“I can’t believe this goes on in London”;
“I’m so angry at the police, why isn’t anyone doing something to stop this”.
At Minority Matters, we hear variations of the above on a regular basis. We wouldn’t believe it either, had we not experienced it first hand.
The “it” being criminal exploitation of children and young people in the UK. A nice way of saying they become slaves of drug syndicates.
For the past six years, we have worked with children, young people and their families destroyed by criminal grooming and exploitation. As we got more involved, we became aware that things aren’t as they appear. They are worse.
We realised interlinked threats to safety were seen as isolated issues. Children going missing. More young people selling drugs on our streets or in jail. Sexual abuse. Rise in knife crimes and other street violence. County lines.
These things weren’t happening in isolation or to different groups of children and young people. They were happening to the same group. A miserable recipe of destroying young lives. All for the purpose of lining the pockets of the people sitting at the top of this criminal enterprise.
We tried using the existing safeguarding measures. When we realised they were not fit for purpose, we reached out to leaders and politicians asking them to pay attention.
We raised the alarm. Something was seriously wrong and it wouldn’t get better unless we took action. In fact, it could and would get much worse.
We were either ignored or received a polite acknowledgement from someone in another department. To put it bluntly, we were dismissed out of hand.
We spent a year working with the Huffpost highlighting the nightmare many children and young people are trapped in. The desperation of families with nowhere to turn to for help. You can read the articles here:
We had an amazing response from the general public and professionals in the arts and media. It was encouraging, but not what we hoped for. We believed putting the stories out there, in a way that couldn’t be ignored, would wake up our politicians. Boy, were we wrong!
To date, we haven’t heard from anyone in a position of power, no one wanting to make real changes. So here we are. The only way forward is to campaign the politicians and demand they take positive, informed and decisive action.
We don’t need billions spent to keep our children and young people safe. We need creative action, informed by the situation on the ground. We need the people we elect to be decisive and proactive in making our society safe for all.
This is why we are asking all London mayoral candidates to commit to our 5-point pledge. Not to agree with or support, but to commit. To say they will deliver for children and young people in London, and outline the how. We’ve made that last part easy for them:
The next mayor needs to take back our streets and send a clear message to drug lords and syndicates: You Will Not Operate In London.
We are asking Londoners to get behind us and hold our leaders accountable.
To any candidate unwilling to commit to the pledge, we have one message. London is a great city and deserves a real leader. One who does not surrender our streets to drug syndicates and leave our children and young people unprotected.
Unless you’re willing to fight for London, you are not fit to lead us.