UK: Children Smuggled in For Life of Crime
BRITAIN: An international gang is smuggling children as young as 5 into Britain and exploiting them in crimes ranging from pickpocketing to prostitution. The children are brought in by women couriers, who pose as their relatives and then hand them over to gangmasters.
The younger children are put to work begging on the streets and as pickpockets, and shuttle back and forth between groups of adults making multiple fraudulent child benefit claims. Teenage girls, some as young as 14, have been forced into prostitution and suffer violent abuse in brothels.
The gang’s activities came to light in May this year with the arrest at Stansted airport of Anna Puzova, a Czech woman, who was trying to enter Britain posing as the guardian of three Romanian children. Inquiries revealed that she had flown alone from Luton airport to Valencia 24 hours earlier.
Puzova, who was pregnant with her ninth child at the time of her arrest, had come to police attention two months earlier after flying into Luton from Barcelona with two children. Further investigations revealed a pattern of frequent travel between British airports and destinations in Spain and Italy.
As a national of a European Union member state, Puzova could travel in and out of Britain free. She always left on her own but returned with children. In police interviews she admitted bringing into Britain 13 Romanian children, aged between 5 and 15, between January and May. The three children who were with her at Stansted are now in the care of social services and are said to be in good health.
READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT TimesOnline.co.uk
The younger children are put to work begging on the streets and as pickpockets, and shuttle back and forth between groups of adults making multiple fraudulent child benefit claims. Teenage girls, some as young as 14, have been forced into prostitution and suffer violent abuse in brothels.
The gang’s activities came to light in May this year with the arrest at Stansted airport of Anna Puzova, a Czech woman, who was trying to enter Britain posing as the guardian of three Romanian children. Inquiries revealed that she had flown alone from Luton airport to Valencia 24 hours earlier.
Puzova, who was pregnant with her ninth child at the time of her arrest, had come to police attention two months earlier after flying into Luton from Barcelona with two children. Further investigations revealed a pattern of frequent travel between British airports and destinations in Spain and Italy.
As a national of a European Union member state, Puzova could travel in and out of Britain free. She always left on her own but returned with children. In police interviews she admitted bringing into Britain 13 Romanian children, aged between 5 and 15, between January and May. The three children who were with her at Stansted are now in the care of social services and are said to be in good health.
READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT TimesOnline.co.uk
posted by Sarah G. at 10:14 AM
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