Gang networks in Europe 'forcing children to steal'

A couple in their forties were arrested by police in Barcelona last week as part of the inquiry

Dutch police say some 300 children are being exploited across Europe by gangs that force them to steal €1,000 (£770; $1,100) a day.

The inquiry began over a year ago when police at Amsterdam Central Station realised that adults were controlling young pickpockets

Four networks were uncovered operating in the Netherlands, Spain, Austria, Croatia and Bosnia, police said. Six missing children from the Netherlands were found in appalling conditions in Spain last week when a couple in their 40s were arrested.

Prosecutors say the practice is a modern type of slavery. The operation began over a year ago when investigators at Amsterdam Central Station noticed that a group of children were being used repeatedly as pickpockets under the control of adults, said a police statement (in Dutch).

Children were taken out of school to carry out shoplifting and pickpocketing, and authorities believe under-age girls were sexually abused and became pregnant. When police arrested the Eastern European couple in a raid on a flat in the Spanish city of Barcelona on 15 June, they found a baby and five other children under the age of 15.