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I visited Kosovo and Macedonia last year, speaking to people in various
organisations from the Anti-trafficking department at OSCE - Organisation
for Security and Co-operation in Europe, and the head of the UN's THBS -
Trafficking in Human Beings Investigation Section. What impressed me was
everyone's dedication in fighting against trafficking - and therefore an
important link in the chain of organised crime - but sadly we hear none of
their success stories in the UK media, the women and children they've saved.
Victims of trafficking are seduced into travelling to Britain with
promises of bar work or waitressing jobs, but when they arrive their
passports are taken from them and they are forced to work in brothels. It's
big money for the traffickers; one woman trafficked into Britain estimated
that she earned more than £500,000 for her captors.
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It is estimated between 600,000 and 800,000 people are trafficked internationally every year.
Even more are enslaved within national borders. My character, Zamira, is from Macedonia and is coerced into flying to
England with the promise of a waitressing job, but ends up in Bristol as a sex slave.
At Heathrow, her trafficker takes her passport and tells her she owes him £8,000.
Speaking no English and not knowing where to go, she is trapped.
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*Pictures courtesy of Kay Chernush for the U.S. State Department. |
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Trafficked women are frequently raped and face routine violence from customers, sexually-transmitted diseases, post traumatic stress disorder, suicide and murder. |
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This woman used in prostitution in Western Europe is forced by threats and intimidation to give all her earnings to her trafficker. Punters often claim they have no idea that most of the women and girls they use are under duress. |
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