UK targets sex-slave criminals

2007-10-03 21:23

London - Police launched a new campaign on Wednesday to tackle human traffickers who force people to come to Britain and work in the sex trade.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith dubbed the black market industry a "modern-day slave trade" and said the Pentameter 2 project aimed to increase knowledge of the extent of the crime as well as helping workers caught up in it.

But she said she could not guarantee that people who had been illegally brought to Britain to work in the sex trade would not be deported.

At any one time, there are approximately 4 000 people in Britain who have been brought here by people traffickers, according to the most recent Home Office figures from 2003.

Lithuania, Albania, Nigeria and Thailand are the top four nations where the victims come from, according to 2003 figures from the Poppy Project, which supports women trafficked into prostitution.

Up to 30 customers a day

Denise Marshall, chief executive of the Poppy Project, said it supported the new initiative, adding that women and girls who had been trafficked were often forced to have sex with between five and 30 customers per day.

She added that she feared the true number of victims of the trade was far higher than the official figures suggested.

David Davis, home affairs spokesperson for the main opposition Conservative Party, said there were "tens of thousands of victims".

"Over the last three years we've had a number of investigations, but only 30 traffickers actually convicted," he added.

"That is just the tip of the iceberg."

- AFP