Numbers of trafficked children on the increase

A senior official has spoken of the “parental responsibility” he feels towards the growing number of vulnerable children being smuggled through Kent ports from countries such as Afghanistan.
  Bill Anderson, director of children’s social services at Kent County Council, said one reason for the increasing influx of young people into the county was because of tightened security measures at airports.
 
New figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act found KCC took 474 children into its care between April and December, 2008.
 
But during that period 86 of the young people went missing, making them vulnerable to sexual and economic exploitation.
 
Nationally, the figures show there has been a 90 per cent increase compared to the amount of trafficked children arriving over the last three years.
 
KCC has to handle the highest amount of young people coming into the UK.
 
Mr Anderson said the lrgest proportion of ‘unaccompanied minors’ came from Afghanistan, with a high numbers also from Eritrea, Iran and Iraq.
 
“These youngsters have had a very difficult and perilous journey to the UK,” he said.

“We are very mindful of the threats to these young people in terms of economic and sexual exploitation.
 
“What we find is that they come from situations of considerable political instability where the security of the state has broken down, the state is incredibly corrupt and they are enormously distrustful of authority.

“This is compounded by their fear of being deported.
 
“It is not surprising that a lot of the young people, who can be quite resilient, trust the networks they have established.
 
“The evidence we have is that the vast majority that disappear almost certainly for these reasons, not that they are being exploited sexually or economically but because they are suspicious of the state.”
 
Children arriving through ports into the UK hidden in the backs of lorries tend to have escaped countries torn apart by conflict, compared to those that are smuggled through airports with false papers, who are usually from more stable states.
 
Wendy Catterick, project co-ordinator at the Riverside Centre in Canterbury, which provides help and support for the young refugees, said the charity had never had such a high number of children using its services before.
 
The charity, which supports 50 young people, also works to dispel the myths propogated by traffickers eager to boost their trade, for example about the amount of benefits they can expect.
 
Ms Catterick said there were children who disappeared from the centre.

She said: “We had one case where the lad ran off thinking his claim was rejected. He disappeared and couple of days later he was given leave to remain but no-one could find him.”
 
She said sometimes the children went off to stay with family or friends in different parts of the country.
 
“If they do it properly, social services researches where they are going to live,” she said. “There were some girls from Eritrea who disappeared off into their own community.
 
“They are so much more vulnerable then because there is no support or money so they are relying on other people they know.”
 
Ms Catterick said that was when there was a danger of them ending up in prostitution or in the hands of other criminals.
 
“They are very vulnerable if they have no money to support themselves they are going to do something black market, which will not be good and they will be exploited.”
 
West Sussex, which handles children the authorities pick up at Gatwick, has managed to reduce the amount of young people that go missing from its care to only five out of 55. In the previous three years 42 went missing.
 
KCC’s Mr Anderson said the council worked closely with other local authorities, including West Sussex, with entry points for children trafficked from abroad, and police in the UK and Europe.
 
“There are massive police operations targeting the trafficking for exploitation of young people and adults,” he added.
 
“We work very closely with that and take it exceptionally seriously.

“We have a parental responsibility to these young people and we do everything we can to protect them, keep them safe and give them effective support.”