CEOP & CTAIL latest child trafficking figures

To co-incide with anti-slavery day this week CEOP & CTAIL released joint figures on child trafficking for Jan > Sep 2011.  They have dealt with 202 referrals in this period.  67 cases were African children, 29 of which were Nigerian girls trafficked for sexual exploitation.  67 cases were Asian, the majority - 48 - being Vietnamese boys used primarily in cannabis cultivation.  There were just 4 Chinese cases; representing a significant decrease.  50 referrals were for Eastern European children; 10 Bulgarian, 23 Romanian and 12 Slovakian - all were being exploited in benefit fraud and petty crime / begging and most were Roma in origin.  These figures for the first nine months of 2011 are shocking enough but really they just represent a snapshot of the real story and the tip of the iceberg when it comes to measuring child trafficking in the UK.  Kent Council revealed this week that they dealt with 107 suspected cases of child trafficking in the five months Apr>Aug 2011.  This is just one County in England.  They estimate that their annual rate of referrals will be 256 this year - up from 238 last year.  Clearly many cases of child trafficking don't get through to the UKHTC, CEOP or CTAIL.  Even if Kent is a special case because of Dover if just one County in the UK is recording more cases than that received by the UKHTC & CTAIL combined what is the real number of children being trafficked to the UK annually!?