-Caveat Lector-
From
http://society.guardian.co.uk/climbie/story/0,10939,621197,00.html
>>>Wasn't it Torquemada Blair who recently asserted, "We are back!"
Back to the future, eh, what, Tony? Watch out for Jesse Jay (or
not). A<>E<>R
}}}>Begin
Warning over child slave trade
Staff and agencies
Wednesday December 19, 2001
The Guardian
Thousands of west African children are being traded in Britain as
domestic slaves by people who use them to claim benefits, social
workers have warned.
They said the slave trade was coordinated by criminal gangs who often
took children from their parents in lieu of debts incurred from being
smuggled into the UK.
The situation has come to light in the wake of the inquiry into the
death of child abuse victim Victoria Climbi�, who was murdered after
being sent from the Ivory Coast to live with her great-aunt. The
eight-year-old died at her north Tottenham home in February 2000
after suffering 128 separate injuries.
A BBC investigation identified a network of 13 adults who ran a child-trading network
in London.
One woman in north-west London had acquired 12 children, for each of which she was
able to claim �40 a week in benefits.
It emerged that three of these had since been taken into care, care orders were out on
three more, two had been passed on to a south London woman and two were missing.
"Children are being trafficked and held hostage in lieu of debt repayments and in
doing so are being abused, being used as houseboys or servants and younger children
are being neglected," said an unnamed social worker.
"In my 15-year career in social work, inside and outside London, I have come across it
in every place I have worked," he said.
The social worker added that social service departments lacked the legal powers to
investigate cases while the police did not have sufficient resources.
Trafficked children could be located through the benefit system, but inspectors were
interested only in checking that multiple claims were not being made for the same
child and not in whether the child was with its legiti
mate carer, he claimed.
The trafficking network extends to Ireland, making it even more difficult for the
authorities to track down the child slaves.
"From a point of view of trying to identify whether these children are being used, it
is virtually impossible," said an Irish healthworker, who also wished to remain
anonymous.
"They disappear and go back to the UK. There is a network between the UK and Ireland."
Esther Rantzen, founder and chairwoman of Childline, said social services should
investigate child-trafficking "as a matter of urgency".
"It is quite clear that social workers do have evidence of what is going on and have
taken children into care," she said.
However, Ms Rantzen expressed concern that some social workers were reluctant to
pursue possible cases because of "politically correct" beliefs that passing children
around extended families was simply part of west Africa
n culture.
Mike Caye, communications director of charity Anti-Slavery International, said
legislation was needed to deal with human trafficking for both sexual and labour
exploitation.
"Until you get the legislation in place, you can't make it a priority
for the police," he warned. In a statement, the Home Office said:
"Trafficking of human beings, and particularly children, is an
abhorrent practice.
"The UK signed the trafficking protocol of the UN convention on
transnational organised crime and there is at European level a draft
framework for the definition of trafficking in human beings."
SocietyGuardian.co.uk � Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001
End<{{{
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