PARLIAMENTARY EARLY DAY MOTION
TRAFFICKING OF CHILDREN (16 June 2003)

That this House is gravely concerned about the evidence of children being trafficked into and through the United Kingdom which has been revealed by the work of the West Sussex Safe House Project with children arriving at Gatwick Airport from West Africa, ECPAT (End child prostitution, pornography and trafficking) UK and Unicef UK's End Child Exploitation Campaign; notes that there is evidence of several hundred children being brought to this country in recent years to be abused through prostitution somewhere in the UK and Europe; is alarmed at the lack of information about children in such circumstances arriving at other UK ports; deplores the planned closure of the West Sussex Safe House; urges the Government to instigate a major research project to define the numbers and situation of all children being trafficked to this country and to promote the best interests of each and every such child under the provisions of the Children Act 1989 rather than asylum and immigration legislation; further urges the Government to accommodate the children under section 20 of the Children Act 1989 rather than merely assist them under section 17 and to develop models of best practice and a range of central government funded resources to support children who have been trafficked; calls upon the Government to use the full force of the provisions of the Sexual Offences Bill against all those involved in any aspect of this form of child abuse; and calls upon West Sussex County Council to keep the Safe House open and functioning until this work has been completed.

Sponsored by:
Mr Hilton Dawson (Labour)