Children 'smuggled into airports for life as slaves'

Large numbers of children may be being smuggled into Britain to be used as domestic slaves, child welfare campaigners fear.

The concerns focus on unaccompanied children, mainly from Nigeria, entering Britain through airports and being collected at immigration by adults claiming to be aunts and uncles. A recent police investigation discovered that up to 30 such children had been "lost".

Until recently few checks have been made by immigration staff at Heathrow, it is reported.

The Met launched Operation Palladin Child last September and officers visited addresses given by children when they passed through immigration. Neither the Met nor the Immigration Service would release the findings officially but an investigation by the BBC revealed that the children could not be found at up to 30 of the addresses visited during a three-month period.

Up to 190 unaccompanied children pass through Heathrow every week. Campaigners say child slavery is rife in Britain. Debbie Ariyo of Africans Against Child Abuse told the BBC: "They are brought here to look after the children of African couples. They don't go to school and they are at risk from abuse."