Child sex trafficking 'within UK'

Police officers involved in a project which targeted human trafficking said it was a mistake to believe that all children targeted by pimps had been brought in from other countries.

A Government report said there was an "emerging issue" of British children, usually teenage girls, being trafficked within the UK.

It also emerged that new measures are underway to tackle the problem of children being forced into criminal activities such as working in cannabis farms and street crime gangs.

Further measures are under way to combat the trafficking of children into Britain to make fraudulent welfare claims.

Figures released at the end of a six-month crackdown on people traffickers showed 167 victims were rescued across Britain and Ireland and 528 suspected traffickers were arrested. It included 13 children aged between 14 and 17 who were rescued from sexual exploitation and two children who were under forced labour.

Home Office minister Vernon Coaker said it was difficult to establish the scale of the problem with internal trafficking.

Gloucestershire Chief Constable Dr Tim Brain, who co-ordinated the major trafficking crackdown known as Operation Pentameter Two, said it had revealed a large number of brothels in apparently ordinary suburban locations.

Out of more than 800 premises visited by this campaign, nearly 600 were residential and 157 were massage parlours, saunas and nail bars, which are the more traditional "front" for brothels.

Latest estimates by police are that there may be as many 18,000 trafficked victims that are forced to work as prostitutes, Dr Brain went on.