Every year, 1.2 million children are trafficked around the world, according to Unicef. How many come to the UK is an open question. The latest figures from the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop) show that 287 potential child-trafficking victims were identified between 2009 and 2010. However, between April 2009 and March 2010, 179 child-trafficking victims were referred by local authorities to the National Referral Mechanism (NRM). Meanwhile, figures obtained by The Guardian suggested that 957 children were picked up by councils in a nine-month period in 2008.
The large discrepancy is because all the figures are "the tip of the iceberg", says Christine Beddoe, director of Ecpat UK, a charity that campaigns against child trafficking. The Ceop figures and NRM statistics rely on agencies "volunteering" the information, she says. "In short, the government has no comprehensive knowledge of how many children have been identified and who is responding to keep them safe."
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