“Children are not a commodity. They are not an item that should be bought and sold and yet such trade is a sad fact of life. Children are trafficked for a variety of reasons – sexual exploitation, domestic servitude and social security fraud to name but a few. Not only that but young people are trafficked from all over the world and within countries, often resulting in life long and devastating impact on the victims.”
(CEOP (2007) A Scoping Project on Child Trafficking in the UK p4)
Child Trafficking is a largely hidden problem, making the identification and support of children who are being trafficked a significant challenge for those working with children and their families.
The UK has a National Child Trafficking Mechanism for identifying and recording cases of Child Trafficking. Glasgow is currently taking part in a pilot project to develop an assessment framework to accompany this. The CPC has developed a set of Inter Agency Guidelines to assist workers in this area
The following pages will give you further information about Child Trafficking, including identifying concerns, and what to do if you believe a child may have been trafficked.