Thread by @stand_for_all

One last big push for the @Love146UK
#HeartofSafety campaign. I know times are hard, but if you can donate please, please do. Even a small amount can have a huge impact. 1/ act.love146.org.uk/heartofsafety

There's a lot going on in the world, we all know that. There's a lot for people to focus on and worry about. I get it, I really get it, but that doesn't mean that trafficked children are any less vulnerable or in need of support.

It isn't just the big stuff, and by God there is enough big stuff. Right now for example we are seeing children who have been separated from their families stuck in hotels and effectively locked out of support.

We are seeing the Home Office assessing children as young as 14 as being 23 or more. We are seeing young people suffering mental health issues because every day they read in the press what the next horrendous thing the government plans for migrants is.

All of this is on top of the trauma they have already faced from being trafficked. They need support. They need care. They need someone to stand by them and stand up for them. When I said it isn't always the "big things" I meant it. Sometimes even just a cup of coffee helps.

It's that sense of normality in a world which can be seen as becoming increasingly hostile towards them, and it is getting worse. Government policies right now are already making trafficking worse.

It's not just the government which uses the threat of Rwanda to scare people. Traffickers are using it to threaten kids with potential deportation if they try and come forward, and thanks to incorrect age assessments that threat isn't too far fetched.

Cuts to local authorities have meant that many just don't have the specialist services to support children who have been trafficked, something the government is exploiting by setting up a National Age Assessment Board under the Home Office.

Immigration enforcement is being prioritised over child protection. Only this week the "once in a generation" #MacAlisterReview came out and it just skipped over refugee children as if they were irrelevant. It's a two tier system of child protection.

Are we really so jaded that anyone could possibly think it matters where a child comes from for whether they deserve to be provided with support and protection? Of course it shouldn't matter. Every child needs protection and they just aren't getting it from the state.

So, like I said earlier, I know times are unbelievably hard, but if you can donate please do, or at least share. It will mean @Love146UK's social and support workers can work with more young people, and that we can advocate for them when no-one else will.
act.love146.org.uk/heartofsafety