The transportation of slaves was officially abolished in the UK over 200 years ago by the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act 1807.
Sadly, however, children and young people are still being bought and sold in the UK by criminals to be used and abused in many different ways such as forced prostitution, child labour and child brides.
These children may not know that what they are doing is illegal or that there is anything wrong with how they are treated.
This is because traffickers prey on children and adults who are facing poverty, war, and an uncertain future.
In some cases, a trusted friend may betray a family by promising them that their child will go to school or have a respectable job in the UK such as helping a family. Or an orphaned child will be promised a better life than they now have living on the streets.
Traffickers will then use physical, sexual, or emotional abuse and neglect to ‘silence’ their victims and retain control. Making it easier for them to sell and move children across the globe from China, Africa, Vietnam, and Eastern Europe to richer countries where children are bought and used as objects.
The child is frightened into believing that they owe the trafficker money or payment by other means.
Alone and uncared for trafficked children are at risk of injury, sickness, harm and even death- as fear, shame, confusion and a lack of knowledge prevents the child from fleeing.
This is illegal under the Council of Europe’s Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings, which became law in the UK in April 2009
The Welsh Refugee Council believes that no-one has the right to hurt children or to make them do anything that feels wrong.
Our advocacy plan funded by the Diana Memorial Trust Fund commits us to continued awareness raising on the needs of trafficking victims and to make sure that they receive the help and support they so desperately need.
We are currently working with the Welsh Assembly Government, the UK Border Agency, Barnardo’s, NSPCC and WSMP to achieve this.
Article 4 from the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights
‘No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all forms.’
Article 35, UN Convention of the Rights of the Child,1989
States shall ‘prevent the abduction of, sale or traffic in children for any purpose or in any form’
Article 37, UN Convention of the Rights of the Child, 1989
‘No child should be subject to torture or degrading treatment [nor be] deprived of his or her liberty unlawfully’
