Last week the Conservative Party called for a debate on the modern slave trade – human trafficking. According to the US State Department 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders each year – approximately 50% of those are minors.
As soon as the debate appeared in the Order Paper the Government announced it was ratifying the Council of Europe’s Convention against Trafficking in Human Beings 2005 that it had previously signed.
A conservative estimate by UNICEF of the number of children trafficked into the UKwas 330 over an 18 month period. Some of these children arrive at airports but there are no global standards for children travelling alone. For example you cannot travel unaccompanied on Virgin Airways until you are 16. On BA it is 12 and Air France it is four!
Airlines have an important part to play in deterring child trafficking. Some simple questions at check in and on arrival would also make a difference.
Amazingly of the 330 children 183 went missing from the care of social services. Even when under “care” of the social services some of these children are still controlled by their traffickers.
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