Child Protection Improvement Programme

Strategy to tackle child trafficking and exploitation

August 25, 2025 by Jennifer Solymosi No Comments | Category child trafficking

Child trafficking and exploitation is a gross violation of human rights and can have devastating impacts on the victims. Scotland’s refreshed Trafficking and Exploitation Strategy 2025, which was published on World Day Against Trafficking in Persons (30 July 2025), aims to strengthen prevention, support victims, and disrupt perpetrators more effectively.

What is human trafficking and exploitation?

Human trafficking and exploitation is often hidden, complex, and deeply harmful. It affects children, women and men. These crimes involve the illegal recruitment, transportation, or control of individuals, mostly for profit, through coercion, deception, or abuse of power. Victims may be exploited for labour, sex, criminal activity, domestic servitude, or even organ harvesting. It does not have to require crossing of international borders, it can occur within a single country, city or even on the same street.

Children and young people are especially vulnerable to exploitation. Since we published the first Strategy in 2017, a lot has changed. Technology and social media have opened up new avenues for exploitation, while the growth and expansion of ‘county lines’ drug trafficking has further intensified the complexity of the criminal exploitation of children.

Why the strategy was refreshed and what’s new?

After the second review of the strategy (Oct 2022–Mar 2023), all partners agreed it needed a refresh to keep up with the changing environment around human trafficking and our evolving efforts to tackle it. So, in September 2023, the Minister for Victims and Community Safety committed the Scottish Government to carry out a full update.

The updated strategy takes a public health approach. This means focusing on prevention, early intervention, and better outcomes for adults and children affected. It’s a way of working that fits well with other Scottish Government frameworks like the Violence Prevention Framework, Equally Safe Strategy, and Vision for Justice.

This approach emphasises:

• Prevention as a central, integrated focus
• Targeted interventions based on population needs
• Strategic implementation of preventative measures
• Strengthened data and intelligence sharing

A Clear Vision and Purpose

Scotland’s revised Trafficking and Exploitation Strategy builds on the original 2017 framework, and is shaped by extensive stakeholder engagement and survivor input. Our decision to take a public health approach to this Strategy was informed by research undertaken by the Scottish Government’s Justice Analytical Services (JAS). A series of evidence reviews were published, including an overarching paper on prevention approaches, and three smaller, more focused reviews on criminal exploitation, sexual exploitation and labour exploitation.

The Strategy envisions a Scotland where human trafficking and exploitation are prevented and effectively addressed. Its purpose is to provide a clear, evidence-based framework, guided by survivor voices and data, that supports targeted anti-trafficking interventions. Central to this vision is the belief that there is no place for trafficking in Scotland.

 The following principles underpin our approach to this strategy.

What do we want to achieve?

The Strategy has four long-term outcomes.

1. Victim Identification and Support
   Early identification and coordinated support services are essential to help victims, especially children, recover and rebuild their lives.
2. Disruption and Prosecution of Perpetrators
   Swift, robust action against individuals, businesses, and organised crime groups is vital to protect children, adults and communities.
3. Improved Use of Data and Evidence
   Strengthening data collection and intelligence sharing will enhance understanding of trafficking trends and inform more effective interventions.
4. Addressing Root Causes and Risk Factors
   Tackling the conditions that make individuals and communities vulnerable to trafficking is key to long-term prevention.

What now?

 A Delivery Plan will be developed in collaboration with people with lived experience of trafficking, partners across Scotland and the UK, and will outline how the Strategy will be implemented. It will:

• define short- and medium-term outcomes while contributing to the delivery of the four long term outcomes listed above;
• identify relevant activities to be undertaken to meet the outcomes;
• outline how the principles outlined in the strategy will guide activities carried out; and,
• identify the indicators to be used to monitor these activities.

The Strategy came into effect immediately upon publication date and will be reviewed after three years as required under section 36 of the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015.

If you would like to read more about the revised Strategy, please visit Scotland’s Trafficking and Exploitation Strategy 2025 – gov.scot.

Resources

Tackling criminal exploitation – gov.scot

Criminal exploitation: practitioner guidance – gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Child sexual abuse and child sexual and criminal exploitation – Child protection – gov.scot

National guidance for child protection in Scotland 2021 – gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Serious Organised Crime Taskforce – gov.scot

National Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Strategic Group – gov.scot

Aberlour | Guardianship Scotland: National Child Trafficking Support Service

Report child trafficking and exploitation

• If you think a child or young person is in danger, contact the police on 999
• Contact your local child protection services. You can find their contact details on the website for the local authority the child lives in.

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