Detective sergeant Ian Knight, head of the team that combats child trafficking at UK ports, was on duty at Heathrow the day security were alerted to an unaccompanied nine-year-old Afghan girl wandering in Terminal Three's arrivals area. If she'd made it through the next set of doors she would have been at the mercy of a world totally alien to her.
It turns out the girl had been abandoned by, or wandered away from, a couple who had brought her into the country for money. In September, Johan Shah and Alia Kanwal, both from Peshawar, Pakistan, were found guilty of facilitating the nine-year-old's illegal entry into the UK. However, two other children who travelled with her have never been found (Children Now, 22-28 September).
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