United Wild Kingdom

Jonathan Blanks | July 12, 2007

In an effort to curb human trafficking and child exploitation, the Home Office study proposes tracking all children who enter the U.K.:

Every child entering the UK should have their biometrics taken in an attempt to stop the trafficking of children for sex, domestic slavery, street crime and drug smuggling.

The plan to track children after they enter the UK comes in a Home Office-sponsored study, which admits that human trafficking is now a “real and significant threat” to the country.

There is the obligatory Drug War tie-in:

Chinese boys aged between 13 and 17 were identified as a specific group being trafficked, while Vietnamese boys and girls were also highlighted as a vulnerable group that had been particularly exploited in cannabis production.

“The cannabis factories that have been raided highlight the highly organised business of cannabis cultivation in this country,” the study says. “Houses have been transformed into highly efficient industrial cannabis production works using technical knowledge.

While modern slavery is certainly a problem that should be fought vigorously, taking detailed inventory of all children who enter is not the answer.

But if the Home Office does follow through with this, the least they could do is give the children a fighting chance at freedom: I suggest give the kids a running start before officers bring out the tranquilizer darts and tags.

The effect is the same—my plan is just more entertaining to watch.

Comments

Anonymo the Anonymous|7.12.07 @ 4:26PM|#

Wouldn't branding be quicker? And if this catches on, maybe they can start spaying and neutering to prevent adolescence and all its attendant disobedience.

|7.12.07 @ 4:31PM|#

stop the trafficking of children for sex, domestic slavery, street crime and drug smuggling.

Wait a minute. Are you telling me that child prostitution and children being forced to scrub pots and shine silver are commonplace in the UK. Actually in England? Did Charles Dickens live in vain?

|7.12.07 @ 4:34PM|#

"Every child entering the UK should have their biometrics taken in an attempt to stop the tourism."

|7.12.07 @ 4:36PM|#

What does the picture of the cow have to do with this?

|7.12.07 @ 4:37PM|#

David - the tags in the ears.

|7.12.07 @ 4:51PM|#

After this passes, let's see some leash laws! Every kid on a leash is one less kid slaving away in a cannabis factory.

Is the author's use of the word 'factory' hyperbole, are there actually assembly-line dime-bagger machines, or does 'factory' mean something more general in the King's English? Seriously, if there's a factory, I wanna tour.

|7.12.07 @ 4:58PM|#

Hyperbole in the same way that some goober mixing cold medicine, antifreeze, etc., in the garage is operating a meth "lab".

|7.12.07 @ 5:10PM|#

This is just a ramp-up to an idea -- which a bunch of Home Office guys came up with during a lonely drunken Saturday night -- of examining and tracking all the hot chicks who enter the U.K., "to make sure they aren't being lured into the country to become prostitutes against their will."

|7.12.07 @ 5:12PM|#

Trea,
I've been to a US pot factory. And I would call the work conditions "sweatshopesque". Long hours of trimming and bagging buds. Tedious and repetitive. However the work only lasted for three days. The pay was good ($100/day) but the benefits were untouchable - all the dope you could smoke, and a line of coke every hour, two lunch breaks with all the delivery you could eat, and a quarter pound of top shelf bud trimmings to take home.

|7.12.07 @ 5:19PM|#

Just out of curiosity, where might this factory be Warren?

|7.12.07 @ 5:25PM|#

Ben,
It was in Upstate New York. I was there in the early 90's. It closed/moved long ago.

Randolph Carter|7.12.07 @ 5:27PM|#

mmmmmmmmm cannabis factory - is it on monster.com? I'm looking for a new part-time job

LarryA|7.12.07 @ 5:48PM|#

I'm sorry, I simply cannot believe this story, since Everybody Knows that in the mid 1990s Britain prohibited the private ownership of firearms and eliminated the gun culture that causes this sort of crime and violence.

It says so on the label.

|7.12.07 @ 7:55PM|#

Does this apply only to children who cross a body of water to enter the UK, or does it apply as well to those who "enter" in the more metaphorical sense?

The Wine Commonsewer®|7.12.07 @ 8:33PM|#

The effect is the same-my plan is just more entertaining to watch.

Tranq darts. Hmmmmm. I think I like you Mr Blanks.

Used to use tranq darts on my boy til the neighbors complained to social services.

wsdave|7.12.07 @ 9:27PM|#

Am I missing something? The kids that the Home Office could track usually AREN'T the ones that are at risk "in an attempt to stop the trafficking of children for sex, domestic slavery, street crime and drug smuggling."

I figure that those are the ones being brought in by cargo container.

|7.12.07 @ 9:55PM|#

Notice that the article leads the reader to believe that kids of ages 0-10 are involved. Later it becomeas clear that they are talking about mostly teenagers.
What we're seeing is a culture clash. In many cultures teens are expected to contribute to the family through labour whereas the Western nanny-staters abhor the thought and make it a case to advance their own social agenda.
I'd like to know how many of these "kids" are actually sold into "slavery" rather than being sent to family or friends of the family in order to get a better chance at education and jobs. This seems to be the quite common with my Chinese friends. Has nothing to do with slavery.
Plus, I have a hard time believing that in a country as permeated by Gubmint as the UK, there is this huge underground economy that nobody has ever seen a glimpse or heard a rumour of. Sort of like the claims of the, accoeding to the US AG, $2 billion US child porn industry. That would be larger than the highly visible drug trade. All that money being laundered, all these kids being abused and nobody except the activists notices anything? Give me a break!

|7.12.07 @ 10:40PM|#

The problem is that these kids are FREELANCERS, not allowed in the Kingdom of the Unions.

|7.12.07 @ 10:45PM|#

While modern slavery is certainly a problem that should be fought vigorously, taking detailed inventory of all children who enter is not the answer.

Well, it IS the answer if you want to make slaves of ALL of them

MJN|7.12.07 @ 11:18PM|#

Sounds almost as bad as US-VISIT.

|7.12.07 @ 11:54PM|#

"While modern slavery is certainly a problem that should be fought vigorously"

No, legalize modern slavery and tax it.

|7.13.07 @ 9:32AM|#

I agree with martin. This sounds like rainbow parties gone wild.

Robert|7.13.07 @ 1:09PM|#

How is inventorying children supposed to help keep them from being used for illegal activity? Just knowing that they exist doesn't tell you what's being done with them.