Organised Immigration Crime - Operation Paladin Child

Report: 14
Date:12 July 2004
By: Commissioner

Summary

Report outlining the findings and recommendations from a three-month operation at London Heathrow Airport to establish the nature and extent of child trafficking from non European Union countries. The MPS Serious Crime Directorate held a press briefing releasing the Executive Summary report on 17 May 2004.

A. Recommendations

1. Members note the contents and recommendations of the Executive Summary attached at Appendix

2. Members consider the funding and resource implications for the MPS’ commitment to permanently post officers at key London ports in response to the new business identified as a result of operation Paladin.

B. Supporting information

Update on 12 February 2004 Organised Immigration Crime report

1. Data from the three-month study period has now been analysed and the full report published. An Executive Summary detailing the 26 recommendations was released during a press briefing at New Scotland Yard on 17 May 2004.

2. 1,738 unaccompanied minors (UMs) were landed by UKIS during the three months 26 August to 23 November 2003. 551 (30%) were ‘risk assessed in’ by the Paladin Team for follow up enquiries. The details of these UMs were faxed to social services for further enquiries. UMs were defined as children under 18 who arrived without their parent or legal guardian and were not a member of a school trip or other recognised group.

3. The police presence at the airport together with an increased awareness of UKIS staff led to an increase in workload for the local authority. Heathrow Airport is located in the London Borough of Hillingdon and during the Paladin scoping period Hillingdon received 39 referrals resulting in the accommodation of 31 children. This is a significant increase from the same period in the preceding year when 25 referrals too resulted in 12 children being accommodated. Children were accommodated for a variety of reasons. As a direct result of this initiative three children were placed on the Child Protection Register and social services staff have provided parenting advice to numerous families.

4. Social services across the UK were asked to make enquiries in relation to the 551 UMs screened in, and all but 28 have been accounted for. Subsequent police enquiries found that 14 of these had either left the country or claimed asylum at Lunar House having given false addresses on entry. The largest group of unaccounted for UMs were African girls in their teens, which could lend support to UNICEF’s fears that this group fall victim to exploitation in domestic servitude or abuse through prostitution. Police enquiries continue into their whereabouts.

5. This study has not identified any widespread exploitation of migrant children in the UK. However, it should be acknowledged that this study only focussed on one port of entry into the UK and on non-EU passport holders. (Victoria Climbié came in through France on an EU passport). Consequently, we are still unaware of the scale of UM’s coming into the UK through European channels. Immigration officers currently have limited powers to screen European passport holders arriving into the UK. As EU membership expands, opportunities for trafficking and facilitation of children may rise. It is perfectly legitimate to allow UM’s to travel to the UK for a range of purposes. It is the view of the project team that in the past the media have exaggerated the numbers of UM’s exploited based on a handful of case studies. Nevertheless, we can do more to ensure we safeguard UM’s from exploitation and a more refined Paladin process will allow for better risk assessment and more effective information sharing.

The Profile of Child Migration

6. Of the 1904 UMs arriving during the study period, only 166 claimed asylum at the point of entry. These were almost exclusively from war torn countries, mainly Afghanistan. The remaining 1738 were ‘landed’ by UKIS to UK addresses, over half to London addresses. The gender split was almost equal although most boys were Russian and most girls were African.

7. Over half were in the age range 12-16 and almost a third were aged 5-11. Most were visitors, residents and students sponsored by their families. UMs arrived from four main regions, Africa (38%), Asia (14%), America (27%) and Europe (21%). It should be noted that a number of American UMs had African names.

8. The top five countries were (in descending order) Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, USA and Russia. A third of all UMs came from these countries. Of the Nigerian UMs 61% were girls and of the Russian UMs 61% were boys.

9. Of the 551 UMs risk assessed for follow up enquiries, the top four countries were African with Nigeria featuring most highly (46).

10. A lot of work was done to profile the original 28 ‘unlocated’ UMs and Nigeria again featured most highly with 6 and the USA second with 4. However, 2 American UMs had African names and 14 of the 28 were of African origin.

11. The results from operation Kontiki (CO14/Maxim) suggest that African girls are not being openly exploited for sexual purposes in London unlike some other parts of Europe. However, a recent ECPAT UK report suggests that children are entering the UK for a number of abusive purposes including domestic servitude and sexual exploitation.

12. Paladin follow-up enquiries failed to identify any patterns of child abuse or trafficking. However, outside the study period, detectives at Heathrow and Lunar House have identified a number of instances of organised trafficking and early indications are that children are being repeatedly presented by a number of ‘parents’ to support fraudulent benefit applications. One such case is under current investigation although initial assessments by social services have not indicated that these children are suffering significant harm. Another recent case involved an Afghan child being abandoned at Heathrow resulting in two Pakistani adults being charged with facilitation (trafficking). These adults admitted receiving £3000 per child for facilitating them into the country.

Recommendations

13. The final Paladin report makes 26 recommendations to Government, UKIS, Social Services and Police. These are detailed in the Executive Summary at Appendix 1.

14. The learning from Paladin continues to be disseminated through briefings and seminars across the Capital and elsewhere (Recommendation 1.). Examples include briefings at the Association of London Government for local government officers, the AFRUCA child trafficking conference and the London Child Protection Coordinators.

15. The Child Protection Group (SCD5) have worked in partnership with Hillingdon Social Services and UKIS to deliver awareness training to 600 Immigration officers working at Heathrow and enhanced training to the recently enlarged UKIS Minors Team (Recommendation 2).

16. SCD5 have shown commitment to creating a permanent ‘Ports Safeguarding Team’ with a police presence at Heathrow and Lunar House together with analytical and research support under the direction of the ‘partnership and prevention’ Detective Inspector (Recommendation 6). Negotiations are taking place with the relevant social services departments, NSPCC, UKIS and the Home Office with a view to establishing true multi-agency teams with the capacity to make real-time enquiries at the point of entry.

17. The recommendations will be taken forward through the Paladin ‘Gold’ Group which has representation from the relevant agencies and departments.

C. Race and equality impact

1. Operation Paladin has discovered an over representation of unaccompanied African children, mainly girls, arriving at the UK via Heathrow Airport. This is true of the total ‘population’ of 1738 UMs, the 551 risk assessed for follow up and the 28 ‘unlocated’ children.

2. SCD5 have employed two consultants to communicate directly with African and Asian communities in two London boroughs (Hackney and Newham) to establish their child protection concerns and make recommendations to the MPS as to how the relationship between these communities and child protection police could be improved. One of the major issues that the consultants are focussing on is child trafficking, migration and abduction. This is a ten-month pilot study subject to formal evaluation and is expected to recommend the permanent employment of Community Partnership Officers by SCD5 either unilaterally or with partner agencies.

3. The Safeguarding Children IAG has been represented on the Paladin ‘Gold’ group and remains engaged with this agenda, providing advice on many diversity aspects and issues.

D. Financial implications

1. The Paladin Team has benefited from £100,000 of Reflex funding. This grant has enabled the MPS to provide a full time Higher Analyst and a part-time Researcher as well as paying for dedicated social services and NSPCC support during the study period. SCD5 continue to provide two Detective Constables and a Detective Sergeant as dedicated posts for the Ports Safeguarding Team. These officers, together with the increased portfolio for the Detective Inspector, are having a ‘knock on’ impact on the command as it takes police away from the core teams.

2. It should be fully understood that Paladin has highlighted the need for police child protection officers and staff to absorb the new work it has been instrumental in creating. Children in need of assessment and protection arriving in the UK have previously been ‘hidden’ from the police being perceived as essentially an immigration problem and not recognised as potential child abuse.

3. To establish a fully functional Ports Safeguarding Team servicing the demand at Heathrow, Lunar House and Waterloo would require more officers and staff. At present, three full time officers attempt to provide a regular presence at the three ports and react to child protection concerns that come to their attention. There is limited resilience in these arrangements and the team will face challenges in developing a robust intelligence-led team within existing resources.

4. The Ports Safeguarding Team are currently evaluating demand and will shortly present an options paper for consideration. It is necessary to recognise that this is new business for police child abuse investigators and local authority child protection staff. There is the potential for similar impact on this field to that caused by child abuse on the internet.

E. Background papers

None

F. Contact details

Report Author: Detective Inspector Ian Angus, Child Protection Group

For more information contact:

MPA general: 020 7202 0202
Media enquiries: 020 7202 0217/18

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