Sex Trafficking Victims Rescued in Scotland

From the Daily Record:

Three women held as sex slaves in Scotland were bought for just £7000 - and forced to have sex with up to 20 men a day.

Human traffickers charged up to £60-a-time for sex with the victims, two Slovakians and a Lithuanian. The women have now been freed thanks to a massive police operation. They were among 17 sex slaves rescued during a series of raids across Scotland in the last few months. Last night, one senior officer said the slaves were being treated like "used cars".

"And just as cars depreciate, the value of a person can depreciate. " It's a horrible set of circumstances for people to find themselves in.

"This year is the 200th anniversary of the abolition of slavery and we are using that to draw attention to this problem. "Someone is making money from all this misery. Our job is to take appropriate action." Every police force in Scotland has been involved in the latest clampdown on human trafficking.

The recent raids took place as part of Operation Pentameter 2, a UK-wide effort to free women from the clutches of organised crime gangs who make millions from the sick trade every year. For operational reasons, police are unable to reveal details of the raids or of any arrests made. But they did confirm that cases of human trafficking are rising at a faster rate in Scotland than in the rest of the UK.

Mr Malcolm said yesterday: "People who are trafficked are coerced or abducted or maybe conned here on the promise of employment. "Usually, the first thing is their passport is taken off them and they are visited upon with violence. That violence can be sexual if people are going to be forced into prostitution."

The Glasgow sex industry alone is worth an estimated £7million a year, earned by women forced to work in saunas, in private flats and as escorts. Many are regularly sold and re-sold between organized criminals working in all of the UK's major cities.

Last year, the original Operation Pentameter resulted in 515 raids and 84 suspected victims of human trafficking being identified. A 14-year-old girl in Dumfries was the youngest person rescued.

A drop-in centre for sex industry workers in Glasgow recently launched special clinics for women who sell their bodies in saunas. They have women from more than 30 countries on their books.

Inspector Arlene Smith said: "They are now running clinics for these women three days a week and have registered women of 34 different nationalities. From Asia, China, Nigeria, Latvia - there's quite a mix."

Detective Chief Superintendent Corrigan believes the public can help as much as they did in providing tip-offs to police about cannabis farms. He said: "We'd like the public to report in if they see a couple of young women moving into a flat and notice an inordinate amount of people visiting. That gives us reason to visit." ACC Malcolm added: "In England, one man who had used the services of a girl went back to the house and actually rescued the girl and took her to police.

"We're trying to touch the consciences of these people - so they don't treat these girls like commodities.''

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