Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that unaccompanied child refugees do not fall victim to human trafficking.

The Government takes child trafficking extremely seriously and is determined to continue to take action to combat it. The Government will publish a safeguarding strategy for unaccompanied asylum seeking children by 1 May 2017. This will bring together a number of strands of ongoing work to develop a more holistic and comprehensive approach to safeguarding unaccompanied asylum seeking and refugee children.

In addition, on 16 February 2017 the Home Secretary announced a range of measures to protect children including unaccompanied asylum seeking children, from the risk of trafficking. These measures included the launch of the Child Trafficking Protection Fund which will provide nearly £2.2m for projects protecting vulnerable children in the UK and overseas who are at risk of trafficking. In addition, the Government made clear its intention to roll out Independent Child Trafficking Advocates (ICTAs) in Wales, Hampshire and Greater Manchester ahead of full national rollout. ICTAs will provide specialist support and act in the best interests of trafficked children.