The Independent on Sunday (IOS) has an exclusive story today about young girls and women in the UK being forced into prostitution. These are not women who have been trafficked into the country, however, but are British born.
The information on trafficking on young people for sex within Britain is so thin that experts say the first official figures confirming the trade are the "very, very tip of the iceberg". Figures for April 2009 to 2010 show only 38 Britons registered as victims.
But unlike those women coming into the UK from overseas, these victims have family and friends who are reduced to despair by what is happening to them. The mother of one young girl from Leeds, who was forced into prostitution at the age of 13, says her pleas to police and social services fell on deaf ears. They said they couldn't do anything until the girl herself complained.
Campaigners say most victims are aged between 12 and 16, groomed by men to provide sex. Young men and women are typically targeted by one person, who wins their trust before pimping them to others and forcibly transporting them around Britain.
The case in court last month of a 14-year-old girl who disappeared from her home in Manchester after she was offered drugs and alcohol to groom her for sex is typical of the abuse experienced by these victims (and see WVoN stories here and here). Nine men were convicted of sexual crimes – though not for trafficking – and each was sentenced to jail terms ranging from eight months to seven years.
Joan Smith also has a comment piece in today's IOS about sex trafficking which, she argues, is just another name for slavery.
