Hundreds of children across Greater Manchester have been referred to experts during the pandemic over fears they are being exploited as victims of trafficking or modern slavery.
In total, 363 children in the Greater Manchester Police force area were referred into the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) between January 2020 to June 2021.
They were referred for a variety of reasons - including criminal, sexual and labour exploitation. It’s not known exactly how many were referred over fears they were being groomed by so-called ‘county lines’ drugs gangs.
But government statistics show that nationally, referrals over county lines almost doubled (up by 49%) during that period, rising from 1,049 to 1,481.