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http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,1790389,00.html
'Slave auctions' targeted in crackdown on airport crime

Jacqueline Maley
Monday June 5, 2006
The Guardian

Women are being sold off in "slave auctions" in the arrivals lounges of British airports, according to authorities desperate to crack down on the burgeoning trade in trafficking humans.

The Crown Prosecution Service said foreign women were being sold as sex workers as soon as they arrived, and police have been appealing to men who frequent brothels to contact them in confidence if they believe the prostitutes may be there against their will.

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A Home Office report released five years ago estimated the number of victims of human trafficking in the UK at 1,400. But the current figure could be double that, according to Gloucestershire chief constable Tim Brain, the head of Operation Pentameter, a multi-agency taskforce launched in February to combat trafficking. The CPS conference coincides with criticisms levelled at the government by children's charities, who believe its response to the trafficking of children is "completely inadequate".

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