Police free London child slaves

[bijou]

Police today freed "slave" children who are smuggled into Britain by traffickers and are forced to steal and beg on the streets of London.

Hundreds of police launched simultaneous pre-dawn raids on a string of houses, each of which held up to 10 children, to seize the traffickers whose trade is worth £1billion per year

More than 20 people were arrested as officers freed the children, who had been sold to Romanian peoplesmuggling gangs and forced into a life of crime.

In one of the raids, police freed six children held in two adjoining threebedroomhouses.

Three forces co-operating with detectives from Romania were involved in the massive raids on these Fagin-style gangs.

Officers wearing protective uniform and supported by police dogs raided the homes located in a series of streets in a run-down area of Slough.

At one terraced house in Slough, riot squad officers used a sledgehammer to burst through the door.

Shouting: "Police, Police, Police!" they raced into the house and arrested at least one suspect.

Similar raids were being carried out in similar houses in several streets throughout Slough. Officers found a number of children, large sums of money and credit cards.

Today's was the first in a series of operations which have been launched against gangs which traffic children and commit crimes worth £1 billion a year. This is the first time police have revealed the full extent of a Romanian crime wave sweeping Britain.

...

link

[Flame]

Wow....sounds like a Dickens novel!

[bijou]

Wow....sounds like a Dickens novel!

Rumania has yet to get over the damage the Ceaucescus did to society there.  This is really grim news.

[Flame]

Wow....sounds like a Dickens novel!

Rumania has yet to get over the damage the Ceaucescus did to society there.  This is really grim news.

I didn't intend to downplay the horribleness (is that even a word?) of the situation.  I can't even imagine what life was like for those poor kids.  It just struck me that it sounded Dickeness.

[bijou]

Wow....sounds like a Dickens novel!

Rumania has yet to get over the damage the Ceaucescus did to society there.  This is really grim news.

I didn't intend to downplay the horribleness (is that even a word?) of the situation.  I can't even imagine what life was like for those poor kids.  It just struck me that it sounded Dickeness.

I didn't mean you to think I was criticising, I agree with you. I suppose in a way that Rumania has been so stunted in terms of societal development that it may as well be the nineteenth century there.