A updated report, ‘Until Harm Ends’, by EPCAT UK (Every Child Protected Against Trafficking) and Missing People has recently been published on the scale of unaccompanied and trafficked children who go missing from care in the UK.
The report makes note of the tailored assistance that child victims of trafficking are entitled to not only under the UK’s international legal obligations, including the ECHR and ECAT, but also domestic law. Local authorities have a statutory duty to safeguard and support trafficked children.
Notable findings in include:
- 2,683 children in the care of a local authority were identified or suspected as being trafficked in 2024
- Nearly 2 in 5 trafficked children, compared to 1 in 10 looked after children, went missing from care in 2024.
This is in the context of previous research by the organisations that found that the protracted legal processes for trafficked an unaccompanied children, and being disbelieved by authorities, increases the likelihood of children going missing and being re-trafficked. Whilst the authors highlight the difficulty of determining whether the increase in negative Reasonable Grounds decisions has led to an increase in trafficked children going missing, they do not discount this nexus.
Indeed, information released by the Home Office to the organisation After Exploitation in 2024, confirmed that 3,031 potential victims referred into the NRM between 01/01/2023 to 31/05/2024, had previously been referred into the NRM. Whilst some of these numbers will include potential victims who are referred for the same period of exploitation, it is recognised that child victims are at risk of further exploitation and abuse when they are not provided with sufficient support.
EPCAT UK and Missing People’s report makes a number of recommendations, including that the requirement of providing objective evidence at early states of the NRM should be removed in the case of potential trafficked children. They also recommend that the Home Office provide children with positive Conclusive Grounds determinations leave to remain of at least 5 years, and a route to settlement.
You can find the full report here.
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