What is trafficking?
Traffickers force, coerce and manipulate children into sexual exploitation, labour exploitation, slavery, criminal activities and forced marriage.
Trafficking is the movement of a child to be exploited for somebody else’s gain. These children are moved to the UK from many parts of the world. Some children are trafficked from around the UK. Some children are moved out of the UK. They are often moved away from their family and friends.
Trafficked children are usually too afraid to seek help and it is hard to remove them from the people exploiting them. They need intensive support to end the trafficking cycles they find themselves in and recover from their experiences.
Types of Trafficking:
Criminal Exploitation
Children are being criminally exploited as young as seven years old.
Sexual Exploitation
Child sexual exploitation is a form of child sexual abuse. It occurs where an individual or group takes advantage of an imbalance of power to coerce, manipulate or deceive a child or young person under the age of 18 into sexual activity.
Domestic Servitude
Domestic servitude is a form of exploitation in which the victim is forced to provide childcare, cleaning or cooking.
Financial Exploitation
An emerging concern in trafficking and modern slavery of children is financial exploitation.
Spotting trafficking in children requires professional curiosity - exploring every possible indicator of abuse, neglect, or exploitation, striving to understand what is happening to the child away from the obvious.
Trafficking in children is a hidden crime. It is in the best interests of traffickers for their exploitation of children to go undetected. Children need us to spot the signs and act fast to safeguard them.
