Human Trafficking (Romania/Bulgaria)

Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Foreign and Commonwealth Office – in the House of Commons at 2:30 pm on 24 June 2008.

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Photo of Jim Murphy Jim Murphy Minister of State (Europe) 2:30, 24 June 2008

The hon. Gentleman raises entirely reasonable points and I hope that he is reassured that our embassies in both Bulgaria and Romania are working very hard on these issues. That is not to say that we cannot continue to look for additional initiatives and energies to expend. He rightly draws attention to the trafficking of children in particular, and it may help the House if I say that intelligence reports have identified a network of ethnic Roma criminals involved in the trafficking of Romanian Roma children, particularly to the UK. Police forces in the UK have identified more than 200 children being exploited in London and beyond. We are grateful for the co-operation that we have with the Governments of Bulgaria and Romania, but there is more that we can do together.