By Professor John Robertson

Man thanks to cuckooshoe for alerting me to this important report which I and, of course, BBC Scotland missed:

From Understanding Child Criminal Exploitation in Scotland: A Scoping Review, commissioned by CYCJ, Action for Scotland and the Scottish Government and published in May 2023, these dramatic facts were totally ignored by Scottish media:

When focusing on Scotland, the NCLCC has noted county lines running from the primary originating areas (i.e. West Midlands, Merseyside and London) into Scotland for which joint operations have been conducted with Police Scotland. Criminal exploitation through drug activity has also been identified as a significant threat theme in the most recent Scottish Multi-Agency Strategic Threat Assessment (SMASTA). Additionally, the SMASTA noted that the north of Scotland appears to be disproportionately impacted by county lines, with 75% of active county lines in Aberdeenshire and Moray originating from Merseyside. This primarily involves the dealing of heroin and crack cocaine. This was somewhat supported through research involving interviews with 12 young people involved in county-lines related gangs in London, with one child explaining that they would travel to Scotland, specifically Aberdeen, due to there being a demand for class A drugs

It was also noted that OCGs from England appeared to be extending their drug distribution lines to Scotland, bypassing Glasgow and the West Coast but targeting rural areas where employment levels are low, such as Peterhead and Fraserburgh.

Recognising these threats, the Scottish Government has a unique Guardianship Service to protect the young children exploited which:

supports unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and trafficked children who arrive in Scotland without parents/guardians (as per section 11 of the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015) with: intensive support through workshops, attending lawyer appointments; a mental health project and befriending service in partnership with the NHS psychological trauma service and advocates for children and young people.

Also, unique to Scotland:

If a child turns 18 years old while waiting for court proceedings and there is a delay in recognising they are a victim of CCE, they may then be treated as an adult and convicted or sentenced as such (Human Trafficking Foundation, 2022). However, in Scotland, recent guidelines from the Sentencing Council (2022) acknowledge this maturation process, and place a greater emphasis on rehabilitation for young people aged up to 25.

Reflecting BBC Scotland‘s refusal to report on English county lines gangs, this is not surprising:

Through a survey of 1000 adults, only 15% believed human trafficking was an issue in Scotland, 8% believed human trafficking was an issue in their local area and only 3% believed children were victims of human trafficking in Scotland.

Ignorance is………dangerous.

Perhaps most worrying for all of us but, in particular for BBC Scotland News editors:

Over one-third of professionals reported seeing an increase in levels of serious violence associate with CCE. This increase was believed to be the result of gangs, county lines and OCGs coming up from England and introducing new types of violence and intimidation tactics that have not been seen in Scotland previously. For example, children reported being exposed to firearms, with one child having a gun held to their head. One participant highlighted that this increase in levels of violence may also be attributed to the county lines model placing individuals in situations of conflict where they are unlikely to have to face that individual again compared to more localised conflicts.

There are 155 references to ‘Scotland’ in the full report. I’ll leave you to explore it more fully if you have the stomach for it.

Source:

https://www.cycj.org.uk/resource/understanding-child-criminal-exploitation-in-scotland-a-scoping-report/