Do Something Appeal - I’m calling on the UK government to protect child victims of trafficking, will you?
Monday, September 6, 2010 at 12:22PM Have you all heard the good news this week? Just a few days ago a huge brothel running trafficking group was arrested in Belfast. They were running brothels all over Scotland, Cardif and Northern Ireland. Check out this link if you want to read up on it.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-11205164
The Mission Worldwide has now launched its very own 'Do Something Appeal'. We are calling the British Government on all scaled whether it be local or straight to No 10 to end child trafficking and slavery.
HOW DOES IT INVOLVE YOU?
Well we are asking you to copy the letter below, fill in the blanks and post it to your local MP. Or if you prefere an email format please contact us on our contact page and ref it The Do Something Appeal email.
Lets start fighting with one voice and making a greater difference together. Please write in wither online or leave comments below to let us know how you are getting on and what kind of a response the Government is giving you.
All the best world changers
yours
TMW Team
Dear .........,
I am writing as one of your constituents and as a campaigner of The Mission Worldwide to express my deep concern about the protection of children who have become victims of trafficking. I am currently setting up projects in Cambodia and all over South East Asia to Abolish Human Trafficking and the Trafficking of Minors.
Every year hundreds of children are being trafficked into and within the UK. Many children who are trafficked are placed in unsafe and inappropriate accommodation resulting in limited support and an increase in vulnerability. Our systems are failing these children, who have often suffered tremendous physical, sexual and psychological abuse.
The number of child victims of trafficking who go missing from local authority care is of major concern to The Mission Worldwide. In a report published by ECPAT UK in 2007 it was found that of 80 children known or suspected to have been trafficked over an 18-month period, 56 per cent had gone missing from local authority care in the North East and North West of England and the West Midlands.
In 2009, the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre published a Scoping Report on Child Trafficking which identified 325 children as potential victims of trafficking in the UK and Northern Ireland between March 2007 and February 2008. And this is only a snapshot in some local authorities – nobody knows the real figures. This report found that 23% of these migrant children are missing without trace - some of them are likely to have been re-trafficked.
On the BBC News there was an article in Jan 2003 about the growing numbers of Child Prostitutes/Slaves in Northern Ireland.
I am aware that the UK Government has recently taken steps to improve the protection of these children including, significantly, the ratification of the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings which came into force on 1st April this year. However, there are continuing gaps and failures to implement commitments, resulting in these children remaining vulnerable to further exploitation.
However I do have growing concern about our governments decisions regarding prostitution after reading the article from the Belfast Telegraph titled 'Belfast prostitution is out of control'. Within this article it talks about the option to legalise prostitution in Belfast. I am writing to express my feelings that his would be a huge mistake. Legalising Slavery is what William Wilberforce fought so hard to abolish in all areas of slavery not just in reference to Africans being used as household slaves.
The Prime Minister described child trafficking as ‘completely unacceptable’. Similarly the Home Affairs Committee in its report on Human Trafficking published in May 2009 stated that it was particularly alarmed by accounts that traffickers may be, in effect, using the "care home system for vulnerable children as holding pens for their victims until they are ready to pick them up".
The Government needs to meet its commitment to all children in the UK and Northern Ireland by reporting on the numbers of child victims of trafficking, in particular the numbers of children who go missing from care. I would like you to write to the Home Secretary and the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families asking them to undertake an immediate inquiry on the numbers of children suspected as trafficked who have gone missing from Local Authority Care.
The Mission Worldwide's campaign ‘Do Something to protect child victims of trafficking’ is calling on Government to;
1. Improve accommodation provision for child victims of trafficking.
2. Introduce a system of guardianship for child victims of trafficking.
3. Appoint an independent National Rapporteur on Trafficking with a special focus on children.
4. Not allow the legalisation of prostitution in Northern Ireland.
5. To pursue with greater intentionality the closure of all brothels and trafficking groups in Northern Ireland and the UK.
For further information about the campaign or The Mission Worldwide's work please go to www.themissionworldwide.com .
I look forward to hearing from you about the response of the Home Secretary and the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families on this urgent issue.
Yours faithfully
Name
Your Address
here
