Hidden Children
A Quaker researcher has shed light on a little known evil. Joe Mugford reports
London Quaker Laura Wirtz has unveiled a damning report for the Children’s Society on the exploitation of vulnerable migrant children in the UK. Laura, a member of South East London Area Meeting and Quaker chaplain of Greenwich University, has researched the lives of exploited migrant children who have slipped out of official sight because of gaps in child protection. She drew on detailed interviews with children and professionals working in this field, and case studies provided by voluntary and statutory bodies. ‘Hidden Children’ documents the terrible suffering these children endure.
Earlier studies of migrant children have focused on sexual exploitation, making this report a more thorough picture of the situation. Multi-agency approaches, introduced in the wake of the Victoria Climbie case, had some effect but had an opt-out for the immigration services, something which is only now being rectified with Section 55 of the new Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act.
Professionals are often unaware of where to look for problems, the report points out. Although sweatshops and exploitation by criminal gangs are significant problems, a key issue is private fostering arrangements where children are forced into domestic servitude. These children may even attend school but otherwise be prevented from having any kind of childhood or socialisation, resulting in a generation of severely damaged and vulnerable adults.
At the report’s launch last week, a spokesman for the UK Human Trafficking Commission (UKHTC) emphasised the seriousness of the situation, saying ‘servitude is just a posh word for slavery’, and suggested it was every agency and individual’s duty to communicate anything they see or know about exploitation. He suggested that lobbying local MPs, councils and local papers was important, as is using Crimestoppers or the UKHTC themselves to report anything that looks like the use of child labour.
A recurring theme was the need for better communication with closed-off immigrant communities, which would result in agencies that did not fall for claims that child labour is ‘tradition’ or ‘part of the culture’, and communities themselves acknowledging the harm to children and later adults of exploitation.
Laura told the Friend ‘if there’s one result I want from this report it’s awareness in migrant communities that servitude is inimical to children’s rights, that it harms them and steals their childhood. Prevention is more important than anything else.’ She praised the bravery of those children who had come forward to be interviewed, saying that many of them also hope to prevent other children ending up in their situation.
Can Friends and Meetings have a role? Laura says: ‘Spreading this information is vital – the reaction has been good to this report and people seem to feel it has filled in some important gaps. But if people are not already in a professional or official position, the most important thing is probably supporting groups like ECPAT UK, who lobby and train the voluntary and statutory sector in these situations.’ She also suggests finding out what local councils are doing, especially in the current climate of public spending cuts: ‘very simply’, she says, ‘these children suffer when there are cutbacks’.
The ‘Hidden Children’ report is available in full now at www.childrenssociety.org.uk/hiddenchildren.
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