More than 180 children recently trafficked illegally into the UK have since gone missing without trace from social services care, according to a Unicef report warning that the government is failing to protect vulnerable youngsters brought into the country. The study published today calling for new safeguarding measures says official figures significantly underestimate the "hidden crime" of child trafficking, which sees children as young as five brought secretly into Britain to work as domestic servants, in cannabis factories, or for sexual exploitation or under-age marriage.
According to the report, Rights Here, Rights Now, even if trafficked children are identified "their care and protection is inconsistent, ad hoc and, in some regions, completely absent". To help plug "gaps in the system", Unicef wants reforms including a professional guardian for each trafficked child to protect their interests.
Most children identified and put into care, usually living in hostels or bed and breakfast accommodation, simply disappear. They may be lured away again by criminals or the same traffickers who brought them illegally into the country, according to campaigners.
Government figures highlighted in the Unicef study reveal that of 72 Chinese children known to have been trafficked into Britain during 18 months in 2005-6, 63 (88%) have since gone missing.
Of the 140 boys identified as trafficked into the country during that period, three quarters are now missing from care. In total, 183 of the 330 trafficking victims were now missing.
The Home Office data also reveals that the children came from 44 countries. By far the highest number came from China, followed by Nigeria, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Eritrea, though 33 children were trafficked from Russia and eastern Europe - a tenth of the total. Christine Beddoe, director of Ecpat UK - a campaign group on child trafficking and prostitution that has jointly published today's study with Unicef - said official figures on trafficked children were "the tip of the iceberg".
Data collection on the issue is still much less efficient in the UK than in continental Europe, she said, but increased awareness among agencies including police and social services was revealing a problem affecting not only London but the whole of the UK.
While trafficking for sexual exploitation remains a key issue, many children are brought into the country for "domestic servitude", she added. "We are talking about the idea of home help, but in a very exploitative situation with children.
"We have cases of African families buying child labour for domestic work but also minding smaller children in the family. It is not like having a nanny. They are not considered part of the family: they may live in the family home but I have heard situations where children have been locked in the garage or having to sleep on the floor before doing the scrubbing and cleaning. It really is Dickensian type of stuff."
The use of trafficked child labour - mainly from Vietnam - to run illegal cannabis farms appeared to be increasing, Ms Beddoe added. Last week, the charity Drugscope highlighted how Vietnamese children are being used as "human sprinkler systems" to water and tend plants in UK cannabis farms, often living in lofts or cupboards and facing criminal charges rather than protection if the farms are raided by the police. On average, police are raiding three farms a day.
A report on child trafficking in the UK, produced by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) and published by the Home Office in June this year, indicates that most trafficked children are between 14 and 17 years old, though the youngest child trafficked to be a domestic servant was five.
Ms Beddoe said the government figures and Ecpat's own research suggested some 60% of children identified as trafficked later go missing. "Usually they go into B&B or shared accommodation. Most is sub-standard and certainly not secure."
It was almost impossible to track what happened to the children, she said, but a handful who returned had reported being "lured away by a so-called boyfriend, and becoming a victim of rape".
Last night a 17-year-old girl who was trafficked from east Africa to a terraced house in the north of England told the Guardian she had been promised work as a model. However, when she arrived she found herself forced into prostitution.
"I asked the man about my modelling - I was excited about it - but he waved me off. The man started bringing men to the house, telling them about what I used to do in my country and I realised things were bad. They were rough with me." The girl, who did not want to be named, said she had contemplated suicide. "Then one morning he left, but the door was open. I went outside and asked a lady to show me to the train station. I got on a train to London. Escape was my only chance." She is now studying for A Levels.
The Home Office minister Vernon Coaker said his department, together with the Department for Children, Schools and Families, would publish guidance later this year on best practice on identifying and protecting victims of trafficking. The government had already published the UK Action Plan on Tackling Human Trafficking last March. He added: "A huge amount of work has been done. But there is more to do and we will work with all agencies and colleagues."
John Coughlan, joint president of the Association of Directors of Children's Services, said that care did not mean a secure setting. "The best that care will be able to do is provide a safe and secure haven for children who are believed to have been trafficked ... We take the responsibility of looking after these children seriously but sadly what we can't do is prevent them running off."