Plea for child victims to have guardians
Tristan Donovan
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
A guardian should be appointed for every trafficked child, a report into the child slave trade due out tomorrow (20 September) will say.
The Rights Here, Rights Now report by Unicef UK and Ecpat UK, a charity working to end the sexual exploitation of children, says the UK should follow the example of the Netherlands and provide trafficked children and young people with independent guardians.
The report says "the government should set up a system of guardianship for child victims of trafficking under statute". It adds that the guardian system should be independent of the government and immigration services, and guardians should be appointed as soon as a child who is a victim of trafficking is identified.
Guardians would work in the child's interests, ensuring they have access to appropriate care services, inform the child of their rights and help trace the child's family. They will also help such children access legal support and ensure repatriation only takes place if it is in the child's best interest. They would also have legal responsibility for the child until a long-term alternative arrangement is found.
Christine Beddoe, director of Ecpat UK, said guardians would need extra skills in addition to those of social workers since they would need to support children through the immigration system as well as provide more traditional social care. "The role of the guardian goes beyond that currently performed by local authority social workers," she said. "The guardian would help the child navigate the immigration system as well as ensure consistency of care in a way that is beyond what a social worker can do such as advocating for the child and navigating the maze of immigration issues these children face."
The Netherlands has an independent guardianship institution called Nidos that was set up in the early 1990s. It is responsible for overseeing the needs and promoting the interests of trafficked children and has responsibility for the child's mental and physical health and their personal development.
According to Unicef UK, 250 cases of child slavery were recorded in the UK between 1998 and 2003. However it is thought there are likely to be many more unrecorded cases.
