by tinaadams

Created on: June 10, 2009   Last Updated: June 11, 2009

Until recently trafficking and slavery in Britain only existed in our television soap operas. The story lines always the same, East European woman brought into Britain and sold into the sex industry or sweat shops. East European woman is witness to bank robbery, falls in love with policeman and they all live happily ever after.

Our Government refused to accept its existence here, preferring instead to distort the facts into acts of illegal immigration. Trafficking and slavery happened in other countries. Britain cared too much about its people to allow it to happen here. We would read reports now and again, stories too big to be ignored, of bodies being found in freight containers and Lorries. Immigrants being brought illegally into the country for vast sums of money, only to end up starved of oxygen and no way of identifying them.

Britain's politicians have finally held up their hands and admitted that illegal trafficking does exist here. What they have failed to do is act to protect the victims. As the modern world has progressed, so has the supply and demand of the exploited. Traffickers are finding more and more ways of turning people into monetary gains. In February 2000 after reading a short article, I began researching child trafficking and how it goes disguised in the UK.

Victoria Climbi was 8 years old, when she came to the media attention. Malnourishment, 128 separate injuries, "It was the worst case of deliberate harm to a child that I have ever seen," said pathologist Dr Nathaniel Carey.
As the details of Victoria's short and tragic life emerged, a world I didn't know existed opened up. Victoria had been born in 1991 in the Ivory Coast. She was the fifth of seven children, had started school at six and showed great promise. In 1998, a visiting relative offered to take Victoria back to France with her on the promise of a good education and a better future. Victoria's parents agreed to the idea and sent her off, believing their daughter would have a wonderful life. It was not uncommon for families in the Ivory Coast to send children to relatives abroad for education and financial reasons.

From the late 1950s, the UK saw a heavy flow of welcome immigrants from Africa and the West Indies, hoping for a better life. The UK, if the truth be known, had its own agenda, cheap labour for the worst manual jobs. Many of the Nigerians to settle here, did the unexpected and instead of the manual labour jobs, they sought careers and enriched the middle class

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>