Non-Subscriber Extract
Sex trail
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| 17 February 2005 |
By Patrick Gower
According to the Poppy Project, a Home Office scheme designed to help female victims of trafficking, eastern European women are being shunted around in 'circuits' through most of the UK's major cities.
Det Sgt Chapman, of South Yorkshire Police, says that two victims he discovered in Sheffield told him of three or four women who had been kept in similar conditions, but he was unable to trace them, having only been given their first names. He says: "For all I know, they could be safe at home or face down in a canal somewhere."
Discoveries like those of Det Sgt Chapman occur frequently in London, where it is harder for the Met's vice unit to determine the number of walk-in brothels, saunas and escort agencies that are filled with women from outside the UK. And with the expansion of the European Union, the problem is growing.
Det Insp Dick Powell and Det Sgt Ed Bird, of the unit, describe an "endless queue of women at Victoria coach station". At the same time, Det Insp Powell says the 14-officer unit is 'totally under-resourced'.
He adds: "These women can get here completely legitimately in 36 hours. There is no need for dodgy documents ... no need to be smuggled in the back of a truck. All they need is their passport and a bus ticket. God only knows how big this problem is going to get."
Det Sgt Bird says that while it is "laughably easy" to infiltrate the industry, proving trafficking is "notoriously difficult". The National Criminal Intelligence Service states that the vast majority of illegal migrants appear to be willing participants rather than victims of human trafficking, and indications are that human trafficking takes place on a much smaller scale than people smuggling.
However, the nature of human trafficking is such that it is harder to identify and therefore quantify, and the exploitation involved, and frequent use of intimidation and violence, arguably make it the more 'acute' threat.
Det Sgt Bird says the degree of exploitation is usually not as extreme as that experienced by the Lithuanian women who were rescued by Det Sgt Chapman's team. Most women they deal with come to London expecting a 'reasonable life' in the sex industry. But they soon have their travel documents seized, told they have a debt' to pay off, and may even be sold on to other operators.
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