Exploitation

Child trafficking is the movement of children and/or young people under the age of 18 using deception, fraud or force with the aim of exploiting them. It’s a form of modern slavery and is child abuse. Children can be trafficked internationally and/or within the UK. Distance is not always an identification factor in trafficking, a child may be flown from one side of the world to another to be exploited, or they could be exploited at one address in Coventry then driven 100 yards down the road to another house and exploited again. In both cases the children are being trafficked.

Traffickers can be male or female, from any and all backgrounds, countries, and communities. They may be small scale, trafficking a very small number of children up to a large international criminal network with a broad spread of crimes as well as trafficking, such as money laundering. Children don't need to be accompanied by an adult to be exploited, they could be given a package of drugs and told to walk to an address. This is still exploitation.

Traffickers use various methods to obtain children, they may:

• Threaten parents with violence
• Use force
• Convince the parents they owe a debt to the traffickers that will take many years to repay but taking a child repays the debt instantly
• If the parents are already indebted to traffickers, the debt may pass to the children to repay in the parents’ place. This ‘repayment’ may take various forms including trafficking
• Some parents are assured that if traffickers take their children overseas, the children will be offered steady well-paid work and a good standard of living. Sometimes the families pay a fee to the traffickers to take their children abroad, in the belief they will have a better future. Sadly, this is not the case.

Although it’s impossible to know exactly how many children and young people are victims, Modern Slavery is on the increase. Some victims have been trafficked from overseas and some are British victims who have existing vulnerabilities. Despite their individual circumstances, all are susceptible to the promises of well-paid work and good accommodation, which turns out to be a deception.

National Crime Agency – Free the Unseen.

The top ten countries of origin for trafficked minors in 2018 submitted via the National Referral Mechanism were as follows:

1. United Kingdom
2. Vietnam
3. Sudan
4. Albania
5. Eritrea
6. Romania
7. Iraq
8. Ethiopia
9. Afghanistan
10. Nigeria

Source -  The National Crime Agency’s National Referral Mechanism statistics End of Year Summary for 2018

Children and young people may experience multiple types of exploitation and may not disclose all forms of exploitation to professionals. Please find below examples of some forms of child exploitation, but please note there are many more not listed here:

• Labour exploitation (nail bars, car washes, catering, agricultural work, factory work)
• Forced criminal activity (cannabis cultivation, pick-pocketing, cashpoint/credit card theft, drug dealing, gang-related crime)
• Sexual Exploitation
• Domestic Servitude (excessive levels of household work, including childcare)
• Benefit Fraud (including pregnant young people exploited for maternity benefits)
• Illegal inter-country adoption
• Forced marriage
• Bonded labour/debt bondage (children can be born into a situation where they must work to pay off a debt incurred by their parents)
• Organ harvesting

Exploitation (including sexual exploitation) can affect children of any gender. However young people may not always perceive themselves to be victims, they may see the situation as making their own money, being in a relationship with a perpetrator or having a free and informed choice whether to be involved in the activities or not.

The Home Office Modern slavery is closer than you think.

It’s important to understand that children are unable to consent to their own trafficking and exploitation. Professionals should be aware of the language used in discussions or case recording around victims of exploitation and should avoid suggestions of the victim being complicit or responsible for the exploitation in any way. Exploited children cannot ‘put themselves at risk’, ‘prostitute themselves’ be a ‘sex worker’ or be encouraged to abandon the lifestyle as if it were a career choice. There will be complex factors controlling their behaviour and language used by professionals should take account of the coercion and control a victim will experience.

If in doubt about what language is appropriate, please read this useful guide by the National Police Chiefs Council, about suitable language for professionals when discussing children at risk of exploitation/being exploited.

As trafficking is child abuse it requires an immediate safeguarding response to stop the child being re-trafficked and experiencing more abuse and trauma.

If you are a professional in Coventry with concerns that a child is being exploited through modern slavery or trafficking, please contact the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH):

Telephone – 024 7678 8555

Complete a MASH referral

Resources and further information

• The Modern Slavery Helpline
• Barnado's National Counter Trafficking Service
• The NSPCC
• The Unseen app for smartphones and tablets etc
• BBC What does modern slavery look like
• The National Crime Agency
• The Palermo Protocol