Child Development

Baroness Butler-Sloss Excerpts

Thursday 11th October 2012 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Butler-Sloss]

My Lords, I congratulate the right reverend Prelate on the appositeness—even if fortuitous—of holding this debate on the occasion of the first United Nations International Day of the Girl Child. I strongly support the speech of the noble and learned Lord, Lord Mackay, but I wish to go down a wholly different route from earlier speakers. I declare an interest as the co-chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group against Human Trafficking and as a trustee of the Human Trafficking Foundation, because I want briefly to speak about children trafficked within England and those who are brought to this country and exploited by traffickers in conditions of modern-day slavery.

The Council of Europe’s expert group, GRETA, recently reported on the United Kingdom response to the Council of Europe convention, which we signed before we accepted the European Union directive on human trafficking. In its report, on page 12, GRETA expresses particular concern that there are, “indications that THB”—trafficking of human beings—

“within the UK is on the increase, in particular of girls for sexual exploitation”.

That leads me to the cases in Rochdale and Rotherham, both exposed by the Times newspaper. All I know is what I have read in the newspaper, but we know that teenage girls, some as young as 12, have in each area been exploited by men, mostly of Pakistan origin, who have groomed them and then passed them to other men for sexual exploitation. That is human slavery and human trafficking, of course, because the girls had no choice. No doubt some of them were raped, behind locked doors. In Rochdale it appears that this situation may have lasted for something in the region of five years but in Rotherham for over 10 years.

What, to me, is particularly shocking has been the response of the agencies involved. These girls in Rotherham appear to have been labelled, in effect, as child prostitutes who chose this way of life. For many years, no steps were taken to deal with the offenders—but the offenders were not the girls. There appears to have been a culture of non-interference because they were seen as bad girls but this was a form of human trafficking. The law against exploiting children is particularly there to protect children from themselves. A man who has sex with any girl under the age of 16 is committing a criminal offence and some offences are probably rape. I cannot understand why the criminal aspect was not recognised and effective action taken. The accounts of the plight of these girls in Rochdale, Rotherham and no doubt elsewhere are a disgrace. As a nation, we should feel ashamed that we cannot protect our teenage girls. It is a distortion of national well-being.

On 18 October, it is Anti-Slavery Day and another area of concern is that of the children who are brought into this country and, once here, are exploited for benefit fraud, by Fagin-style training for thieving and through begging, sexual exploitation, domestic servitude and the tending of cannabis farms, of which there are about 9,000—mostly, probably, in private houses—with well over 3,000 in London. The Vietnamese boys who come in to tend the cannabis plants work a seven-day week, do not of course go to school and do not get paid. If caught by the police, they are prosecuted and the traffickers are not caught.

GRETA, to which I referred earlier, has had some cogent criticisms of the response of the United Kingdom Government to human trafficking. The Government have an excellent strategy document and are undoubtedly committed to reducing and trying to eradicate this scourge. I hope that I am not being unfair in saying that the Government are a trifle complacent about the effectiveness of their response. We are principally a country of destination to which men, women and children are brought and, when here, treated as slaves. Among the justified criticisms of GRETA are those in respect of children; 390 children were identified as having been potentially trafficked in 2010 while 109 were accepted by the NRM as victims. We do not have an effective database. Local authorities, which have expertise in child welfare and child protection, are not given an opportunity to identify children and decisions as to whether a child has been trafficked are made by the staff of UKBA, who may not have the requisite expertise in relation to children.

I appreciate the time, so I will make two quick points. Significant numbers of children go missing. There have been two reports by the Children’s Commissioner about children arriving in this country and being bounced back to France within 24 hours, without any child protection or social work intervention. My most important point is that the noble Lord, Lord McColl, and I withdrew an amendment asking for a legal advocate on the basis that the Children’s Commissioner would investigate. That was a government promise. I would very much like to know from the Children’s Commissioner what progress has in fact been made and to have some positive indication from the Minister, because in paragraph 245 on page 57 of its report, GRETA has said that,

“a social worker or a voluntary advocate fall short of providing”,

legal guardianship and of upholding, “the child’s best interests”. On page 58, its recommendation is to,

“ensure that all unaccompanied minors who are potential victims of trafficking are assigned a legal guardian”,

and that is not happening at the moment. I apologise for taking a minute too long.