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Romanian Care Workers’ Layoffs Increased Child Slave Traffic Into UK – Paper

Romanian child-slaves are trafficked into the United Kingdom because almost 1,500 social care workers with traffic prevention training have been replaced with untrained amateurs in Romanian crisis centers, says the online edition of the Sunday Express.
Romanian Care Workers’ Layoffs Increased Child Slave Traffic Into UK - Paper
30 mai 2010, 14:38, English

According to the British paper, criminals are taking advantage of the situation by trafficking children into the UK and forcing them to beg and steal.

Data issued by the Metropolitan Police says 168 children aged seven to 15 have been found guilty of 100 crimes each, on average, with a total number of 16,800 crimes committed. Each child may earn approximately EUR117,000 per year from shoplifting, pickpocketing and begging in the West End. According to Scotland Yard officers, most of the money is sent to a Rroma village called Tandarei.

The paper says that, prior to Romania’s European Union accession in 2007, over 80 crisis centers were opened and social workers received training on how to care for trafficked children. However, after Romania became a EU member, many of these centers no longer received funding and were closed down. Austrian care worker Norbert Cepiek, who helped set up many such centers, told the British paper that trained staff members were replaced with cleaning staff „who are often in league with the gangs”.