Sex slaves sold at British airports

[Dicemoney]

Slave auctions" of women sold into prostitution are being carried out on the concourses of British airports, it has been revealed.

The Crown Prosecution Service said people traffickers were selling sex workers as soon as they arrived on British soil from countries including eastern European states.

The shocking activity is one of a number of "airport crimes" coming into focus at a CPS conference on Monday.

CPS director in west London, Nazir Afzal, said: "Criminal activity at the UK's airports is on the increase.


Heathrow Airport
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"We are now seeing 'slave auctions' being held in public places at airports where brothel keepers are bidding for women destined for prostitution."

A CPS spokesman said one specific example of slave auction had taken place outside a coffee shop in the arrivals hall at Gatwick in south London.

Others were thought to have been staged at Heathrow, Stansted and other airports across the UK, he added.

As part of a current crackdown on forced prostitution, police are urging men who visit brothels to contact them in confidence if they suspect women working there have been forced into prostitution.

Gloucestershire chief constable Tim Brain, who is heading Operation Pentameter, said trafficking was a global problem with hundreds of foreign women in Britain living in modern day slavery.

Many have been abused, gang raped, imprisoned in tiny rooms and made to have sex with up to 40 men a day, he said. A Home Office report five years ago estimated the number of victims at 1,400, but Dr Brain said the current figure could be double that.