Help Sitemap Home Skip Navigation Contact Us Disability Statement


Fury as Met's human trafficking unit to close after funds run out

Click on thumbnail to view image
Click on thumbnail to view image
Click on thumbnail to view image
Click on thumbnail to view image
Click on thumbnail to view image

Published Date: 11 November 2008
By Jack Doyle
A SPECIALIST police human trafficking unit will close next year due to a lack of money, Scotland Yard said yesterday.
Home Office funding for the Metropolitan Police's Human Trafficking Team will end in April. The unit – the UK's only specialist operational anti-trafficking team – has secured a string of convictions, including those last week of a gang of brothel ow
ners and sex-traffickers.

Eleven men were given sentences of up to 14 years for luring a 16-year-old Slovakian girl into sex slavery. After the case, the Home Office said combating human trafficking was a "key government priority".

The unit was given a fanfare launch in March last year and no mention was made of any time limit to funding.

A spokesman for the Met said: "The Met's Human Trafficking Team was launched in March 2007 as a result of being fully funded by money from the Home Office Reflex project.

"Although this money to keep this team in its current format will no longer be available from April 2009, our commitment remains to tackling those involved in these highly-illegal trades."

News of the impending closure drew criticism from charities. Christine Beddoe, director of End Child Prostitution, Pornography and Trafficking UK (Ecpat UK) said: "Human trafficking requires a specialist operational response and we can't understand why this decision has been made. This team is so important from a UK policing perspective because London is a gateway to the country.

"The government has said they are committed to tackling and without a specialist team we are putting at risk women and children who are the victims of trafficking."

A Home Office spokesman said: "Combating human trafficking is a key government priority. Our aim is to make the UK a hostile environment for trafficking and to protect victims from this abhorrent crime.

"We have provided £30 million to the forces since 2003 to help tackle organised immigration crime and human trafficking. We have made it clear that trafficking should be core police business and a high priority, and the Home Office is continuing to support forces' efforts, notably through funding the UK Human Trafficking Centre with £1.7 million this year."





Page 1 of 1

  • Last Updated: 11 November 2008 1:06 AM
  • Source: The Scotsman
  • Location: Edinburgh
 
1

Guga II,

Rockall 11/11/2008 05:39:12
More lies from Maggie Broon and the New Labour Sleaze and Corruption Party.
2

Anthony,

Glasgow 11/11/2008 20:36:02
Hmmm, this story kind of smacks of the corporate policing syndrome which has sadly begun to creep into policing in this country. It seems to me, that this has come from the Mets massive public relations department...hey I have an idea how the funding could be raised for the trafficking unit... Seriously though, politicians need to get a grip of this problem. Police should not be getting involved in politics in this way.
3

Simon Icke,

England 26/10/2009 17:11:51
Sadly too many men still think a woman is no more than a sex object to be used and discarded for men's pleasure as portrayed in soulless porn films. The woman has to try and keep smiling as she is physically and sexually abused. Sadly many men think this is normal sex and try to treat their wives/ partners /girlfriends in a similar manner.
But I think the main reason male politicians and the leading authorities (again mostly male led) are probably because they have an attitude that the women deserve who have sex for money deserve what they get, and they are just 'dirty slags' (sorry to use that term) but this is the kind of talk about prostitutes you hear in bars and clubs, so there is little sympathy from many 'macho' men. To change their preconceptions would need a new education with Panorama type investigations exposing the seedy, sleazy, brutal reality of the life of a young prostitute in Britain today. I would imagine it is anything but glamorous; more brutal and disgustingly sickening.
On a recent TV documentary on trafficking one young girl was held captive for up to ten hours a day in a room with no windows, just a double mattress on the floor and a toilet and a shower, her pimp forced her to have sex with up to twenty men a day. In her words 'they could do whatever they liked with her behind the closed doors', the pimp held her passport as she was powerless to escape. But no the men in power don't want to hear such stories. They prefer their fantasy world of Belle de Jour. And enjoy their mutual titillation in men's company. It seems UK feminism has done nothing to change the majority of men's attitudes towards prostitution; in fact their double standard approach might have made matters worse for prostitutes, in supporting the sex workers, they are seen to condone all prostitution in the UK in all its brutal and depraved forms.
Perhaps the main reason there is no will amongst male politicians to make changes to protect women coerced or forced into prosti
4

Simon Icke,

England 26/10/2009 17:13:13
Continued from above:
Perhaps the main reason there is no will amongst male politicians to make changes to protect women coerced or forced into prostitution; whether they are of foreign origin or not, is there is too much money at stake in this multi- billion pound sex industry (including its spin-offs of pornography, illegal drugs and protection rackets) with the major newspaper groups making huge incomes from prostitution adverts; that go under the name of escorts, massage parlours, saunas and the like.
If the will was there, the main supply could be stopped in a matter of days, but unfortunately the political will isn't there, as there are too many men who have a vested interest in the continuing success of this sordid industry; a few for sexual reasons but the majority for financial reasons. Who has the guts in the UK today to lay the axe at the foot of the tree of this industry rather than a little tinkering and pretending to care? No one! Just as we are witnessing on many academic forums/ political blogs, there seems to be a prevailing attitude of let’s just shout ridicule at the people stupid enough to defend young women involved in prostitution. These people will soon go away; then we can all get back to the exploitation of young women in the UK and making lots of money.
5

Simon Icke,

England 27/10/2009 22:46:52
And for those still in denial about Prostitution & Human Trafficking in the UK

Here are three more sites for you to check out:

End Violence Against Women

http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=263495766&blogId=506317273#

The Independent 25-2-07
5000 childsex slaves in UK
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/5000-child-sex-slaves-in-uk-437800.html

UK abandons Trafficked Children:
http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=263495766&blogId=506317273#


 

Comment on this Story

 

In order to post comments you must Register or Sign In

 
 
RSS Feed of this article's comments
Delivery formats: RSS, Atom, Javascript & Email
 
  

 
 


Sister Newspapers:
Press Complaints Commission

This website and its associated newspaper adheres to the Press Complaints Commission’s Code of Practice. If you have a complaint about editorial content which relates to inaccuracy or intrusion, then contact the Editor by clicking here.

If you remain dissatisfied with the response provided then you can contact the PCC by clicking here.