New blitz on UK sex slave trade

All 55 police forces in the UK and the Republic of Ireland will take part in the project, named as Pentameter 2 after a successful operation which took place last year.

This year's version will have a new focus on helping victims, rather than the broader remit of gathering intelligence about traffickers.

Pentameter's initial four-month campaign led to more than 200 arrests and rescued children as young as 14 who had been forced into sex slavery. Officers executed warrants in 515 brothels, massage parlours, private homes and other premises during the previous project.

More than 80 women and girls were rescued - about half from a range of eastern European countries and the rest from the Far East, Africa and South America.

A permanent unit, the UK Human Trafficking Centre, was set up in the wake of the first Pentameter operation, bringing together police, prosecutors and officers from the Serious Organised Crime Agency.

The Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) asked men who use prostitutes to be on the lookout for women who might have been lured into the sex trade against their will.

Gloucestershire chief constable and Acpo spokesman Tim Brain said at the first Pentameter launch that punters who reported possible cases to Crimestoppers would not face prosecution.

Trafficked women can be forced to have sex with up to 40 strangers a day after being brought to the British Isles under the false impression that they would be working in legitimate jobs, police said.

The Crown Prosecution Service revealed last summer that "slave auctions" of women for prostitution are taking place on the concourses of British airports. Brothel keepers bid for women as soon as they arrive on UK soil.