Children who have been trafficked into the UK are being lost after being put in to the care system.
Research today from End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes (Ecpat UK) found many trafficked children who are placed in care end up back in the hands of criminals.
Further research, commissioned in collaboration with The Body Shop, also suggested one in ten Britons do not believe child trafficking happens in this country and 34 per cent believe child victims of trafficking end up in foreign countries, not in Britain.
Ecpat wants to see trafficked children appointed legal guardians, after they found 60 per cent of children rescued from traffickers later go missing from local authority care.
Christine Beddoe, director of Ecpat, said: 'The key to protecting child victims of trafficking is guaranteeing safe accommodation for them. At the end of this three-year campaign, we want safe accommodation, including specialist foster care, to be available for all child victims of trafficking.'
More than a fifth of Britons may also be unknowingly contributing to child trafficking, the survey found. Buying pirate DVDs and roses from street vendors, smoking home grown cannabis, giving money to child beggars and using prostitutes all contributed to child trafficking.
Detective Inspector Gordon Valentine, from the Metropolitan police's specialist child trafficking team Paladin told the BBC: 'If you buy off these children who are selling DVDs, especially during school hours, that must be questionable.
'People who are giving to children who are begging, or people who visit brothels that are using children - these people are fuelling an awful crime.
'They are encouraging this crime and the further use of these victims and other victims that may be brought in.'
Ecpat and The Body Shop have today launched a three-year campaign to stop the trafficking of children and young people by raising awareness of the issue and 'empowering people to make a difference'.
Jan Buckingham, values director at The Body Shop UK said: 'The objectives of this campaign are not only to raise awareness of the issue and raise funds to support Ecpat campaigns and prevention projects against child trafficking, but to influence government to ensure stricter anti-trafficking policies and legislation, and to dedicate more resources to this cause.
'The government has to do more to guarantee children and young people their right to protection from trafficking. There is hope, and real and practical solutions exist.'
Research today from End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes (Ecpat UK) found many trafficked children who are placed in care end up back in the hands of criminals.
Further research, commissioned in collaboration with The Body Shop, also suggested one in ten Britons do not believe child trafficking happens in this country and 34 per cent believe child victims of trafficking end up in foreign countries, not in Britain.
Ecpat wants to see trafficked children appointed legal guardians, after they found 60 per cent of children rescued from traffickers later go missing from local authority care.
Christine Beddoe, director of Ecpat, said: 'The key to protecting child victims of trafficking is guaranteeing safe accommodation for them. At the end of this three-year campaign, we want safe accommodation, including specialist foster care, to be available for all child victims of trafficking.'
More than a fifth of Britons may also be unknowingly contributing to child trafficking, the survey found. Buying pirate DVDs and roses from street vendors, smoking home grown cannabis, giving money to child beggars and using prostitutes all contributed to child trafficking.
Detective Inspector Gordon Valentine, from the Metropolitan police's specialist child trafficking team Paladin told the BBC: 'If you buy off these children who are selling DVDs, especially during school hours, that must be questionable.
'People who are giving to children who are begging, or people who visit brothels that are using children - these people are fuelling an awful crime.
'They are encouraging this crime and the further use of these victims and other victims that may be brought in.'
Ecpat and The Body Shop have today launched a three-year campaign to stop the trafficking of children and young people by raising awareness of the issue and 'empowering people to make a difference'.
Jan Buckingham, values director at The Body Shop UK said: 'The objectives of this campaign are not only to raise awareness of the issue and raise funds to support Ecpat campaigns and prevention projects against child trafficking, but to influence government to ensure stricter anti-trafficking policies and legislation, and to dedicate more resources to this cause.
'The government has to do more to guarantee children and young people their right to protection from trafficking. There is hope, and real and practical solutions exist.'
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