Abstracts: November 2005
03-Nov-05
Fiscal is nicked over sex act with vice girl
According to this article:
Glasgow
Stuart MacFarlane, a senior prosecutor, was arrested over alleged sex act with a prostitute after leaving a reception at police headquarters. MacFarlane is a leading procurator fiscal, with responsibility for prosecutions in large parts of Glasgow.
- Elias, Richard. "Fiscal is nicked over sex act with vice girl" Daily Record. Nov. 3, 2005.
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/tm_objectid
=16324724&method=full&siteid=66633&headline=
fiscal-is-nicked-over-sex-act-with-vice-gir
l--name_page.html
04-Nov-05
It could soon be legal to sell sex on the streets
Scottish Executive is drawing plans for a Sentencing Bill that would mean neither the women who sell sex nor the men who buy it will be prosecuted unless they cause a public nuisance. The new offence will focus on the nuisance or harm arising from street prostitution- related activities, whether caused by seller or purchaser. Measures could become law by early 2007. No plans for tolerance zones but prostitutes and men buying sex will not face prosecution if they are "discreet". Prostitution is currently not illegal but soliciting is an offence. Approx. 5,000 women work in Scotland's sex industry, with around 1,400 involved in street prostitution.
04-Nov-05
I was sold for GBP2,000, but I'm one of the lucky ones - I'm free now
This article provides details regarding sex trafficking victim, Natasha, a beautiful Russian teenager who was freed by police during a raid on a London brothel (in 2004). She had been described on an internet site as "London's youngest prostitute".
Believing she would be working as a waitress, she was sold for GBP 6,000, trafficked from Moscow to Frankfurt to Brussels and then London. The article describes Natasha's ordeal in detail; rapes, beatings, threats etc.. She was locked up and forced into prostitution, servicing up to 5 customers per day.
Natasha testified in court against Kosovan trafficker , Niki Dimitrov, who was jailed for 6 years. Natasha was given indefinite leave to remain in the UK, enrolled at London University and now works as a supermarket cashier at night. Her current friends and boyfriend know nothing about her past.
(See 2004 articles: Pimp sold 'London's youngest escort' / Pimp threatened to kill girl and others regarding Niki Dimitrov)
- "I was sold for GBP2,000, but I'm one of the lucky ones - I'm free now" Evening Standard. Nov. 4, 2005
06-Nov-05
Sex-trafficked victims to be offered refuge
According to this article:
Sex trafficking victims discovered during police raids on brothels in Glasgow are to be offered a 30 days reflection period and "safe haven" in the city. Specialist teams have been created to offer them assistance. They will be given medical assistance, legal guidance and counselling. Glasgow has been granted special dispensation from usual immigration rules, which usually demand women from non-EU countries are deported as soon as possible. The Glasgow progam is being modelled on the Poppy Project, the only safe house for trafficked women in the UK.
The article goes on to provide information regarding the estimated 2000 to 6000 women and girls trafficked into the UK annually to work as prostitutes and to contrast the Glasgow policy with the recent Birmingham raids (see articles).
In Birmingham, immigration officials demanded that 6 women from non-EU countries be immediately taken to Yarl's Wood Detention Centre in Bedfordshire. An Albanian woman and a Thai woman were sent home, two others were placed in a safe house, one woman has gone missing and the other has been placed in a "fast-track stream of asylum seekers while held at Yarl's Wood.
The Home Office is concerned that illegal immigrants will claim they have been trafficked in order to be given extra time to claim asylum, an argument that has angered members of the Joint Committee on Human Rights. Further details given re: UK policy and refusal to sign the European directive re: trafficking.
- Johnston, Jenifer. "Sex-trafficked victims to be offered refuge" Sunday Herald Nov. 6, 2005
http://www.sundayherald.com/52671
09-Nov-05
The word on the streets
According to this article:
The Safe Exit Handbook, produced by Safe Exit Tower Hamlets, was launched on Nov. 9, 2005 with funding from Tower Hamlets council and local charity Toynbee Hall. It is a directory giving matter of fact advice for prostitutes to help them deal with problems associated with prostitution - violence by customers and pimps, drug addiction, homelessness and physical and mental illness. The author hopes to assist women to get out of prostitution by providing help regarding quitting and finding a safe place to live, etc. The article goes on to provide examples of advice given in the handbook, further details regarding the coordination between agencies working on the project, information regarding recent arrests and local initiatives that succeeded in helping prostitutes leave the streets.
- Gould, Mark "The Word on the Streets" Guardian. Nov. 9, 2005.
http://society.guardian.co.uk/socialcare/story/
0,7890,1636921,00.html
10-Nov-05
Sex-trade children flown to region
According to this article:
A conference highlighting human trafficking rings was held in York on Nov. 9, 2005. Jane Dykins of the Refugee Council told the Yorkshire Post that there was growing evidence that Yorkshire airports are being used by global crime syndicates to bring child prostitutes into the UK. Smaller airports, including Newcastle, are being used to escape the attention of the authorities. Heathrow and Gatwick have introduced more stringent screening procedures to identify potential traffickers.
Yorkshire is a known base for traffickers. Details are provided of recent trafficking convictions. Children as young as 12 are being brought to Britain to work as prostitutes. The Refugee Council has proposed a national register for unaccompanied children.
In 2004, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire and Humberside were among the first regional forces to receive £2.5m to tackle trafficking through Project Reflex. Regional intelligence units are to be introduced through the Immigration Service to monitor human trafficking. Tougher jail sentences have been introduced in the UK through the Sexual Offences Act of 2003 and the Asylum and Immigration Act of 2004.
The UN has estimated the trafficking of women and children to be worth £3.6bn and that up to 500,000 people are trafficked into Europe annually. The main source countries are Eastern European nations, but children from Africa and Vietnam are also being trafficked.
- Jeeves, Paul. "Sex-trade children flown to region: Traders in misery try to avoid detection by switching to smaller airports" Yorkshire Post. Nov. 10, 2005
http://www.yorkshiretoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.
aspx?SectionID=55&ArticleID=1249308
10-Nov-05
Man denies trafficking prostitute
According to this article:
Cardiff Crown Court is hearing the case of the alleged sex trafficking of a 20 yr. old Lithuanian woman who was smuggled to Britain from Vilnius and forced by an Albanian gang to work as a prostitute in Cardiff after being sold for £5,000.
Defendant Akil Likcami admitted trafficking the woman for sexual exploitation and controlling her activities as a prostitute. A second man ("Benny") remains at large. Defendant Gjerji Mungiovi-Cuka denies trafficking for sexual exploitation.
The court heard that she was forced to work at Cardiff brothels the Executive Sauna and Abigail's. She is now in protective custody.
- "Man denies trafficking prostitute" BBC News. Nov. 10, 2005.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/4426268.stm
11-Nov-05
Court told of forced prostitution
According to this article:
A 21 yr. old Lithuanian woman testified at the Cardiff Crown Court that she was forced to work as a prostitute in 3 brothels by an Albanian gang. She said that the men were initially good to her but eventually threatened to kill her if she escaped. Defendants are: Gjergj Mungiovi-Cuka, 19, of Caldicot, (who denies the sex trafficking charge), Akil Likcami of Cathays, Cardiff (who pleaded guilty) and a third man, "Benny" who remains at large.
The woman was purchased for £5,000 after being smuggled into Britain from Vilnius in January. She believed that she would be working in a bar or shop in the UK.
Quote:
"He said to me the girls that work in England are very happy. They go to the clubs, they go to the discotheques and they earn lots of money and they are not worried." -Defendant
She admitted that she was aware she would be working as a prostitute and that she had previously done so in other countries. In the UK she would see up to 7 clients and earned more than £500 per day. The earnings were split between the brothels and the gang.
- "Court told of forced prostitution" BBC News. Nov. 11, 2005.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/4428936.stm
11-Nov-05
Mine for £1,300: Ileana, the teenage sex slave ready to work in London 'You say she work for you. Or we have other ways'
According to this article:
Reporter David Harrison posed as a British businessman looking to purchase Eastern European girls to work in a London Club. He traveled to Bucharest where Harrison was offered three women, and eventually purchased Ileana, a 19 year old Romanian girl for 2,000 euros. Romanian police are allegedly working on this case presently.
Harrison also interviewed sex traffickers serving prison sentences in a high-security prison in Giurgiu, near the Bulgarian border and Iana Matei who runs a refuge for women who have escaped forced prostitution. Matei introduced him to Alina, a victim who provided details of her ordeal.
The article points out the ease in which human traffickers are working in Britain and gives details regarding recent cases. Please see article for great insight into the sex trafficking industry in the UK.
- Harrison, David. "Mine for £1,300: Ileana, the teenage sex slave ready to work in London 'You say she work for you. Or we have other ways'" Telegraph. Nov. 11, 2005.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/
news/2005/11/06/npros106.xml&sSheet=
/news/2005/11/06/ixhome.html
13-Nov-05
'I was raped and beaten. I lost the will to run away'
According to this article:
Estimates are that up to 6000 women have been trafficked into Britain over recent years. Sex trafficking is fueled by EU expansion, falling travel costs, criminal gangs and "seemingly limitless demand". Approx. 1500 traffickers were arrested last year. Over 80 % of off street prostitutes in London are foreign, mostly Eastern Europeans.
David Harrison interviewed Irina Valinsky, a 21 year old Lithuanian woman who was duped into coming to Britain and held under threat of violence to her family. She said she was forced to have sex with an average of 25 to 30 men per day, working 6 days a week and charging £150-£400. Almost all of her earnings are handed over to her Russian pimp.
The arrival of the girls from Eastern Europe has coincided with - and fuelled - a disturbing expansion of the sex industry. Most end up in the "off-street" sector: massage parlours, saunas, brothels, private flats, and, increasingly, lap-dancing and other "gentlemen's clubs". They are frequently sold on several times."
Denise Marshall (Poppy Project) says that the traffickers and pimps control the girls by fear and sex trafficking is easier money than heroin trafficking. The girls are traumatised and it takes years for them to develop "normal" lives. She says that they are too often dismissed as prostitutes and illegal immigrants.
The article goes on to describe the Poppy Project and gives details regarding two victims now living in the shelter.
The UK gov. intends to use its EU presidency to create a Europe-wide anti-trafficking action plan next year. Senior police officers support the creation of a new offence for men using trafficked women for sex.
"The fact that so many women are being trafficked against their will has added a shocking new dimension to prostitution" Paul Goggins, Home Office minister for serious organised crime.
- Harrison, David. "'I was raped and beaten. I lost the will to run away'" The Telegraph. Nov. 13, 2005.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=
/news/2005/11/13/npros13.xml&sSheet=
/news/2005/11/13/ixhome.html
14-Nov-05
Pair deny sex trafficking charges
According to this article:
Court case underway - Albanian Leonard Llanaj and girlfriend Lisa Benjamin deny charges of sex trafficking two Lithuanian women.
The women testified that they were held captive, raped and forced into prostitution. They were driven to massage parlours across the UK, including "Palm Springs" and "Pleasures", both in Leicester, and other massage parlours in Bristol, Swindon and Leeds.
The women were rescued after a sauna owner in Leicester called police.
- "Pair deny sex trafficking charges" BBC News Nov. 14, 2005.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/4437078.stm
15-Nov-05
Student denies prostituting woman
According to this article:
Albanian carpentry student Gjergj Mungiovi-Cuka claimed in court that he did not know that a Lithuanian woman who shared an apartment with him and a friend was working as a prostitute. He denied taking part in purchasing her for £5,000 and forcing her to work in 3 brothels in Cardiff: the Executive Sauna, No 19 and Abygales massage parlour. Friend and flatmate, Akil Likcani, pleaded guilty to trafficking and controlling a prostitute. The third gang member (Kosovon "Benny") is at large.
Details of Mungiovi-Cuka's childhood are given in the article. The trial continues.
- "Student denies prostituting woman" BBC News. Nov. 15, 2005.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/4440442.stm
17-Nov-05
Student guilty of sex trafficking
According to this article:
A Cardiff Crown Court jury found Gjergj Mungiovi-Cuka guilty of the sex trafficking of a 21 yr. old Lithuanian woman (see articles above). Details of the court case are provided in the article.
Quote:
"She was treated as a commodity by a group of men and sold for £5,000. She was forced to hand over all her earnings to the men who controlled her." -Prosecutor Daniel Williams
During testimony, the woman admitted that she knew she would be working as a prostitute in the UK and had worked as a prostitute in Germany, Spain and Lithuania.
- "Student guilty of sex trafficking" BBC News. Nov. 17, 2005.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/4445974.stm
19-Nov-05
Appeal over massage parlour murder
London
Aleksandra Dronjak, 28, was sexually assaulted and stabbed to death at the South Bank Holistic Medical Centre massage parlour in Kennington. She was the caretaker and lived on the premises. Dronjak is thought to be Serbian.
- http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/
PA_NEWA10169141132388934A00?version=1
20-Nov-05
Children in care falling prey to predators on city streets
- McDougall, Liam. "Children in care falling prey to predators on city streets" Sunday Herald. Nov. 20, 2005.
http://www.sundayherald.com/52932
20-Nov-05
Revenue forces saunas to declare prostitutes' wages
- http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=
741&id=2270672005
21-Nov-05
Child trafficking a concern in Ireland
According to this article:
"The Irish Times reported that health authorities in Ireland have expressed fears that most of the 250 children who have disappeared from care in the last four years have been trafficked and are being sexually exploited.
The chief executive of the HSE (East Coast Area), has also claimed that one of the problems is insufficient funding which means that there is inadequate follow up when children are reunited with families or people claiming to be their families. Documents released to the Irish Times seem to indicate that all of the unattached children that the health authorities know about have been either trafficked or smuggled into the country. Some were brought for forced underage marriages, while others were trafficked into prostitution.
In a letter to the Health Department in March of this year, the Health Service Executive warned: “The executive has on several occasions taken children into care following their rescue from desperate situations by the GNIB [Garda National Immigration Bureau]. It also a matter of fact that the vast majority of children coming into care have been trafficked into the country…”
Although there have been improved services for 12 to 16 year olds, there are concerns that the service is still inadequate. Dr Pauline Conroy, author of two reports on separated children and trafficking said that it was of concern that the government had not “grasped the gravity of the situation". “There are serious child protection issues here. There are vulnerable children from outside the EU. We have an absolute obligation to ensure they do not fall into the hands of predatory adults, whether that’s employment or the sex industry.”" The original article can be found at the Irish Times (subscription only.)
- http://www.businesstravellers.org/archives/
child-trafficking-a-concern-in-ireland/
26-Nov-05
Police Shut Down Troubled Nightclub
Trax nightclub in east London was stormed by police and shut down just hours after new licensing laws were introduced. Seven men were arrested. The club was recently refused a lap-dancing licence and had been watched by police for several months. Police are promising more crackdowns.
- http://www.lse.co.uk/ShowStory.asp?story=RP2620079J
&news_headline=police_shut_down_troubled_nightclub_
27-Nov-05
Revealed: kept in a dungeon ready to be sold as slaves...the women destined for Britain's sex trade
According to this article:
David Harrison filed this report from Skopje. He describes a cellar in a run-down motel which police in Macedonia discovered to be holding 8 young Eastern European girls, aged 18 to 24. They had been lured from their homes with promises of jobs as waitresses, au pairs and dancers but were locked into the cellar and forced into prostitution. The were likely to be sold by their pimps into Western countries, including Britain. At least two other groups of trafficked women were also found in cellars and another in an attic during police raids near Tetovo, Gostivar and Struga, in western Macedonia, close to the Albanian border. This area is Europe's biggest human trafficking centre and is a transit country for sex trafficking victims who will mostly be moved to the west. The gangs have links to criminals in Britain who dominate London's prostitution rings.
Britain is attractive to sex traffickers due to weak immigration controls and high prices and demand for prostitutes.
The article goes on to describe in detail the police tapes of the raids, the conditions of the cellars and the women. The girls describe their experiences at the hands of the traffickers. Harrison posed as a businessman and interviewed another trafficked woman. Her comments to him are provided in the article.
The 8 Eastern European girls were taken to a shelter supported by the International Organisation for Migration in Skopje. They were given medical and psychological help and encouraged to testify against their traffickers.
Helga Konrad, the head of anti-trafficking at the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) urged governments to step up joint efforts to "break the whole criminal chain".
- Harrison, David. "Revealed: kept in a dungeon ready to be sold as slaves...the women destined for Britain's sex trade" Telegraph. Nov. 27, 2005. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml
?xml=/news/2005/11/27/npros127.xml&sSheet=/
news/2005/11/27/ixnewstop.html
27-Nov-05
The plight of the cellar girls
According to this article:
The Sunday Telegraph's investigation into sex trafficking revealed further details regarding young women imprisoned as sex slaves to be trafficked into Britain. Reporters traveled to Macedonia to investigate reports of "girl markets" and found evidence that both individually and in groups girls were being sold. Reporters were shown police video recordings of attics and cellars where girls were kept as sex slaves.
"In a series of undercover investigations, the Sunday Telegraph has already revealed that women can be bought for £1,400 in Romania. They are among the victims of what has been described as "medieval slavery in the 21st century". Many end up in Britain, enslaved by ruthless Albanian gangs who, according to Scotland Yard, now control almost all of London's prostitution rings."
Tony Blair has been prompted to "declare war" against people traffickers. His response to the Sunday Telegraph investigation was shock and he said that the powers of police and security services was insufficient and new measures would be brought in soon.
- Harrison, David. "The plight of the cellar girls" Telegraph. Nov. 27, 2005.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=
/news/2005/11/27/npros27.xml&sSheet=/portal/
2005/11/27/
ixportaltop.html
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