Home opened for trafficked children

Specialist foster carers have been recruited and trained to look
after trafficked children in the south of England.

Children aged under 16 will be placed with foster carers, while
those aged 16 to 18 will be accommodated in the UK’s only safe
house, which recently opened with nine places.

The house, which is on the south coast, is managed by the company
Integrated Care. Manager Lynne Chitty said that there should be a
safe house in every local authority in the country that has a
port.

In the past, children placed with non-specialist carers have gone
missing because foster carers were not equipped to prevent them
fleeing.

Previously, the only safe house in the UK was in West Sussex, but
it closed last year after its location became known to traffickers.

A Unicef report published in July 2003 said trafficking was rising
and estimated there were thousands of children in the UK working as
domestic slaves or in the sex industry.