Human Trafficking in [UK Street Children in [UK] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [UK] [other countries] |
Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery The United Kingdom (UK) [ Country-by-Country
Reports ] The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland [map] is a constitutional monarchy located on the British Isles,
off The United Kingdom (U.K.) is primarily a destination country
for women, children and men trafficked for the purposes of commercial sexual
exploitation and forced labor. Some victims, however, are also trafficked
within the country. The majority of victims are women trafficked internationally
to the U.K. for sexual exploitation, though children are also trafficked to
the U.K. for the same purpose. Migrant workers are trafficked to the U.K. for
forced labor in agriculture, construction, food processing, domestic
servitude, restaurants and possibly for illicit activities such as street
theft. Children, particularly from West Africa, are also trafficked to the
U.K. for forced labor in cannabis factories and Afghan minors may be
trafficked for forced manual labor. Main sources of foreign trafficking
victims found in the U.K. are Lithuania, Russia, Albania, Ukraine, Malaysia,
Thailand, the People's Republic of China, East and Central Africa, Nigeria,
and Ghana. - U.S. State Dept Trafficking in
Persons Report, June, 2007 [full country report] |
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CAUTION: The following links have been
culled from the web to illuminate the situation in the ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** Britain's
'invisible army' of African slaves Dragan Nastic, UNICEF UK's policy
and parliamentary officer, said: "The first recognised case of child
trafficking in the UK was a Nigerian girl more than 10 years ago in 1995.
Here we are in 2007 and there have been no prosecutions made in cases of
children trafficked into domestic labour from Africa. Not one." Nigeria is believed to be the main
source country on the continent, where destitute families are either paid for
their children or persuaded to give them away believing that they will
receive an education and a better life in the UK. On arrival, children as young as 10 are
kept undercover from British society and forced to work as domestic slaves or
prostitutes. Behind closed and often locked doors, they work long days for no
money, are kept from school and beaten if the work is not done. ***
ARCHIVES *** NSPCC
opens first UK advice line to help combat child trafficking - 0800 107 7057 The NSPCC today (8 October 2007)
launches the first advice and information line to protect children trafficked
to the UK for sexual exploitation, forced labour, drugs transport, benefit
fraud, and other crimes. The NSPCC
Child Trafficking Advice and Information Line (CTAIL) on 0800 107 7057 will
help people working with children, such as immigration officers, the police,
social workers, teachers, and health workers, to better identify and protect
child victims. It will also shed light on the scale of child trafficking in
the UK. “Identifying trafficked children
can be very difficult, even for a professional working in social services or
immigration. These children are incredibly vulnerable – they might be
regularly beaten, raped, denied food and basic comforts, and have no access
to healthcare or an education.
Trafficked children have often lost their trust in adults because of
the abuse they have suffered. They are afraid to ask for help for fear of
retaliation from their trafficker or being treated as criminals by the UK
authorities. They may also be confused about what has happened to them, or
may not speak any English. The NSPCC’s
new trafficking advice line will help break down these barriers. Its success
will depend on adults working with children being vigilant, calling us when
they need to know what to do, and intervening to help protect the victims of
child trafficking.” Bur of Democracy,
Human Rights & Labor - Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005 TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS – Women
were trafficked for sexual exploitation from Central and Eastern Europe
(primarily the Balkans and the former Soviet Union) and Asia, including Trafficking victims were most
often subject to debt bondage, the withholding of travel documents, false
information about law enforcement and immigration penalties, or threats of
violence against them or their families. Traffickers less frequently employed
physical and sexual violence. Organized international gangs
allegedly were responsible for most trafficking for commercial sexual
exploitation. SECTION 6
WORKER RIGHTS – [d]
There were reports that children were trafficked into the country and forced
to work as domestic servants, beggars, pickpockets, drug couriers, or in
sweatshops and restaurants. Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) - 2000 [49] In the light of the
socio-economic situation in some of the more economically disadvantaged A
barbaric trade in human misery right on our doorsteps "One of the first victims we
helped in the UK was a 15 year-old Lithuanian girl who found herself in
Sheffield where she managed to escape her trafficker and turned up at a
police station." Her case shows
how unsuspecting young victims are lured from their homes into a nightmare
world of brutality and rape. "She was phoned up by someone
and asked if she would like to sell ice cream for the summer in London and
was told she would earn about £300."
The traffickers signed a consent form and her parents, believing it
was a good opportunity, approved the trip.
"She was flown to Gatwick and sold in a coffee shop from one
trafficker to another for £3,000, her passport was taken off her and sold for
£4,000. "Later the same night,
she was taken to a flat and brutalised and raped, and from that moment on she
was forced to act as a prostitute." British
Police Crack Down on Human Trafficking Joanne says she was freed after 11
months because her health began to fail and she was no longer of use to her
trafficker. She says he let her go, but gave her devastating news. "He
said, 'I have HIV and I'm pretty sure I have infected you.' I went to a clinic
and found out I was HIV positive which leads to AIDS and I totally lost my
mind." At the back is a young Chinese
woman, the wife of the owner who was sold to him for £10,000. She works as
his slave in sweatshop conditions and is regularly beaten. It is one of these
beatings which will eventually lead to her death. "We found she was suffering from
trench foot and she had been kept in a box six feet by six feet,"
recalls Grahame Maxwell, Chief Constable of North Yorkshire Police and
programme director for the UK Human Trafficking Centre (UKHTC) in
Sheffield. "I found that very
shocking. I wondered how many times members of the public had been in for a
takeaway, even police officers, without realising what was taking place. And
it didn't happen in the middle of a bustling city. It was on the outskirts of
Rotherham. If it can happen there, it can happen anywhere." Derry
charity worker welcomes team to tackle human trafficking "The numbers are quite
significant and it is growing. This place is ripe for it at the minute
because it is very easy for people to be in the shadows. Between the last two
to four months people have been coming to us that have been abandoned - we
try to ensure that they are safe and secure. We have to identify where they
come from - a lot don't want to get into trouble. They have left their
families behind in often small villages and don't want to give too much
information about the traffickers because they are worried about what will
happen to their families." The
charity worker said once the problem is exposed they easily disappear. "That is the worrying thing - often we
don't know where they go. They are cases for concern because of the
duplication of identification, the language difficulty and the fear factor." Police
unite to tackle human trafficking Anna was promised a better life
far from her home in Albania - but then forced into having sex with up to 30
strangers each and everyday. She said: "You have to work even
if you're sick they don't care - you just have to make the money for them
because they need cars then need nice houses, nice clothes." National
police campaign to target sex trafficking The government estimates that up
to 4,000 women and girls are forced into prostitution after being trafficked
from abroad. Last year Pentameter
rescued 88 women and girls, including some as young as 14, who had been
forced into the sex industry. Crime
gangs 'expand sex slavery into shires' Immigration from Eastern Europe
has brought a supply of women deceived into thinking good jobs await them.
Instead they are sold to vice gangs for £500 and forced into prostitution. An
investigation by The Times has found that one rural force has identified 80
brothels this year. What is less expected is that the
brothel where she was kept as a sex slave is not in London, Birmingham or one
of the metropolitan centres. This brothel was in the cathedral city of
Peterborough and is one of 80 that have been raided by Cambridgeshire police
this year. Senior officers have been
staggered by the discovery of off-street brothels – “sex prisons” in the
words of one detective – in towns such as Wisbech, March, Huntingdon and
Cambridge. They believe there are many more operating across the county. Cambridgeshire is not alone. Around the
country police forces are realising that human trafficking, a hugely
profitable business run by organised criminal gangs, is no longer a big city
problem. Port
is prime target for child traffickers Criminal gangs are targeting
vulnerable ports, such as Poole, to traffic children they can exploit for
labour and illegal activity into the UK.
Children's rights organisation Ecpat (End Child Prostitution and
Trafficking) says trafficking into the country is on the increase. And ports like Poole have become soft
targets due to their relative isolation and perceived lack of awareness of
the problem. Trafficked
children 'should remain' Children trafficked into Britain
to work as sex slaves or in other types of forced labour should be allowed to
stay in the country to recover from their ordeals, a report says. "It should meet victim's
needs and should not be granted in exchange for co-operation with the
law-enforcement authorities. "The
length of the permit should be compatible with the best interests of the
child." Children
trafficked from Asia to UK to work in cannabis factories Hundreds of young children
illegally trafficked into the UK are the new victims of Britain's booming
cannabis trade. Figures obtained by The Independent on Sunday reveal that, as
organised criminals push cannabis production to record levels, at least one
child a week is being found by police raiding cannabis factories. Experts warn that children as young as 13
are been smuggled from south-east Asia to work as "slaves" for
gangs in dangerous conditions, being kept captive in towns and suburbs across
the UK. They believe there has been a five-fold increase in the trade in the
past 12 months. Gangs can reap up to £300,000
profit a year from a three-bedroom house converted into a cannabis factory.
Children are brought in by gangs to tend the plants. Many have been found
unable to escape through doors or windows sealed and wired to give off
dangerous electric shocks. Others fear reprisals against relatives if they
try to escape. Police are currently raiding up to three houses a day where
children are being discovered Police
chiefs told to declare war on organised people trafficking — More than 10,000 women from
Eastern Europe, Africa and the Far East have been sold to gangs at auction
for an average of £2,500 and forced into sex slavery in British brothels; — Groups of Romanian children are
being smuggled into the country and forced to earn their keep as pickpockets
in Central London; — Unknown numbers of men and
women, many from Asia, are enslaved as bonded labour to pay off debts of up to
£10,000 to the criminal syndicates that smuggled them into Britain; Ms
Spence, who has produced a detailed report on the impact of demo-graphic
change on policing in her county, said that the Government was out of touch
with what was happening. Sex workers
helping with human trafficking Sex workers have given police
vital information to help with a crackdown on the human trafficking trade in
Cambridgeshire. The established sex
workers have told police working on Operation Radium that they want to help
young girls being held prisoners as sex slaves by criminal gangs working in
the county. Britain's
'invisible army' of African slaves Dragan Nastic, UNICEF UK's policy
and parliamentary officer, said: "The first recognised case of child
trafficking in the UK was a Nigerian girl more than 10 years ago in 1995.
Here we are in 2007 and there have been no prosecutions made in cases of
children trafficked into domestic labour from Africa. Not one." Nigeria is believed to be the main
source country on the continent, where destitute families are either paid for
their children or persuaded to give them away believing that they will
receive an education and a better life in the UK. On arrival, children as young as 10 are
kept undercover from British society and forced to work as domestic slaves or
prostitutes. Behind closed and often locked doors, they work long days for no
money, are kept from school and beaten if the work is not done. 'Evil and
disgusting' trade in sex slaves Sickened police officers visited
36 suspected city brothels in a matter of weeks in search of human sex
slaves. Their campaign – Operation
Radium – was launched in May in a bid to identify 100 of the establishments
in Cambridgeshire and find out if they were selling the services of kidnapped
foreign women. In the space of just
six months, a total of seven women – five in Peterborough – who had been
horrifically abused, have been discovered.
Many had been battered and bruised. Some had been forced to
"service" up to 60 clients a day. Some had been gang raped. Human
trafficking: Case studies Victim A managed to escape from a
horrific cycle of abuse which involved being beaten and raped up to 25 times
a day after she climbed through the window of a Peterborough brothel while
another girl was asleep. The 30 year
old Czech mother- of-two who was forced into prostitution following her
arrival in the UK in August 2006. She
had been held at locations in Gloucester, London and Peterborough, and was
persuaded to travel to Britain by a man who promised a lucrative job as a
waitress and a better lifestyle.
Victim A entered the UK via a regional airport at which time she was
taken to a Gloucester brothel, where her ID documents were taken away. She was subjected to beatings and was
forced to work as a prostitute, but did not receive any money for this work. Two
arrested for human trafficking A Hungarian man and his girlfriend
have been arrested after a teenage girl they forced to work as a prostitute
was rescued from a Bolton house. The
terrified victim was lured from Hungary with the promise of a week-long
holiday earlier this month. But she was kept against her will and taken to a
house on several occasions where she was forced to have sex with men. A police source said: "This
young woman was duped in to coming to the country and has been kept against
her will. F1
fuels human trafficking, activists say Last year, Canada was singled out
in an international study for failing to meet its obligations for the protection
of victims of human trafficking. The 40-page study, titled Falling Short of the Mark: An
International Study on the Treatment of Human Trafficking Victims,
concluded that out of the countries evaluated - Australia, Canada, Germany,
Italy, Norway, Sweden, Britain and the United States - only Canada and Britain failed to meet their
obligations to protect victims under the United Nations Trafficking Protocol
and international best practices. Falling Short
of the Mark: An International Study on the Treatment of Human Trafficking
Victims [PDF] UNITED KINGDOM - The United Kingdom has failed
to meet the international standards set in the Trafficking Protocol related to
the protection of victims of human trafficking, and is currently reviewing
its policy in this area in light of its recent ratification of the
Trafficking Protocol. It is also considering becoming a signatory to the
European Trafficking Convention. Trafficking victims are dealt with on a
case-by-case basis and routinely deported. Only minimal support has been
provided to victims in recent years, and only general laws exist for their
protection during investigations. RESIDENCE - The United Kingdom presently
deals with all human trafficking victims on a case-by-case basis. Those who
claim to be trafficked may seek to remain in the U.K., but there is no
automatic right or clear-cut procedure to obtain short term residence if a
victim assists in a prosecution or otherwise. Authorities
'failing to stop child trafficking' A lack of police and immigration
officers is allowing the trafficking of children into Northern Ireland, a top
human rights academic said last night.
Dr Tomoya Obokata, assistant director of the Human Rights Centre at
Queen's University in Belfast, said it was impossible to say how many
youngsters were involved because the true extent was masked by "private
fostering". Dr Obokata said
people-trafficking into the Province was "becoming a big problem"
with recently published reports indicating that this involved children. "But this can be hard to prove because
children arrive into the UK to be privately fostered," he said. "The law can be lapse with regards to
this and it is hard to detect as these children are quite hidden. "How do you prove they are being
trafficked when they are met at airports by so-called aunts and uncles. "There is also a lack of resources on
the part of PSNI and immigration." Rape
revealed human trafficking SOLD SEVERAL TIMES - Mr Steer said that during her
time in the UK the woman, who suffers from epilepsy, was sold several times
and operated in the Manchester area, before she was finally trafficked to the
restaurant. When she arrived in the UK, the
woman was accompanied by Nikol Franekova, 29, and was taken to an address in
Bayswater Row, Leeds, where she lived with Ladislav Kaco Snr, 39. JS stayed there several weeks before she
was allegedly sold to David Horvath, 29, and Ivetta Grundzova, 32. Police
set up human trafficking unit Police launched a special unit to
target the growing menace of human trafficking in the capital yesterday,
vowing to smash foreign criminal gangs that sell their victims into the sex
trade or use them as forced labour.
Many young women smuggled illegally into the UK end up working as
prostitutes while other migrants are forced to work for little or no
pay. Some victims, who arrive
penniless and unable to speak English, have been found to be as young as 14. Britain's
shame over 21st century slavery Britain is a key staging point in a
flourishing international slave trade that has seen up to 14,000 women and
children brought here for the sex industry and vast numbers enslaved in
forced- labour rackets. A report by the York-based Joseph
Rowntree Foundation today reveals modern-day slavery as a high-profit
international trade and paints a damning picture of the way the Government
has dealt with the issue, which has escalated over the past decade. Sex traffic:
Danielle was 15 when she was sold into slavery in the UK Danielle was excited at the
prospect of leaving her home in Lithuania for a summer job in Britain at the
age of 15. The work had been arranged through a friend who was unable to join
Danielle until later and so put her in touch with a man who would take her to
London. Danielle suspected nothing until
the stranger took her passport once they passed through customs and left her
with two Albanians and a Lithuanian woman. It turned out that she had been
sold for £3,500. The "holiday job" was working in a brothel in
Birmingham. Amnesty International,
Anti-Slavery International, London-based feminist charity Eaves and Unicef UK
have partnered with Panos Pictures to produce a thought-provoking exhibition
of photographs highlighting the lives and landscapes of people trafficked
into the UK. Here is a selection of photographs
from the exhibition and the stories behind the images. Sex
trade moves its modern-day slaves into the suburbs Graeme Maxwell, Yorkshire police's
deputy chief constable and programme director for the UK Human Trafficking
Centre, said: "The traffickers and pimps are taking the girls to rented
flats and houses in areas all over the UK where there is a transient
population and neighbours don't really notice when people move in and
out." Latest
anti-human trafficking tactics shared at seminar In Britain, a raid to break up a
human trafficking ring results in a number of victims freed, but none of the
law enforcement officers speaks the victims' language. However, agents pull out their secret
weapon — a sheet with pictures of various international flags and an
iPod. When a victim identifies his
country of origin, officers quickly locate the corresponding MP3 file and the
individual gets to hear in his native tongue a full explanation of his rights
as a victim of human trafficking. Tyneside
centre of slave-girls scam Among its findings, under-age
forced marriages of Somali girls were confined to Newcastle but the report also
states regional findings are not conclusive and are only based on what
authorities in the area have uncovered.
Children forced into domestic service or
to work in cannabis factories was also uncovered in other areas. Trafficking
victims to get housing and medical aid Victims of human trafficking in
Britain are to be given guaranteed state help with housing and medical
advice, as well as a minimum one month reprieve from deportation, the home
secretary, John Reid, has decided. He is understood to have written to
cabinet colleagues this week seeking the green light to sign the European
convention on human trafficking 2005, a move which will delight human rights
campaigners. As many as 4,000 victims of
trafficking - mainly young women - were involved in enforced prostitution in
Britain in 2003, according to Home Office estimates. Tories
call for action on human trafficking The Conservatives argue that
removal centres, like the one in Harmondsworth, West Drayton, West London,
which saw rioting in November, is the wrong place to house victims, many of
whom have been forced into prostitution under the hands of criminal gangs. The party cited the Poppy Project
as better practice. Under that scheme victims of trafficking for prostitution
are placed in a 25-bedroom safe house and given a 28-day period of
reflection. If they decide to co-operate with a prosecution, they can stay
for up to 12 weeks before being deported. Bishop
of Liverpool Calls on Government to Ratify Human Trafficking Convention The Bishop of Liverpool has called
on the government to ratify the 2005 Council of Europe Convention on Action
against Trafficking in Human Beings, which includes measures to protect and
support victims of trafficking. And Europe and the UK have not
escaped the scourge of slave labour and human trafficking. In Tuesday’s Guardian, Madeleine Bunting
reported that there an estimated half a million irregular migrants forced
into cheap labour in Britain, servicing the UK economy. MPs
urge immediate action on human trafficking "We should recognise women
trafficked for prostitution through deception, fear and violence as victims
of this serious crime, and not immigration offenders or criminals themselves.
"Of even greater concern is
the lack of knowledge we have of the extent of the trafficking of young
children for domestic servitude or, even worse, labour in the drugs
trade." Europe's
first human trafficking centre opens "Some victims do not even
realise they are being trafficked until they arrive and then find the job
they were being promised as a waitress turns out to be enforced servitude as
a prostitute, including being beaten and raped. "Today in London I am told
that trafficked women can be bought and sold for as little as £3 000. They
often live in terror, believing that if they try to escape their pimps will
kill them," he said. Human
trafficking problems in Scotland McCormack, the head of the
organized immigration crime team, said a new trend is emerging, with children
from Slovakia and other countries being sold in Scotland. The situation is chilling - police
and council officials openly admit they are not yet in a position to be sure
of the scale of the problem in Scotland - but they have seen enough to know
that foreign girls as young as 12 are being prostituted north of the Border.
They warn that Glasgow could soon have a human trafficking problem to rival
that of London and Birmingham. The first signs of Scotland's
trafficking problem emerged earlier this year when a 14-year-old African girl
in Dumfries was one of six young females rescued from brothels as part of
Operation Pentameter, a nationwide crackdown. The African teenager is thought
to have been thrown out of the brothel and left homeless. What sickens those trying to
tackle the problem most is the age of the girls involved. Teenagers under the
age of 16 are, police are now certain, being held captive in private flats,
and their pimps are seeking punters from the local population. This is
something which sickens those trying to tackle the problem. Human
trafficking: the dark side of the EU dream The expansion of the European
Union in Central and Eastern Europe has brought an unexpected surge in the
number of Eastern EU citizens sold into slavery in the West. "There was
a definite jump (after EU expansion). Lithuanians are now second only to
Thais in the number of victims of exploitation in Britain," said Audra
Sipaviciene, head of the International Organization for Migration's Vilnius
office. The majority of sex workers in
Britain are now migrant women, although nobody knows how many have been
trafficked. The Home Office recently described the British sex industry as
"saturated". Traffickers often use genuine EU passports - which
circulate for sale around Europe - and cheap airlines to fly women to
destinations including the UK. The majority of women are flown into London
then dispersed across the country, but sometimes they are flown directly to
other cities, such as Glasgow. Charities
criticise government indifference to child trafficking Trafficked children are
transported from all over Africa, Asia and eastern Europe by ruthless and
highly organised gangs. Many of them are taken with the consent of their
parents, who pay up to £3,000, believing the traffickers’ claims that their
children are going to a better life and will be able to send money home. The victims are often smuggled
into Britain or brought in on false passports by adults posing as relatives.
Most are put to work immediately, and many live in appalling conditions—often
subjected to physical and sexual abuse. Children from China, Vietnam and
Malaysia have been found in sweatshops, restaurants and suburban cannabis
factories. African children are often put into domestic servitude, working
long hours for little or no reward. Eastern European children tend to
be used to beg and steal. Many more children are expected to be used to these
ends next year when Romania and Bulgaria are expected to join the European
Union. She was a teenage orphan living on
the streets of Nairobi when a man approached her and promised her work in the
United Kingdom. He told her she would be working as a house girl. True to his word, her
"savior" brought her into the U.K. -- but instead of placing her
with a family the man took her to a brothel, where she was systematically
raped, beaten, and forced to work as a prostitute. Three months later, when the
16-year-old Kenyan girl became pregnant, she was forced to continue sleeping
with a succession of men until she was almost due to give birth. The heavily
pregnant teenager was then removed from the brothel, driven out of the town
where she had been held, and dumped many miles away on the streets of
Sheffield. Hundreds of Child Slaves Trafficked into UK Hundreds of children as young as
six years old are being trafficked into Britain to work in sweat shops and
cannabis factories, leading charities claim. Gangs of organised criminals are
transporting children from Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe to work in
appalling conditions as slaves in Britain. The parents of the children 'sell'
their children to the traffickers, sometimes for sums up to £3000, believing
that they are going to a better life. They are brought in on fake passports
and put to work immediately. 'Slaves
auctioned' by traffickers COFFEE SHOP AUCTION - A CPS conference on Monday is to
discuss airport crime, and its director in west London, Nazir Afzal, said:
"Criminal activity at the UK's airports is on the increase. "We are now seeing 'slave
auctions' being held in public places at airports where brothel keepers are
bidding for women destined for prostitution." Appeal
over NI human trafficking There has been a call for more
resources to help stamp out people trafficking in Northern Ireland. The call was made by Women's Aid, which
gave evidence to the Joint Committee on Human Rights in Westminster on
Monday. We were told by the girls how they
were duped into applying for college places or jobs, then stripped of their
passports and passed from gang to gang and city to city. Many had no idea where they were
staying. Chief among the slave traders are
Lithuanian, Russian and the Albanian crime gangs so vicious that even
hardened Scottish criminals give them a wide berth. Brutal gangsters imprison the
terrified girls in brothels, rape them repeatedly to break their spirits, and
force them to have sex with up to 60 men each per day. Around 7000 women in
Scotland work as escorts, or sell their bodies in massage parlours or saunas.
And senior cops believe that 85 per cent of them - approximately 6000 - are
sex slaves trafficked into Britain from eastern Europe and elsewhere. Skelly said: "Trafficked
girls do not work on the street because there is a lack of control there for
the gangs. "Instead, the girls
are kept as virtual prisoners inside a house or a sauna, where they are much
easier to keep an eye on. They work very long hours and are hardly allowed
out at all." Many of the girls
are virgins when they arrive and the crooks gangrape them to "break them
in". Rape is also used as a
punishment for girls who disobey. Young
women being trafficked into capital to work as sex slaves In the other case, a Lithuanian
woman was lured to Britain in November 2004 with the promise of a job as a
dishwasher. But she was brought to Edinburgh and forced to have sex with
several men for cash. Her story came to light after she
was moved to Birmingham, escaped her pimps and contacted police for help. Trafficked
women tricked into prostitution Eastern European women have spoken
of how they were duped into a life of prostitution on the streets of South
Wales. One young woman told the Week In
Week Out team how she came to the UK on the promise of a job in a pub in a
bid to help her family escape poverty. But after being trafficked across
Europe she ended up in Britain, bought for £4,500, then beaten, raped and
forced into prostitution. Consultation
on UK’s First National Action Plan to Tackle Human Trafficking The Government’s commitment to
tackle the appalling modern day slave trade of human trafficking moved up a
gear today as Home Office Minister Paul Goggins launched a public
consultation on a national action plan which will build upon existing tough
anti-trafficking measures. The consultation paper outlines
the work the Government has done so far to tackle human trafficking, from
legislation and law enforcement to support for victims, and proposes an
action plan for areas of future work. This plan will take a comprehensive
end-to-end approach covering the different elements of the anti-trafficking
strategy. Traffickers
face action to curb sex trade The Government will this week
announce a crackdown on the sex trafficking gangs which bring thousands of
young women to Britain and force them into prostitution. The "action plan"
follows the Sunday Telegraph's undercover investigations into the cruel and
fast-growing trade condemned as "21st century slavery". Canada an
“International Embarrassment” on Sex Trafficking Canada and the United Kingdom have
been singled out in an international study for failing to meet their
obligations for the protection of victims of human trafficking, while other
developed countries received praise for their efforts. Of the countries evaluated:
Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the
United States, only Canada and the UK failed to meet their obligations to
protect victims under the United Nations Trafficking Protocol and
international best practices. 'I
was raped and beaten. I lost the will to run away' Working at two flats and a
"massage parlor" six days a week, she charges £150-£400, depending
on the time and services supplied - but has to hand over almost all the money
to her Russian pimp. She is one of
thousands of vulnerable young girls who have been trafficked to Man denies trafficking
prostitute The jury was told on Thursday that
the three Albanian men bought the woman in Albanian
Sex Slave Gang Jailed A ruthless gang of Albanian
brothers who trafficked women into Sex-trafficked
victims to be offered refuge It is thought between 2000 and
6000 women and girls are trafficked into the Sex-trade
children flown to region Global crime syndicates have begun
to use Immigrants
tell of forced prostitution and slavery as trafficking gang is jailed Detectives believe the gang
brought at least 600 illegal immigrants to the Sex
trade gang 'beggared belief' Sentencing, Judge Barber said:
"Their behavior absolutely beggared belief, they had taken two young
Lithuanian girls and transported them to Safety
Fears For Women Rescued In UK Brothel Raid There is serious concern over the
treatment of the 19 women rescued from a Young Women Forced
into Prostitution in the UK A special task force of female
officers led 19 women out of the Cuddles massage parlor in CPS
continues fight against sex trade traffickers The latest Crown Prosecution
Service case against human traffickers ended today with the sentencing of
Viktoras Larcenko, the last member of a gang convicted for smuggling girls
from Man in sex slave case 'kind with a purpose' The woman, who worked as a teacher
and gym instructor in Boys from Africa are being
murdered as human sacrifices in What s New section: The People Traffickers [PDF] [page 5 and continued on pages 8
& 9] Lithuanian authorities believe native gangs
are recruiting and organizing the trafficking of women to the UK. Once
victims arrive on British soil they are usually sold on to other gangs and,
in particular Albanians. BRITAIN BECOMES AN EASY OPTION FOR
TRADE IN MISERY -
HUMAN trafficking gangs are exploiting the expansion of the European Union,
and targeting Britain as a prime market for young women forced into
prostitution. International criminals have earmarked Britain as an easy
option, with a booming sex trade and where the highest prices are paid in
towns and cities in every region, including Yorkshire. Police criticized
for leaving pimp to rape girl A sadistic pimp who raped a
teenage girl up to 30 times and forced her into prostitution was jailed for
12 years today. The 17-year-old,
kidnapped from home in broad daylight, was made to submit to Agrol Xhabri's
every whim during a two-month ordeal of pain and degradation, Freedom
for Thai sex slave women Police who raided the brothel,
which was less than a mile from the town centre, uncovered information about
a sophisticated prostitution gang that illegally brings girls from Asia into
the Government
officials in sex trafficking ring arrested The arrests are only a small part
of the scandal, according to sources in the Montenegrin capital, Podgorica.
It is an open secret in the Balkans that people-trafficking rings run through
Montenegro to Bosnia and Kosovo, with profits from the dirty trade reaching
millions of euros. The sex-slave routes lead to Italy
and Britain, where at least 1,400 women, mainly from eastern Europe, are
tricked into prostitution each year. The trade is highly lucrative for the
men who "own" them; in London, women can bring in about £100,000 a
year for their pimps. Hundreds
of children 'vanishing' Between July and September 2001,
300 had disappeared, and police fear thousands may go missing annually. Child welfare experts say the figures hint
at the scale of child trafficking, sometimes for labor or benefit fraud. A previous BBC investigation found some
African children were being held by their parents' creditors, so they could
claim extra benefits. Slavery
fears for 'lost' children Neither the Metropolitan Police or
the Immigration Service would officially release the findings but BBC Radio
Five Live understands the children could not be found at up to 30 of the
addresses visited during that three month period. Police discovered that in some cases the
same address had been given by successive children who could not be traced. African
trafficking ring linked to UK One father in Bafoussam said he
cries every day for his missing 14-year-old daughter. He had persuaded her to work as a
babysitter for £10 a month after ill-health forced him to give up his own job
as a teacher. Far More Lithuanians Sold Into Prostitution In Britain
Since EU Membership1 The number of young Lithuanian
women sold for sex in Britain has increased from "single cases to dozens
every month" since the Baltic state joined the European Union last year,
the head of Lithuania's Interpol bureau said. "Nightclub
Girls Helped Me Escape Captivity" The youngster, from Tackle
Child Exploitation, Ministers Urged Based on reports from social
services, police and immigration, it is known at least 250 children were trafficked
into the Migrants
Subject To Forced Labor In The UK This report reveals that migrants
who can legally work in this country are also shockingly badly exploited
because they are unable to enforce their legal rights because of the power
their employer has over them. The report,
'Forced Labor and Migration to the UK' reveals abuse, including very long
hours, pay below the minimum wage and dangerous working conditions in a range
of sectors including construction, hospitality, agriculture, food processing,
horticulture, contract cleaning, nursing and care homes. Employers and agencies who break the law
are rarely prosecuted or even inspected by the authorities. Migrant
women forced into cheap sex trade Sex
Slaves Vice Baron Sentenced women kept by Ismailej, an illegal
immigrant, were forced to work seven days a week, for up to 13 hours a day,
and give up their passports to satisfy his "love of money". Brian O'Neill, prosecuting, told the court
that Ismailej was the ringleader and that he did not regard the women as
anything other than chattels. The Third Way's
Dirtiest Secret A year ago this Saturday, 23
Chinese cockle pickers died at Morecambe Bay. A major new report uncovers the
scale of forced labor in Britain and makes recommendations on curbing this
new form of slavery. It is not just the sex industry
that traffics and exploits migrants, but our key sectors - food and
agriculture, contract cleaning, hotels and catering, construction and care
homes. Moreover, the state uses migrants' forced labour in many cases - when
it outsources local authority care to the private sector, when it uses
agencies to recruit NHS nurses who end up living on £5 a week, when it uses
contract cleaners provided by the cheapest bidder for its offices, or when
subcontracted migrant labour is used on private finance initiative
construction. The UK has Europe's most
flexible labour force; it lives in fear and squalor, is paid a pittance and
is bussed round the country to work in the shadows of the night shift. Damning Report On Migrants Delayed The publication of a
ground-breaking report on forced labour and the exploitation of migrant
workers in Britain has been delayed after attempts by the government to hold
it back until after the general election. It catalogues coercive techniques
used by private employers to force migrants to work for low wages and in poor
conditions, from physical and sexual violence to debt bondage and blackmail. Freedom
House Country Report - Political Rights: 1 Civil Liberties: 1 Status: Free Human Rights Overview by Human Rights Watch – Defending Human Rights Worldwide Illegal
migrant jailed for sex-slave ring An illegal immigrant who made a
fortune from trafficking East European sex slaves was jailed for 11 years
yesterday. Vullnet Ismailaj, 27, an
Albanian, smuggled scores of young Lithuanian women into Britain with the
promise that they would earn good money.
Once they arrived, however, they were put straight to work, forced to
surrender their passports and work up to 13 hours a day, 6 or 7 days a week. Slavery 'worse
than ever' - Hague There is more slavery now than
there was at the height of the slave trade, former Conservative leader
William Hague has warned. Mr Hague
said criminal gangs were blighting the UK with the problem, with women
pressed into prostitution. Sex
slaves trafficker is jailed for 18 years Sex slaves trafficker is jailed
for 18 years An illegal immigrant has been jailed for 18 years for
trafficking women from Eastern Europe and forcing them to work as prostitutes
in a Sheffield massage parlour. The
case was the first of its kind to reach trial in the UK since new laws were
introduced last year to halt the burgeoning trade in humans. Albanian Taulant
Merdanaj, aged 28, lured the Lithuanian women aged 21 and 24, to Britain with
false promises of employment. When they arrived at Heathrow airport they were
met and driven to Sheffield's Park Hill flats to become sex slaves. Merdanaj
regularly raped one of the women, aged 21, and threatened to kill her if she
contacted police. Both women were stripped of their passports and
identification. They were frequently beaten and not allowed out unless
accompanied by Merdanaj and his co-accused Elidon Bregu, a 19-year-old
Kosovan. Men
jailed for selling teenager Three illegal immigrants have been
jailed for a total of 40 years for selling a teenage girl as a sex
slave. The 16-year-old, from
Lithuania, was re-sold seven times, repeatedly raped and forced to work as a
prostitute in Sheffield and the Midlands.
Shaban Maka, 24, Ilir Barjami, 25, both from Sheffield, and Xhevahir
Pisha, 21, from Coventry, were found guilty of trafficking for sexual
exploitation. Children
groomed for sex trafficking Children in Wales are being enslaved
into a sordid life of sexual exploitation and prostitution, experts warned
today. Adults are grooming and
trafficking vulnerable children as young as 12 from Welsh care homes to work
in massage parlours throughout South Wales.
The shocking trade is being fuelled by the internet, putting adults
intent on fulfilling their depraved sexual desires and fantasies in physical
contact with these exploited young children. Groundbreaking
sentence increase for human trafficker Roger Coe-Salazar, District Crown
Prosecutor for CPS Wood Green Trials Unit, said: "I did not feel that
the overall sentence of ten years adequately reflected the enormous human
misery he, and people like him, inflict on highly vulnerable young women.
Accordingly, we referred the matter to the Attorney General as an 'unduly
lenient sentence' in the hope that the Court of Appeal would impose a
sentence that established a sentencing yard stick for this despicable crime.
We will continue with our work to seize the profits gained by Plakici through
the exploitation of women." Cameroon has decided to tackle sex
tourism, which the authorities say is threatening to undermine the country's
campaign against the spread of HIV/Aids. TOURIST INFLUX - Last month the BBC discovered
an international child-trafficking ring based in Cameroon with links to
Britain. Most of the children were
traced to a northwest Cameroonian town of Bafoussam where Aids-free girls
were sold as brides by a tribal chief only later to find themselves working
in brothels in the UK. Leading
uk charities call on government to sign up to new anti-trafficking convention Home Office research in 2000,
estimated that up to 1,420 women were trafficked into the UK for sexual
exploitation (1). Trafficked women and girls, from countries including
Moldova, Romania, Albania, Thailand and Nigeria have been forced to work as
prostitutes in every London borough (2). According to ECPAT UK research in
2004, social services in 32 out of 33 London Boroughs are concerned about
trafficked children within their care (3). South
Africa regional centre for human trafficking Malawian women are targeted by
trafficking groups because they do not require a visa to enter the United
Kingdom. Initial recruitment takes place through Malawian businesswomen, who
are linked to the smuggling syndicates. Young women are lured by promises of
job opportunities in Europe. Upon arrival, as the IOM
discovered in the Netherlands, the women are sold to brothel owners for
$10,000, and told they must work as prostitutes to pay off their debts.
"The initiation process involves a ritual used to threaten the
women," Martens said. They are asked for underwear, hair or nail
clippings and threatened with death by magic if they do not cooperate. The
IOM discovered that some brothels even brand or tattoo the women. Raids
net 13 suspected of human trafficking They might be told they are coming
here to be a student, but they end up in bonded employment working in a
kitchen or as a fast food chef and paid minimal wages so they can't discharge
their debt. CHILD SEX TOURISM - | |
