London - Women are being bought and sold on the streets of London for as little as £3 000 (about R43 890) and then forced to work in the sex industry, a government minister said Tuesday.
Solicitor general Mike O'Brien was speaking as he opened Europe's first dedicated centre to tackle gangs who bring unwitting young women from abroad - notably from Asia and eastern Europe - to work as prostitutes here.
"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.
O'Brien joined junior Home Office minister Vernon Coaker and women's minister Meg Munn to open The United Kingdom Human Trafficking Centre (UKHTC) in Sheffield, northern England.
The facility will be run by South Yorkshire Police using specially-trained officers, lawyers and immigration workers.
Although it will focus on all types of human trafficking, there is a particular focus on exploitation in the sex trade following a high-profile, country-wide police operation launched earlier this year.
Operation Pentameter involves all 55 police forces in England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands, as well as immigration and intelligence officials, prosecutors and charities.
Since its launch on February 21 this year, 188 women - most of them aged 18 to 25 but some as young as 14 - were rescued in raids on brothels, massage parlours and private homes. Eighty-four were confirmed as trafficking victims.
The women came from as far afield as Brazil, China, Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, India, Iran, Jamaica, Kenya, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Namibia, Poland, Rwanda, Romania, Russia, Slovakia and Thailand.
A total of 232 people have been arrested, and 134 people have since been charged, according to an Association of Chief Police Officers report in July, but they admit this is "the mere tip of the iceberg".
Some estimates put the number of women brought here and forced to work as prostitutes as high as 4 000.
The head of the centre, Detective Chief Superintendent Nick Kinsella, pledged to work with colleagues across the world to create a "virtual university" of experts to tackle the problem.
His colleague, UKHTC programme director Deputy Chief Constable Grahame Maxwell, described the opening as "another step forward" in tackling "this 21st century slavery". - Sapa-AFP