Campaign against sex trafficking launched

Updated 18.33 Wed Oct 03 2007
Keywords: women, sex, Trafficking

A campaign against criminals who force trafficked women into the sex trade is being launched.

All 55 police forces in the UK and Ireland will take part in the project, named Pentameter 2 after a successful operation which took place last year.

Pentameter's initial four-month campaign led to more than 200 arrests and rescued children as young as 14 who had been forced into sex slavery

Pentameter's initial four-month campaign led to more than 200 arrests and rescued children as young as 14 who had been forced into sex slavery.

More than 80 women and girls were rescued when officers executed warrants in 515 brothels, massage parlours, private homes and other premises during the first project.

Around half of those came from Eastern Europe, the rest originated from the South-East Asia, Africa and South America.

A permanent unit, the UK Human Trafficking Centre, was set up in the wake of the first Pentameter operation, bringing together police, prosecutors and officers from the Serious Organised Crime Agency.

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