Human trafficking

Threefold rise in child trafficking into Scotland

The trafficking of vulnerable children into Scotland has risen threefold since 2011, according to new figures.

More than half of the 105 children who were found to have been trafficked in the past five years were Vietnamese, brought in to work on cannabis farms and in the sex industry.

Seven of the children have since disappeared from care, thought to have been taken by their traffickers.

One service provider said the figures were "just the tip of the iceberg".

Under the 1989 Children Act, it is a council's legal responsibility to care for under-18s who arrive in their local authority area from abroad, placing them into foster care or "semi-independent living" situations with funding from the Home Office.