The ECPAT UK Festive Fundraiser was part of the Big Give Christmas Challenge and is now closed. From 2-9 December all donations were DOUBLED! We are very grateful to everyone who took part. We are celebrating over 30 years as a charity campaigning against child trafficking and standing with and for child victims. Your support is vital. Read more
Support our latest fundraising campaign and give child victims of trafficking a chance to heal, rest, and rediscover hope. Child victims face unimaginable trauma and many, separation from their families. At ECPAT UK, we offer opportunities to reclaim childhood through our transformative four day residential retreats at the ASHA Centre in the Forest of Dean. Read more
ECPAT UK has joined 19 other organisations in continuing the call for an independent inquiry into the treatment of unaccompanied children following the publication of outstanding reports including the reinspection of Home Office hotels, by His Majesty's Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration Read more
Launch event of our latest report, ‘Prevention and identification of children and young adults experiencing, or at risk of, modern slavery in the UK', with ECPAT UK and Rights Lab on 26 February 2024. Read more
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A new report from ECPAT UK and Missing People reveals significant issues with child victims of trafficking and unaccompanied children going missing from care. Read more
This report highlights how overlaps and gaps in terminology, and how they have created confusion and definitional instabilitythat hinders effective identification and intervention. These inconsistencies impact frontline practice, from safeguarding to policing and prosecution, resulting in missed opportunities to protect children from harm. Read more
Creating Stable Futures: Human Trafficking, Participation and Outcomes for Children is a series of briefings for the Home Office, Ministry of Justice, Department for Education, Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills, Scottish Government, NI Executive, Welsh Government and the Association of Directors of Children's Services, setting out how the UK can secure stable, positive outcomes for child victims of trafficking. Drawing on research and the lived experience of child Read more
A new report from ECPAT UK and the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner reveals the UK is failing to protect trafficked children, with systemic barriers preventing them from receiving the care and justice they deserve. Despite a 138% rise in child trafficking cases over five years and British children accounting for 78% of referrals to the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) in 2023, critical legal and policy gaps persist. Read more
New report by University of College London (UCL) and ECPAT UK aimed to investigate the risks of trafficking and exploitation in Home Office child hotels among unaccompanied children seeking asylum in the UK. Researchers interviewed young people themselves as well as professionals such as social workers, policy stakeholders, academics, lawyers, law enforcement, support workers, and NGO staff. Read more
Ensuring the safety and welfare of children is a fundamental duty of local authorities in England and Wales. In recent years, unaccompanied children arriving in the UK, traumatised, having faced abuse or mistreatment in their country of origin or during their journey to the UK, were placed in Home Office hotels outside of the care of children’s services. This briefing reviews the Legal judgements and remaining challenges regarding the care of unaccompanied children in the UK. Read more
New research report reveals the alarming reality of child modern slavery in the UK and calls for urgent action to protect children and young people. Read more
We are sharing the enclosed briefing, concisely setting out how the Bill undermines the rule of law, and urge Members of Parliament to oppose this Bill at Second Reading. Read more
Learn about our new #CareForEveryChild project offering support to children who have spent time in UK Home Office hotels outside of the care that they were entitled to and at risk. Read more
ECPAT UK's team has more than 30 years' experience working on issues of child trafficking, child protection, child sexual exploitation, unaccompanied children, modern slavery and more. Read more
The Refugee and Migrant Children’s Consortium, a coalition of over 60 organisations (including ECPAT UK), is appalled by the continued use of hotels by the Home Office to accommodate unaccompanied children arriving in the UK and has continued to demand that it is stopped and that children are looked after by local authorities as all children should and according to the law. This briefing explains why. Read more
Thank you to everyone who joined us for this in-person annual festive gathering to celebrate the power and importance of love as social action. It was a fabulous evening of inspirational speakers, music, singing and storytelling with performances from internationally renowned composer and performer Saied Silbak and actor and writer Safia Lamrani. All in aid of our work and part of our Big Give Christmas Challenge Read more
This interim report summarises the main findings from a participatory research study based on the voices of young people who have experience of modern slavery, aiming to understand what positive outcomes for these young people would look like. The research was led by the Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice at Sheffield Hallam University, the University of Bedfordshire’s Institute of Applied Social Research, in partnership with ECPAT UK. Read more
New data obtained via a Freedom of Information (FOI) request shows that 45 unaccompanied children in the UK went missing in between June 2021 and March 2022 after the Home Secretary unlawfully placed them in Home Office-led hotel accommodation. Read more
The government’s new draft Slavery and Human Trafficking (Definition of Victim) Regulations narrow the definition of a victim of trafficking and modern slavery, reducing the chances that victims will be identified. They were introduced without consulting anti-trafficking organisations and they could have far-reaching and damaging consequences for victims of trafficking and modern slavery. This new joint briefing presents our concerns about the regulations and recommendations to improve them. Read more
The Refugee and Migrant Children’s Consortium, a coalition of over 60 organisations (including ECPAT UK), has produced this briefing outlining how the government's plan to remove people seeking asylum in the UK to Rwanda could impact children, and how to protect age-disputed young people from relocation under the scheme. Read more
'When Harm Remains: an update report on trafficked and unaccompanied children going missing from care in the UK' follows up on ECPAT UK’s and Missing People’s first study, 'Heading Back to Harm' (which discovered that an alarmingly high number of children go missing from care with many never being found), and our second study, 'Still in Harm’s Way', which confirmed the findings that trafficked and unaccompanied children are amongst those at greatest risk of going missing in the UK. Read more
Part 5 of the Bill seeks to reform modern slavery legislation, and will impact severely on children who are at risk and vulnerable to exploitation. This joint briefing provides detail on the contents of and need for Lords Amendment 27, which seeks to exempt child victims from the most damaging provisions in this part of the Bill and to ensure that all decisions are made in their best interests. Read more
Part 5 of the Nationality and Borders Bill seeks to reform modern slavery legislation, and will impact severely on children who are at risk and vulnerable to exploitation. This briefing looks at Amendment 27, which seeks to exempt child victims from the most damaging provisions in this part of the Bill and to ensure that all decisions are made in their best interests. Read more