Scandal of Britain's child slaves

Hundreds of West African children have been brought illegally into Britain and other European countries in a modern-day form of slavery, according to a BBC investigation.

The probe, triggered by the tragedy of Victoria Climbie, says that the practice of children being brought to Europe amid promises of a life of comfort and a good education is widespread.

The Climbie case - the subject of a farreaching-public inquiry - has been seen as a horrifying isolated case. She was taken from the Ivory Coast to London by her great-aunt, Marie Therese Kouao, in the spring of 1999. The eight-year-old was subjected to seven months of torture and died with 128 separate injuries.

The BBC Radio 4 Today programme investigation claims that hundreds of children brought to Europe by distant relatives or family friends are "put to work around the home as domestic slaves and never set foot in a classroom. Some are beaten and abused, others end up as the sexual playthings of paedophiles".

The BBC claims to have uncovered evidence that some of the people bringing West African children to Europe also try to pass off children as their own in order to claim child benefits and get easier access to council housing.

Karin Astrom, the head of Save the Children in the Ivory Coast, said organised gangs across West Africa are trafficking children, with the collusion of government officials.

She said: "Children are being brought to Europe to be exploited, either for work or sexually. It is poverty which is creating this phenomenon. Certainly it is organised, with involvement at high levels - even government in some countries. But, like all mafia or cartels, it's difficult to know."

In one case, the BBC spoke to a 13-year-old boy, Debe, who was taken to Italy by a white friend of his father, where he was used as a sex slave, beaten daily and forced to eat cat food. He finally ran away to the Ivorian Embassy in Rome and was returned home. Debe told the Today investigators: "I am a victim, I am in pain. I can't even look at myself in the mirror."

Unconfirmed reports suggest there may be 10,000 West African children living with strangers in the UK. The BBC highlights the case of a girl called Mary, brought to Britain from Benin by a stranger at the age of 10 and forced to work for 17 hours a day for 10 years.

She was regularly beaten and starved, sometimes for days on end. When she asked why she had been brought to Britain, she was told it was "business" - meaning the woman could claim child benefits.

She said: "I always feel angry about why this has happened to me. It hurts. I just pray to God to give me strength."

Investigators also discovered a trade in girls who can be bought for £5 a time at a market in Abidjan. Documents can be quickly acquired through corruption - after a few minutes outside the Ministry of the Child, Welfare and the Family, a tout approached an African producer posing as a hopeful parent - $500 and less than 12 hours was all he needed for the paperwork to be in order, and for the stranger to become, officially, his daughter.

The British Ambassador to the Ivory Coast, Francois Gordon, accepts that not all of the 200-300 visas issued annually to children are for the genuine offspring of the applicant.

He said: "We are aware of the risk of impersonation - people pretending that young people are their own children when in fact they are more distant family members or not related at all."