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Yen, 16, from Vietnam

Yen was born in a poor village in Vietnam and grew up in a single parent family. She was sold by her mother to a stranger when she was a teenager, perhaps in the belief that Yen would have a better life in a different country. Yen was trafficked to the UK by lorry, a difficult journey which took three months. When she got here she was taken to a brothel. Her passport was taken away from her and she was not allowed to go anywhere on her own. Luckily she managed to escape, but she had to fend for herself on the streets. When she finally came to the attention of social services, despite being in obvious distress with clear mental health concerns, no counselling or specialist support was provided to her. Her asylum claim was refused.

YenŐs story demonstrates how her immigration status became an obstacle for her proper treatment. She would have not been denied specialist support if she had British citizenship. This different treatment is possible because of the UK reservation on the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child.

The Three Small Steps Campaign is calling on the government to remove its reservation on the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which leads to trafficked children not receiving the protection they need.


 

Teaching Resources

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photo © World Vision

ECPAT UK and World Vision UK have developed session plans and materials specifically for schools.

The sessions provided on this page were designed with the citizenship curriculum in mind. The activities provide a good opportunity for children and young people to use and further develop their knowledge of childrenŐs rights by looking specifically into the issues facing child victims of trafficking in the UK and the violation of their rights caused by the actions of their traffickers but also by the lack of a supportive infrastructure in the UK.

The sessions will allow children to make an informed decision about whether to support the Three Small Steps campaign calls and we would ask participating schools to encourage children to send letters to their MPs when working on the last campaign related session.

Please let us know if you decide to use any of the sessions in your school by writing to 3smallsteps@ecpat.org.uk.

Assembly Plan: Introduce the subject of child trafficking and to enable pupils to consider the rights violations involved.

Lesson Plan: This lesson builds on the knowledge and themes from the Assembly Plan. Ideally, this lesson should take place in the same or in an adjacent week as the school assembly.

Child Trafficking Quiz: Use this quiz to introduce the theme of child trafficking. You could use it as a standalone activity before or after the Assembly and the Lesson Plans.

ChildrenŐs Rights Activity: Pupils will find out which rights of trafficked children are violated by looking into case studies.


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