Young African girls are being brought into Britain and deliberately impregnated so they become eligible for public housing

Ben Davies:

Debbie Aruyo of Africans Unite Against Child Abuse (Afruca) said later some of the children were aged 12 to 16.

The victims were often sent alone into the UK, and placed in council care before falling prey to abuse, she said.

She suggested some of the girls ended up in prostitution while the flats were rented out in a "money making scam".

The Home Office said the government was "committed to tackling the appalling modern slave trade of human trafficking".

A spokesman stressed it was looking at responses to a recent public consultation about building up "existing tough" measures.

Ms Aruyo was one of several witnesses giving evidence to the Commons home affairs select committee's probe into immigration control, specifically about the issue of private fostering.

In written evidence submitted before the hearing, her organisation reported: "We have reports of cases involving Ugandan girls who have been trafficked purposely for council housing.

"They are brought in unaccompanied so they can go into local authority care, they are then impregnated to enable them to become eligible for council flats. The men then disappear and return once the housing problem is solved.

"It is believed by concerned members of the community that a sizeable proportion of the teenage pregnancy cases in London are as a result of this specific development in child trafficking."

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