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184 9w Child-Trafficking Policymaking between Africa and Europe margaret akullo Trafficking in human beings is a major problem in Europe and beyond, but estimates on the number of children who have been trafficked do not provide a comprehensive picture of the size of the problem.1 Africa is a region of origin for trafficked women and children and also a region of destination.2 Many African girls and women are trafficked to Europe: many of them are Nigerian.3 There are approximately 270,000 victims of human trafficking in the European Union (EU), with 10 percent of victims recorded as minors.4 In addition, there are extremely low numbers of convictions in child-trafficking cases in Europe.5 Between 2000 and 2007, convictions for child trafficking have only taken place in four out of twenty-seven EU member states. Very limited data exist on the number of unaccompanied children passing through the EU, some of whom may be victims of trafficking.6 Unaccompanied minors make up a small percentage of the total population of adult migrants. The majority of unaccompanied minors who arrive in the United Kingdom seek asylum, but a small number of others have other reasons.7 The size of passenger traffic at London Heathrow Airport makes it the largest and busiest airport in the EU.8 In 2003 over sixty million passengers —five million passengers a month, on average—passed through Heathrow , usually as family groups, often with friends, while others arrived alone, including unaccompanied children.9 Trafficked children enter the UK either unaccompanied or accompanied by an adult, and all entry points into the UK are used as potential routes by traffickers.10 The exact number of children passing through Heathrow Airport is unknown.11 In 2003, New Scotland Yard, the UK’s Metropolitan Police Service, conducted an exploratory study on child trafficking called Operation Paladin Child Child-Trafficking Policymaking between Africa and Europe w 185 at Heathrow Airport.12 Scotland Yard’s Child Abuse Investigation Command, based in London, led the study, which aimed to assess the scale and problem of child trafficking in London. British nationals or residents were not part of the study and will not be discussed in this chapter. Data were collected over a three month period and they suggest that most of the children arriving via Heathrow were of African origin. Paladin Child tried to trace the whereabouts of the unaccompanied children. Twenty-eight children could not be located after arriving at Heathrow Airport. At the conclusion of the study, fourteen children were found to be safe; the remaining fourteen were classified as untraced because neither UK police investigations nor enquiries by immigration and social services could locate them. However, there was insufficient evidence to conclude that these fourteen children were trafficked.13 The most important findings from Operation Paladin Child highlight the lack of child-trafficking statistics recorded worldwide and the challenge of formulating child-trafficking policy in the absence of comprehensive statistics. Nonetheless, Operation Paladin Child raised a number of issues on law enforcement ’s response to child trafficking. Since 2006 the UK has established two national agencies to deal with trafficking: the UK Human Trafficking Centre (UKHTC), which deals broadly with human trafficking and is part of the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), and the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP), which is affiliated with SOCA and deals specifically with formulating child-trafficking policy. However, a proposal in 2010 to amalgamate both UKHTC and CEOP, to operate under one agency—the National Crime Agency (NCA)—stimulated debate on what this merger would mean for trafficked children. Since most of the trafficked children in the UK appear to be from Africa, the EU has gradually moved toward engaging in an ongoing political dialogue with the African Union, which began with the so-called Cairo process.14 By the early 2000s, the human-trafficking problem had emerged as a major issue within international development and diplomatic circles. Formal discussions between the two continents’ governing bodies have propelled the issue of human trafficking into the center of discussion. In 2006 further work between Africa and Europe resulted in the joint AU-EU Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Human Beings, Especially Women and Children.15 To what extent have these discussions contributed to effective child-trafficking policymaking between Europe and Africa? For its part, the EU has paid particular attention to trafficking, notably through the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings.16...

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