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<p>Children who are victims or potential victims of trafficking and those who are
separated often face great anxiety and uncertainty about their futures, as well as
needing to navigate a number of unfamiliar processes to reach durable solutions about
their future.</p><p> </p><p>I am aware of the regional service launched by the Northern
Ireland Health and Social Care Board in early 2018 to support children in Northern
Ireland who are victims of human trafficking and children who are separated from their
families and their home countries. The Human Trafficking and Exploitation Act (NI)
2015, which was introduced to provide protection from traffickers and tackle modern
slavery and exploitation, included a duty for the Health and Social Care Board to
establish such a service and the service is delivered by Barnardo’s NI.</p><p> </p><p>The
regional Independent Guardian Service is intended to strengthen the safeguarding arrangements
to such children and specifically to assist, represent and support such children by
listening to their views and making representation to, and liaising closely with all
other agencies that fulfil key functions in the arrangements for their immediate and
future care and protection.</p><p> </p><p>This issue is wholly devolved in Northern
Ireland, and so it would not be appropriate to carry out an assessment or comparisons
of the merits of the system.</p><p> </p><p> </p>
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