Protecting Children's Rights: Civil Law, Child Trafficking, and Guardianship in the UK

In this discussion we will discuss about civil law and below are the summaries point:-  Introduction: The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child protects children's rights, including protection from child trafficking. Discussion: Child trafficking is a concerning issue in the UK, with labor and sexual exploitation being the most common forms. Efforts have been made by the government, including appointing guardians for victim children. Guardianship: Article 23 of the EU Trafficking Directive requires appointing guardians for trafficked children, ensuring their best interests are protected and independent decision-making is prioritized. However, different approaches exist within the UK administration.

Running Head: CIVIL LAW 0
Social Work
Student’s Name
7/27/2018

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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Discussion........................................................................................................................................2
Guardianship 3
The National Referral Mechanism and support for children 4
Immigration 5
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6
References........................................................................................................................................7

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Introduction
Many of the agreements, treaties, and conventions have been developed to protect the right and
interest of children. United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is one of such step
taken in the history of children right, which recognized a total 54 articles (Childlineindia.Org.In,
2019). These articles provided different rights in the favor of children. The right selected for this
discussion here is to get protection from child trafficking. The right is mentioned under Article
35 of the subjective convention (Ec.europa.eu, 2019). UK government considered this topic
significant always and taken some important efforts to provide a safeguard to children from
trafficking. In the presented report discussion will be made on the stated right. In addition to this,
the policies, laws and other efforts made to ensure the chosen right will be discussed. At last, the
discussion will be concluded with an analysis of the efficiency of these policies and laws.
Discussion
Before moving the discussion towards laws and policies, first, it is necessary to understand that
what child trafficking stands for. This is to state that according to the United Nations’ Palermo
Protocol child trafficking is “recruitment, transfer, harboring, transportation, or receipt” of a
child for exploitation. At present, the number of victims of child trafficking in the UK is not
clear. According to one of the report of UNICEF, at least 10 children every week becomes victim
of trafficking in UK (Unicef.org.uk, 2019). In order to review the most common type of
exploitation, this is to mention that labor exploitation and sexual exploitation are the most
common type. It is clear from the UK annual report on modern slavery that the UK government
is committed towards the reduction of child trafficking. To fight with the issue of child

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trafficking, the UK government has developed and adopted many strategies and mechanism that
are discussed as below:-
Guardianship
In order to protect the best interest of the victim children of trafficking, article 23 of the EU
Trafficking Directive requires appointing a guardian for them (Vermeulen and Desmet, 2017).
According to this article, the appointed guardians must carry the legal capacity to instruct the
advocates and solicitors on behalf of victim child. In addition to this, the guardians are required
to be independent that are eligible to take the impartial decision. Nevertheless, in the UK, each
administration is adopting a different approach in relation to provide guardianship to the victim
children, which creates confusion. In October 2017, the government of UK restated that the same
is committed to initiating Independent Child Trafficking Advocate (ICTA) scheme in England as
well as in Wales (Basw.co.uk, 2019a).
The scheme has many positive as well as negative impacts. If to discuss the positive ones this is
to mention that, this policy of government provides legal as well as moral support to the victim
of child trafficking. The requirement to appoint guardian enhances when it comes to separated
migrant children. Most of these children are forced to live in the UK because of transportation
resulting from human trafficking. In such a situation, these children need an independent
guardian to protect their rights in a legal manner. This policy proves a positive and much needed
support for the victims of child trafficking. Moving the focus towards the negative impacts of
this policy, this is to say that the same brings a position of inequality. The country has a disjoint
approach regarding guardianship. The (ICTA) scheme is yet to be implemented in England and
Wales. Further, the scheme covers to only those children who are identified as the victim of child

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trafficking can get the assistance of advocates and therefore other children who are actually
victim but are not identified fails to take advantage under the scheme.
The National Referral Mechanism and support for children
The National Referral Mechanism (NRM) is also one of the significant policies developed by the
UK government to prevent the issue of child trafficking (Greene and Alys, 2016). This is a two-
stage model. It means in the first process, reasonable grounds are required to make about the
slavery of a victim. The period for this first stage is five days. The second stage is known as the
‘conclusive grounds’. The period of the second stage is 45 days (Pearce, Hynes and Bovarnick,
2013). The lead objective of this policy is to identify the victims of human tracking and to ensure
that the same get an appropriate remedy (Ecpat.org.uk, 2019). The mechanism has developed to
stop trafficking of all humans and in this manner prevents child trafficking too.
If to talk about the positive impacts of the mechanism first, this is to mention that the mechanism
is a significant step in the field of child trafficking. As the scheme consist 2-stage procedure, one
can be sure about the identity of the victims. It also helps Modern Slavery and Human
Trafficking Unit (MSHTU) by providing the data of victims. Under this law, all the children are
entitled to get the protection and safeguard irrespective of their immigration status. Further, the
procedure is also easy as the consent of the child is not required for referral; however, the
procedure needs to be informed. Apart from the positive notes of this scheme, loopholes are also
there. Firstly, the mechanism does not provide clear and additional benefits to children. After the
identification of victims, a clear set of rights is missing that the children seem to be entitled.
Further, not similar to the adult victims there is no separate funding for the specialist care of
trafficked children (Basw.co.uk, 2019b). In addition to this as per the report of Home Office and
Department for Education, it has found that there are very limited specialist provisions are there

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in relation to the migrant children. ECPAT UK is also worried about the provisions of NRM and
believes that there must be a new approach in order to provide quick support to children in each
individual case. This mechanism has more negatives in comparison to positives and in such a
manner it seems to be a failure to protect the rights of children in against of trafficking.
Immigration
The lead objective of’ Dubs Amendment’ was to bring the unaccompanied child refugees to the
UK from Greece, Italy, and France to provide the protection. Because of poor child protection
measures, there is a high chance of child trafficking. As per the parliamentary inquiry made in
the year 2017, chaotic handling of above-mentioned cases enhances the risk of child trafficking.
Sandhurst Treaty, which is signed in January month of 2018, seems to be a good step to improve
the situation (France24.com, 2019). As a result of this treaty, the process shall be sped up to
twenty-five days by which children apply for family reunification. To prevent the long delay
cases which children often face around Europe, the immediate implementation of expedited
reunion is required to be taken.
Immigration seems to be a good policy to reduce the risk of child trafficking. Immigration of
children from the areas where a high risk of child trafficking is involved is a good idea to stop
the negative practices. Nevertheless to say that the same must happen in an effective manner.
The strategy of UK government to create a hostile environment increases the issue of irregular
immigration. This issue further proves problematic for non-UK child victims of trafficking. This
policy has developed the mistrust regarding authorities among the victims as the same prevent
them from getting the protection they are entitled to. In such a manner, UK government is
required to ensure that legal and safe routes are there for unaccompanied children to enter into
the UK. After reviewing the positive as well as negative impacts side of this policy, this would

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not be wrongful to state that the laws and policies secure the right of children in against of child
trafficking.
Conclusion
In the above-mentioned discussion, the focus has been made on various steps taken by the UK
Government to stop the issue of child trafficking. The issue selected here is one of the major
problems in the presented era. In addition to the discussion of the policies, positive and negative
of the same have also been stated. After reviewing all the major laws and policies, their positives
and negatives, this is to state that the policies need to be updated. By developing these policies
and laws, the government has shown how much concerned the same is regarding this issue.
Guardianship and immigration are two significant policies that can prove very effective in the
near future. Whereas on the other side, clarification is much required when it comes to The
National Referral Mechanism and support for children. In a conclusive way, this is to mention
that yes, the selected right is supported by laws and policies. Nevertheless, the government of
UK needs to have a look at such policies again and to remove the loopholes out of the same in
order to get results that are more positive.

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References
Basw.co.uk. (2019a) Child trafficking in the UK 2018: A snapshot. [online] Available from:
https://www.basw.co.uk/system/files/resources/child%20trafficking%20uk%202018.pdf
[Accessed on 05/02/19]
Basw.co.uk. (2019b) Child trafficking in the UK 2018: A snapshot. [online] Available from:
https://www.basw.co.uk/system/files/resources/child%20trafficking%20uk%202018.pdf
[Accessed on 05/02/19]
Childlineindia.Org.In. (2019) United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. [online]
Available from: http://childlineindia.org.in/United-Nations-Convention-on-the-Rights-of-the-
Child.htm [Accessed on 05/02/19]
Ec.europa.eu. (2019) Convention on the Rights of the Child. https://ec.europa.eu/anti-
trafficking/sites/antitrafficking/files/un_convention_on_the_rights_of_the_child_1.pdf [Accessed
on 05/02/19]
Ecpat.org.uk. (2019) National Referral Mechanism. [online] Available from:
https://www.ecpat.org.uk/national-referral-mechanism [Accessed on 05/02/19]
France24.com. (2019) 'Sandhurst Treaty': Britain and France agree new deal on border security.
[online] Available from: https://www.france24.com/en/20180118-france-uk-migrants-calais-
sandhurst-treaty-britain-france-agree-new-deal-border-security [Accessed on 05/02/19]
Greene, K.S. and Alys, L. (2016) Missing Persons: A handbook of research. Oxon: Routledge.

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Pearce, J., J., Hynes, P., and Bovarnick, S. (2013) Trafficked Young People: Breaking the Wall of
Silence. Oxon: Routledge.
Unicef.org.uk. (2019) Protecting children from trafficking through guardianship. [online]
Available from:
https://downloads.unicef.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/UNICEFukPolicyPaper_-
Guardianship.pdf?_ga=2.232001055.1823032956.1549112841-1511005998.1549112841
[Accessed on 05/02/19]
Vermeulen, G. and Desmet, E. (2017) Essential Texts on European and International Asylum
and Migration Law And Policy. Portland:Maklu.