Member News
By Rory Arrow - 20th October 2009
Foster care was top of the agenda at the Commons Trafficking of Women and Children Group hosted by Anthony Steen and Peter Bone on Monday.
The all-party parliamentary group heard testimony from children who had been trafficked. It agreed that access to safe accommodation to prevent children going missing from care is a key priority.
Most trafficked children do not get place in suitable accommodation and are often left alone without the support or services that they need.
It is estimated that an additional 10,000 foster carers with language, cultural and religious skills are required for children from more than 50 different countries.
Grace, a child who had been trafficked herself, told the group there was a need for foster parents to provide a sense of belonging and understand the fears of the children in their care.
"We want to know that nobody can get to us, that the home is secure and that people who we do not know cannot come in when they please," she said.
Anthony Steen (Con, Totnes) commented that the language used by carers and police is particularly important.
"Part of the problem is that when a child is found by social services they do not understand the language of 'trafficking,'" he said.
"Because they cannot articulate what has happened to them they are treated like an illegal immigrant and often sent back to their country of origin by the border agency where they are often re-trafficked."
The group heard that there were still no reliable figures for the number of children trafficked due to a lack of co-ordination between the police, border agency and social services.
Since a national referral mechanism was put into place on the 1st April 2009, 77 children have been formally identified as trafficked, but this is likely to be the tip of the iceberg.
The group also expressed concern over Metropolitan Police proposals to disband their human trafficking team.
A parliamentary question answered on October 20 by Home Office minister Alan Campbell stated that human trafficking is "core police business and, as such, work to combat this crime should be mainstreamed into existing budgets".
Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd