Call for action on child slavery in UK

Activists say the UK is failing to save thousands of children from modern slavery, reports Kieran Guilbert, of the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

BRITAIN is failing to protect thousands of children from being trafficked and enslaved, activists said last week, criticising the Government for lacking a clear strategy to stop girls being sexually abused and gangs using young people as drug mules.

The Government’s approach to tackling child trafficking was fragmented and young victims lacked specialist care at a time when a record number of child slaves were being uncovered, the AntiTrafficking Monitoring Group (ATMG) said.

In Britain, 2118 children suspected to have been trafficked — mostly trapped in sexual exploitation, domestic servitude or forced labour — were referred to the Government last year, up 66% on 2016 and the highest annual number on record.

About a third were British, many used as drug runners, while hundreds were trafficked from countries such as Vietnam, Sudan, Eritrea, Afghanistan and Iraq, according to government figures.

‘‘Having no clear plan in place to prevent child trafficking in the UK . . . should shame this government,’’ AntiSlavery International chief executive Jasmine O’Connor said.

‘‘We need to create support networks that can make children and their families resilient to being coerced, are able to spot the worrying signs quickly, and can provide specialised support for children who have already been trafficked,’’ she said.

A Home Office spokesman said the Government already had a clear plan to prevent human trafficking, especially that of children.

‘‘This has been a key component of our worldleading approach to tackling modern slavery since 2014, when the Modern Slavery Strategy was published,’’ he said.

Britain recently announced a £2 million ($NZ3.9 million) scheme to help authorities protect vulnerable children from traffickers and gangs who rape them and force them to move drugs from cities to rural areas.

Yet the Government mostly focuses on helping children who have been exploited, rather than on prevention, while frontline professionals such as doctors, teachers and social workers lack the training to spot vulnerable children, according to the ATMG.

Unlike adult victims, trafficked children had no guarantee of specialist support once identified, and many went into the care of local authorities where they might end up in fresh danger, Catherine Baker, policy officer at charity ECPAT UK, said.

‘‘In the care of children’s services, they too often go missing or are retrafficked. This marks a complete failure to prevent these most vulnerable of victims from further harm.’’

Britain last month said it would review a landmark 2015 law amid criticism it is not being used fully to jail traffickers, help victims, or drive companies to spot and stop forced labour.