Never too young to be trafficked

One of the participants at the anti Human Trafficking conference sponsored by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace is Detective Inspector Kevin Hyland of London's Metropolitican Police who specialises in the fight against this brutal and heartless exploitation of human beings. A practising Catholic, he spoke to Susy Hodges about how cooperation with the Church can provide an important partnership in seeking to combat this trade in vulnerable people. "It's a good example, he says " of how we can work globally " in preventing victims from becoming the prey of traffickers.

Inspector Hyland also revealed that the victims of human trafficking are often far younger than many people imagine and talked about one recent distressing case where a girl from Romania was "earmarked for trafficking at the age of 22 months" and "was groomed" for this purpose and at the age of seven was discovered by police working in Britian as a domestic slave in appalling conditions after being transported there from her homeland.

Listen to the full interview by Susy Hodges with Detective Inspector Kevin Hyland: