UK 'will not protect sex slaves'
Updated on 13 May 2005
Channel Four news has learned that the government will not sign a piece of European legislation that guarantees the rights of victims. Sarah Smith reports.
Many girls who come to the UK are from eastern Europe.
Underneath the neon lights - behind closed doors - 80% of the women working here as prostitutes are from abroad.
Punters think they are cheaper and more co-operative - but no one knows how many of them are really sex slaves.
Smuggled into Britain - beaten, abused and repeatedly raped. It happens to thousands of women every year and it's getting worse all the time.
One called Sonia, from the Ukraine, who spoke to Channel Four News said she was forced to see over 20 men every day
"I used to work seven days a week, sometimes 16 to 19 hours a day. This is horrible, I never got used to it. I was beaten, sometimes by clients, I was raped all the time.
"They said your father knows about it - the police are going to put you in prison for three years because you're illegal. They can't prove who I am. for doing prostitution, I can be punished as well - they told me these things."
It is thought 120,000 women are trafficked from east to west. Many girls are brought from eastern Europe. They are terrified of their captors and also scared of authorities.
If they do manage to get to the police - they currently have no rights in Britain.
That is why the EU has drawn up a convention offering some protection - for the first time - to the victims of sex trafficking.
The convention promises assistance to victims that should include;
- appropriate and secure accommodation
- access to emergency medical treatment
- a recovery and reflection period where they can decide if they want to cooperate with the authorities
- a renewable resident permit allowing them to stay for a period in country if they chose to - or to help with any criminal proceedings
Three men were the first to be convicted under tough new British trafficking laws earlier this year - their 15-year-old victim - was held - and raped - for weeks in these flats before she escaped from this Sheffield nightclub as her pimp tried to sell her on for the eighth time.
Sheffield police have the only dedicated team dealing with sex trafficking - who are sure the European Convention would not hinder them. Channel 4 News filmed this appauling transaction - a woman being sold into degredation and humilation in Bucharest two years ago.
Many of the girls forced to come to Britain are from eastern Europe. Their captors can get higher prices here so they bring more and more girls into this country.
Girls who - if they can escape - currently have no rights at all in the UK - and won't be given any by a government that dreads any move that could be seen to help illegal immigrants.
Women who do escape have no protection now and almost nowhere to go - just one hostel in London has 25 beds - only available to women who promise to help police immediately.
