Hidden Children - separated children at risk

This report explores the experience of trafficking and abuse from the point of view of migrant young people. This report is the result of a one-year research project carried out by The Children’s Society into a little-known phenomenon. The findings and recommendations are intended for anyone who has contact with or makes decisions affecting young migrants including education workers, police, social workers, practitioners in voluntary agencies and community members.

The Hidden Children research project came about as a response to issues that emerged from The Children’s Society’s direct casework with separated children in East London. Over the past ten years, several of the young people have reported that they experienced xploitation through domestic or other forced labour as well as emotional, physical and sexual abuse and neglect after coming to the UK. These young people said that they wished that they had known that they could have got help earlier. Some of the young people had felt suicidal because they felt that this was the only escape from their situation. More than half of the young people in these initial case studies had been in education while also hidden and when they asked for support from various agencies, the frontline workers did not know how to help or refer them.
The Hidden Children research project was set up to address particular gaps in knowledge. It was found that little was known about young people who are exploited or abused in ways other than trafficking for sexual exploitation, and there was also a gap in the research about children and young people’s own perspectives on having been trafficked (Pearce et al 2009, p186).
Additionally, little was known about how to intervene with young people whose freedom is limited by their exploiters, for example, by not permitting them to attend school.