfast accommodation, simply disappear. They may be lured
away again by criminals or the same traffickers who brought them
illegally into the country, according to campaigners.

Government figures highlighted in the Unicef study reveal that of 72
Chinese children known to have been trafficked into Britain during 18
months in 2005-6, 63 (88%) have since gone missing.

Of the 140 boys identified as trafficked into the country during that
period, three quarters are now missing from care. In total, 183 of the
330 trafficking victims were now missing.

The Home Office data also reveals that the children came from 44
countries. By far the highest number came from China, followed by
Nigeria, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Eritrea, though 33 children were
trafficked from Russia and eastern Europe - a tenth of the total.
Christine Beddoe, director of Ecpat UK - a campaign group on child
trafficking and prostitution that has jointly published today's study
with Unicef - said official figures on trafficked children were "the tip
of the iceberg".

Data collection on the issue is still much less efficient in the UK than
in continental Europe, she said, but increased awareness among agencies
including police and social services was revealing a problem affecting
not only London but the whole of the UK.

While trafficking for sexual exploitation remains a key issue, many
children are brought into the country for "domestic servitude", she
added. "We are talking about the idea of home help, but in a very
exploitative situation with children.

"We have cases of African families buying child labour for domestic work
but also minding smaller children in the family. It is not like having a
nanny. They are not considered part of the family: they may live in the
family home but I have heard situations where children have been locked
in the garage or having to sleep on the floor before doing the scrubbing
and cleaning. It really is Dickensian type of stuff."

The use of trafficked child labour - mainly from Vietnam - to run
illegal cannabis farms appeared to be increasing, Ms Beddoe added. Last
week, the charity Drugscope highlighted how Vietnamese children are
being used as "human sprinkler systems" to water and tend plants in UK
cannabis farms, often living in lofts or cupboards and facing criminal
charges rather than protection if the farms are raided by the police. On
average, police are raiding three farms a day.

A report on child trafficking in the UK, produced by the Child
Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) and published by the
Home Office in June this year, indicates that most trafficked children
are between 14 and 17 years old, though the youngest child trafficked to
be a domestic servant was five.

Ms Beddoe said the government figures and Ecpat's own research suggested
some 60% of children identified as trafficked later go missing. "Usually
they go into B&B or shared accommodation. Most is sub-standard and
certainly not secure."

It was almost impossible to track what happened to the children, she
said, but a handful who returned had reported being "lured away by a
so-called boyfriend, and becoming a victim of rape".

Last night a 17-year-old girl who was trafficked from east Africa to a
terraced house in the north of England told the Guardian she had been
promised work as a model. However, when she arrived she found herself
forced into prostitution.

"I asked the man about my modelling - I was excited about it - but he
waved me off. The man started bringing men to the house, telling them
about what I used to do in my country and I realised things were bad.
They were rough with me." The girl, who did not want to be named, said
she had contemplated suicide. "Then one morning he left, but the door
was open. I went outside and asked a lady to show me to the train
station. I got on a train to London. Escape was my only chance." She is
now studying for A Levels.

The Home Office minister Vernon Coaker said his department, together
with the Department for Children, Schools and Families, would publish
guidance later this year on best practice on identifying and protecting
victims of trafficking. The government had already published the UK
Action Plan on Tackling Human Trafficking last March. He added: "A huge
amount of work has been done. But there is more to do and we will work
with all agencies and colleagues."

John Coughlan, joint president of the Association of Directors of
Children's Services, said that care did not mean a secure setting. "The
best that care will be able to do is provide a safe and secure haven for
children who are believed to have been trafficked ... We take the
responsibility of looking after these children seriously but sadly what
we can't do is prevent them running off."