Thousands of children put at risk of trafficking by the UK Government’s lack of plan to prevent it, says new report by the Anti-Trafficking Monitoring Group - a group of organisations including ECPAT UK.Read more
Sexual exploitation and abuse in the aid sector has been an ‘open secret’ among humanitarian organisations, with individuals who report abuse continually ‘silenced and ostracised’, according to a new report by the International Development Committee which drew on evidence submitted by ECPAT UK.Read more
ECPAT UK has been granted core participant status in the Protection of Children Outside the United Kingdom investigation held by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA).Read more
Our latest research, Child trafficking in the UK 2018: A snapshot, exposes the limitations of the government’s response to child victims of trafficking and highlights the need for a new, child-centred approach.Read more
ECPAT UK heralds the UK government’s long-awaited ratification of the Lanzarote Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse in the UK and abroad.Read more
A new e-handbook on modern slavery, human trafficking and forced labour features ECPAT UK and more than 50 other experts from across the Commonwealth. The handbook was produced by the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association as a comprehensive guide for legislating against crimes related to modern slavery.Read more
Following recent reports on the rise of children exploited for criminality, ECPAT UK’s Head of Training Laura Durán, was recently interviewed by Lynda Gibbs from the Inns of Court College of Advocacy (ICCA) to discuss the complex nature of criminal exploitation and ECPAT UK's work campaigning against child trafficking.Read more
ECPAT UK (Every Child Protected Against Trafficking) is thrilled that its animated short film about child trafficking in cannabis cultivation – The Secret Gardeners, has won the gold medal in the Human Concerns category at the New York Festivals World’s Best TV and Films awards.Read more
ECPAT UK has released a new film. ‘Behind the Behaviour: identifying the criminal exploitation of migrant children’ highlights how migrant children who are criminally exploited may not be easily recognised as victims by frontline services in the UK.Read more
ECPAT UK is once again working with the UK’s leading travel association, ABTA, to ensure staff in the travel and tourism industry are trained to identify and respond to child protection concerns.Read more
ECPAT UK is calling on the UK Government to do more to protect child victims of modern slavery after the latest official statistics from the NCA showed a huge 66% rise in the number of children identified as potential victims during 2017.Read more
ECPAT UK’s Trafficked Girls’ Group Assistant, Temi Adekoya, has won the Young Leader of the Year award at London Youth’s annual award ceremony celebrating young people making outstanding contributions to their communities.Read more
Up to 1,000 children may have been abused in Telford, with victims as young as 11 years old suffering sexual exploitation. The scandal highlights endemic failings in how we respond to child abuse and underlines the need for better training, multi-agency working and adequate resourcing of frontline care servicesRead more
ECPAT UK is delighted to announce Katherine Mulhern as the new Chair of ECPAT UK – a leading child rights charity working to protect children from trafficking, abuse and exploitation. Katherine takes over from Ian Hanham who stood down last month. Ian will continue to serve on the board as a Trustee.Read more
The Oxfam scandal exposed the sexual exploitation of vulnerable children by foreign aid workers, highlighting the endemic child abuse being committed internationally. Greater transparency, accountability and safeguarding measures must be implemented by governments, charities, businesses and individuals to prevent international child exploitation.Read more
British national, Matthew Falder, was jailed today for 32 years after admitting 137 charges of online sexual exploitation against children and adults in the UK and internationally. Falder used the anonymity of the dark web to trick and blackmail victims into providing footage of sexually abusive acts, deliberately targeting young and vulnerable victims. It is a 'watershed moment' for the policing and prosecution of transnational abuse of children online.Read more
‘Stephen’ was identified as a former child victim of trafficking but now faces the threat of removal to Vietnam. His case has rightly received significant public attention, highlighting the urgent need to reform the support system (the National Referral Mechanism) for other children who have been victims of modern slavery in the UK.Read more
There is “limited availability of specialist provision” for migrant children who are identified as potential victims of modern slavery by local authorities, a new report has found, strengthening ECPAT UK’s campaign call for urgent reforms to the way in which the UK responds to trafficked children.Read more
A new report by the National Crime Agency finds thousands of children are being trafficked to supply drugs by ‘county lines’ gangs into rural parts of the UK.Read more
The UK should introduce a ‘firewall’ between child protection services and immigration services to protect the rights of child victims of trafficking from abroad, according to two UN Committees.Read more
ECPAT UK's survey on the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) has found that more than half of frontline workers believe the current NRM, the main framework for identifying and protecting victims of trafficking, needs to be revised to better protect child victims of modern slavery.Read more
ECPAT UK has joined with other UK children’s experts to form the ‘Brexit and Children’ coalition and create an important new discussion paper outlining concerns about the impact of Brexit on children.Read more
ECPAT UK has become the UK representative of The Code, an international initiative to support travel and tourism companies to prevent child sexual exploitation.Read more
ECPAT UK responds to the government's announcement regarding reforms to the National Referral Mechanism for victims of trafficking. ECPAT welcomes the reforms although they do not go far enough to provide children with the specialist support they need.Read more
Leading children’s charity ECPAT UK will mark today’s Anti-Slavery Day (18th October 2017) with the release of an animated film aimed at tackling the growing issue of Vietnamese children being trafficked to the UK for cannabis cultivation.Read more
Calling all lawyers, advocates, social workers and more! ECPAT UK, as part of the European Commission funded ReACT Project, is offering two free online tutorials for those working with trafficked children.Read more