A campaigner has called for more specialist teams to tackle child trafficking at ports of entry into the UK to be established under the government’s plans to strengthen the UK’s border controls.
Christine Beddoe, director of End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and the Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes UK, said the review of the immigration service published this week presented a “really good opportunity” to set up teams comprising immigration staff, the police and social services at all ports of entry.
Currently, the Metropolitan Police has child protection officers at Heathrow, Waterloo Station and the Lunar House asylum screening unit in Croydon only.
It also emerged this week that the government’s consultation on changes to the care of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children has been delayed.
The document was expected before parliament broke this week for its summer recess but will be published after MPs return in October.
● Fair, Effective, Transparent and Trusted: Rebuilding Confidence in our Immigration System