Vulnerable child trafficking victims have had to stay overnight in police cells because of a lack of communication between local authorities.
Many of these Roma children - brought to the UK by criminal gangs and forced to participate in illegal activity - then go back to their traffickers or the streets, instead of into the care of social services, Conservative MP Anthony Steen told the House of Commons.
The MP for Totnes said: "The local authority where a child lives is responsible for the child's care, but the child is often found on the streets committing crime in another local authority area.
"As the local authorities do not communicate with one another to arrange transfer of that child's care, the responsibility falls on the police, who can offer no provision of care except a police cell, as they have been known to do at the Charing Cross police station (in London)."
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