Family Forum / Parenting / Adoption / September 2007

http://society.guardian.co.uk/crimeandpunishment/story/0,,2172869,00.html

Vanished: the child victims of trafficking
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.