News & Updates

New films and resources PLUS our Children’s Champion for 2020!

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March newsletter
New films informing migrants at risk of trafficking about their rights in the UK
This week, ECPAT UK and World Vision Vietnam released new resources        including two child friendly films informing Vietnamese migrants in the UK about their rights in the UK criminal justice system. We were thrilled so many people joined us for our launch event and practitioner learning event. You can continue building your knowledge on child criminal exploitation at our upcoming training sessions in April. All victims of trafficking have the right to be supported and protected by UK authorities and be treated as victims not offenders. However, many still enter the criminal justice system and often do not access the support they are entitled to. We hope the resources will raise awareness among Vietnamese migrants in the UK that they have rights in this country and if they are exploited, there are organisations and agencies that can support them. Read more
 Solihull lawyer Maria Demosthenous is our Children’s Champion for 2020!
We’re delighted to announce the winner of our Children’s Champion Award for  2020: Maria Demosthenous, a senior child care solicitor with Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council. The award was made by a panel of experts including young people with lived experience of trafficking, in recognition of Maria’s outstanding commitment to child victims of trafficking in her local authority over the last 13 years. It was an incredibly tough decision for the panel, who also awarded three highly commended runners up: Kate Aubrey-Johnson, a barrister with Garden Court Law; Lynne Chitty, Care Director at the charity Love146; and Rebecca Hayden, an Independent Child Trafficking Guardian at Barnardo’s in Wales. Read more about our award winners

 

New immigration plans could set back progress in victim support
This month the government announced plans to reform the UK’s immigration system including a significant number of proposals to reform modern slavery legislation which will affect survivors of child exploitation. Wider measures relating to asylum policy will also have a negative impact on survivors who apply for asylum, a procedure which is already very challenging for many child victims to navigate. It’s unclear why proposals on modern slavery are included in a plan for immigration reform at all, given that for children, victim identification is not an immigration matter but rather a child protection issue. With more children than ever identified as potential victims in 2020, we urge the government to listen carefully to concerns about the potential impact of these new plans on children and young people and amend them accordingly to ensure that every child victim is identified, safeguarded and supported. Read more

 

Young people’s voices heard by parliamentarians
We’re so proud of members of our youth advisory group who joined young campaigners from The Children’s Society earlier this month to lead an online event with parliamentarians. At the event, the young people each addressed Members of Parliament, bravely sharing their own personal experiences under the current immigration and support systems and speaking passionately about what the government should do to help young people like them have stable futures – including giving all unaccompanied and trafficked young people a guardian to support them and addressing the chronic uncertainty they face in the immigration system. Help amplify their voices by joining our campaign.

 

WIN: More trafficked children will have access to a guardian from late Spring
The government has announced that the Independent Child Trafficking Guardians (ICTG) service will be expanded to more parts of England in late Spring. The service is currently operational in one third of local authority areas in England and Wales, and will be expanded to cover two thirds of local authorities. We welcome the expansion of the scheme, which will provide more trafficked children with vital specialist support across the country, along with other plans including removing the current 18-month limit to support and removing the cut off of support when a child turns 18. Support from a guardian has consistently been shown to help children recover, navigate the complex systems they find themselves in and move on, as well as preventing further exploitation and harm. Join us in calling for all children to have guardians and stable futures.
We must listen to young people if we are to protect them from exploitation
The 18th March was National Child Exploitation Awareness Day and an opportunity for us all to reflect on what we can do better to ensure children and young people are protected from trafficking, exploitation and harm. Our CEO Patricia Durr blogged about how far we have come in our understanding and awareness of child exploitation and how much further we need to go as children and young people continue to be abused and exploited. Patricia’s blog also sets out the need for a child-centred and child rights-based approach to tackling exploitation and why “it is only by listening that we can learn and understand, and only through understanding that we can act well together.” Read the blog