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POLICE FEARS OVER CHILD TRAFFICKING
Search for up to 1,000 Romanian children smuggled by crime gangs
FEARS that Romanian children are being smuggled into Westminster to form a Fagin-style gang of pickpockets have been revealed.
The West End Extra has learnt that Marylebone detectives are investigating a list of 1,000 Romanian children – some babies – believed to have been trafficked into Westminster to fund organised crime.
Officers have already discovered 90 children from the list during a summer crackdown on pickpocketing, also known as “dipping”.
Met Police Superintendent Bernie Gravett, who is heading up a special child-trafficking task force, codenamed operation Gulf, has just returned from a fact-finding mission to the Romanian capital Bucharest.
He said: “The Romanian authorities have identified a number of children they believe have been illegally trafficked against the consent of their parents. We are investigating the list to see if they are being exploited for organised crime or if they have been sent by their families to send money back home. Some are babies used to help with begging, some are children aged between six and ten years old being used for pickpocketing and some teenagers are working the cash machines.”
It is feared some of the children, including little babies used by street beggars, have been snatched from parents while some have been sent voluntarily to send money home.
And an MP has called for work permits to be issued to victims of child-trafficking to help them through their ordeal and give police more time to break the trafficking racket.
Anthony Steen, Tory MP for Totnes, speaking after crunch talks with officers in Marylebone Police Station on Wednesday, said: “We know that there is a growing trade in human trafficking. We also know that, despite the number of initiatives, the police have not nailed many gangs and there have been few convictions.”
Mr Steen, a former pupil of Westminster School and chairing the all-party Parliamentary group for human trafficking, added: “Social services are full of the most well-intentioned people who do not have a clue about how to deal with victims of trafficking. The Government is persistently against giving victims of trafficking temporary residence permits. But work permits really help them because they become confident that they would not be stopped by the police and sent home. It gives them security and protection and allows them to assist the police more actively with criminal investigations into traffickers.” |
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