Child protection news

10 April 2007

Thousands of young children from poor Asian and African families are trafficked into Britain each year, according to a new report.

Criminal gangs trick families into sending their children to the UK with the promise of a better life but they are often used as pawns to scam benefits and council houses, reports the Sun.

Such children are often forced into slave labour or even used for prostitution, according to the report.

Victoria Climbie, who was the eight-year-old girl beaten to death in London in 2000, had been brought to Britain by her aunt.

Denise Marshall, chief executive of trafficking charity The Poppy Project, said: "Their use is benefit fraud - Victoria was a classic case.

"The 'carer' can get a council house and welfare benefits. Without a child they would get neither. But then the child often drops off the radar.

"They don't go to school, they are never seen outside the house, no one knows what is happening to them."

ECPAT (End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and the Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes) has been set up to deal with the problem and despite identifying 80 children that may have been trafficked, 64 per cent have since disappeared.


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