13 July 2007
All foreign children arriving in Britain will have to give biometric data in Home Office plans to stop human trafficking.
The plans to track children entering the country are in response to a Home Office-sponsored study that showed human trafficking to be a “real and significant threat.”
Director of the International Care Network Andrew Muir said a lot of parents send children abroad thinking they can easily earn money to help the family in their native country.
He added: "Many children were sent to the UK with the promise of a better life or of freedom."
The Home Office welcomed the report as a "starting point to help police and law enforcement organisations such as Serious Organised Crime Agency and us to better understand the phenomenon of child trafficking and plan our response."
But Rob Starbuck an expert in homeland security said the potential for other criminal activity and fraud is still there: "It’s easy to create an identity.
"If someone arrives here without papers, they could say they are Bill Smith from Barbados and that’s who they become. People who are determined will find a way to beat the system."
