Trafficked children in UK 'going missing'

Some children trafficked into the UK are going missing from local authority care, a Council of Europe report says.

It says there are indications that increasing numbers of people are being brought into the UK for the purposes of sexual exploitation and forced labour.

The council raises particular concerns over a lack of secure and suitable accommodation for trafficked children who end up in local authority care.

It calls for better trained supervisors or foster carers for them.

The Council of Europe's Greta (Group of Experts on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings) says reports suggest a "significant" number of trafficked children in local authority care go missing and some end up rejoining those who exploited them in the first place.

Its report says hundreds of people have been identified as victims of trafficking in the UK but only 56 people were convicted of human trafficking in 2009 and 29 the following year.

The common countries of origin were China, Vietnam, Romania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Albania, Nigeria, Uganda and India, the report says.

Children tended to be brought in for the purposes of sexual exploitation, domestic servitude, benefit fraud, cannabis farming and forced begging and stealing.