To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the answer by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 25 January (HL Deb, col 665–6), what assessment they have made of whether refugee children who have been reported as having gone missing are likely to have become victims of human trafficking and exploitation; and what measures they and their European partners have taken to protect such children.
Answered on
9 February 2017
In 2016, we transferred over 900 unaccompanied minors to the UK from Europe, including more than 750 from France as part of the UK’s support for the Calais camp clearance. Many have been reunited with family members already in the UK, while others are being cared for by local authorities across the UK.
The primary responsibility for unaccompanied children in Europe lies with the State in which they are present. The Government has established a £10 million Refugee Children Fund for Europe to support the needs of vulnerable refugee and migrant children arriving in Europe. We have also created a Child Trafficking Protection Fund of up to £3m, which seeks to fund work at a local, regional or national level, adding value to the existing provisions for child victims of modern slavery, including trafficking. The fund will help victim support and recovery, which might include specialist care to trafficked children. It will also reduce vulnerability to exploitation, for example by tackling the problem of trafficked children going missing after identification in the UK, and possibly being re-trafficked.
My honourable Friend, Robert Goodwill’s joint Written Ministerial Statement with Edward Timpson on 1 November committed the Government to publishing a strategy for the safeguarding of unaccompanied asylum-seeking and refugee children in England; and the children who have been identified for transfer from Europe.