Fiona supports efforts to combat human trafficking

Fiona visited the Body Shop in the Queensmere Shopping Centre in Slough to launch their 'Stop Trafficking of Children and Young People' campaign with ECPAT UK. This came in the week that The Guardian newspaper reported that a Romanian couple from Slough were jailed at Reading Crown Court for two and a half years for child cruelty. The couple exploited their seven children as beggars and thieves in and around the London area.

Fiona said: "I am grateful to the police and others who tracked this ring down but it's a tragic reminder that trafficking happens on our own doorstep. I am glad that the Body Shop is mounting a campaign which will raise awareness, most prostitutes are brought into the trade as children by adult exploiters and the children trafficked across borders and between towns, to service the demand for sex or to beg, need protection."

The Body Shop is now collecting signatures in a petition which will be presented to national government in 2011. ECPAT UK is calling on the UK government to put the safety and well being of child victims at the heart of their plans.

Fiona is the Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Prostitution and the Global Sex Trade.