Missing Out. A Study of Child Trafficking in the North-West, North-East and West Midlands
- Document number
- 1397
- Date
- 2007
- Title
- Missing Out. A Study of Child Trafficking in the North-West, North-East and West Midlands
- Author/publisher
- Christine Beddoe, ECPAT UK
- Availability
- View/save PDF version of this document
- Document type(s)
- Research/Study/Analysis,
- Keywords
- Missing children, Internal trafficking, Forced labour, Identification, Domestic servitude, Sexual exploitation, Private fostering, Forced marriage, Migration
- Summary
- This study looks specifically at three regions in north andcentral England. The study arose from concerns raisedwith ECPAT UK that child trafficking was increasing, orbecoming more widely discussed, in other metropolitanareas of England. Particularly, locations with main entryports or with ethnically diverse populations where childrenwere ‘hidden’ within communities. As far as ECPATUK was able to ascertain there had been no previousresearch conducted on child trafficking in any of the threeregions or five local authorities interviewed for this studyso no baseline information was available. There is aregional airport in each of the three regions.ECPAT UK requested the support of the Save the ChildrenEngland Programme to assist with setting up thestudy. Save the Children has programme teams workingin each of the three regions.The objectives of this multi-location study were to:• Determine the levels of awareness of childtrafficking issues among social services in theselected local authorities.• Ascertain whether confirmed or suspectedcases of child trafficking have been dealt withby social services.• Examine reporting procedures in cases ofchild trafficking.• Explore the extent to which local authoritiespromote co-operation between statutory andother agencies, and the extent to which agenciesshare information and work together tomeet the needs of trafficked children.The findings of this limited study are stark. Across thethree regions there were 80 reported cases of known orsuspected child victims of trafficking. Even more disturbingis that 48 (60%) of these children have gone missingfrom social services care and have never been found.Even while in the care of a local authority, child victims oftrafficking remain a highly vulnerable group.Many of the children in this study who went missing hadnot been investigated, identified or recorded as a victimof trafficking at the time they went missing.
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