BRITAIN:Twenty-five people were arrested in dawn raids yesterday as British police tried to shut down a gang which trafficked children from Romania and forced them to steal and rob on the streets of London.
Police say that since Romania joined the EU in 2007 there has been a sharp rise in children being brought to London by modern-day "Fagin's gangs" (after the character in Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist). Up to 200 Romanian children have been forced into crime in London and can generate up to £20 million a year for the gangs controlling them.
The 10 children taken into care yesterday included one less than a year old. They were all found in overcrowded conditions, with 25 people crammed into a four-bed house.