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More than 5,000 women are selling sex from brothels, massage parlours and other premises in London.
A study by the Association of Chief Police Officers found 5,299, virtually all from overseas, are “off-street” prostitutes in the capital.
The national total is 17,344. Of these, 2,600 are victims of trafficking, the report warns. They are controlled mainly through debts or the threat of violence against their family.
Nearly 10,000 others are “vulnerable” in some other way that stops them leaving the industry.
Deputy Chief Constable Chris Eyre said the study highlighted the “scale of the problems those in law enforcement, victim support, social care and border protection face.”
Immigration Minister Damian Green said: “Human trafficking is a brutal form of crime where people are traded as commodities. Combating trafficking is a priority for the Government.”
East European women accounted for almost 60 per cent of off-street prostitutes in London, with more than 20 per cent from Asia. There were 741 South American and 265 British women.
Police counted 2,100 prostitution businesses in the capital by trawling websites, print adverts and their own databases.
Reader views (7)
Not exactly a rocket-science piece of research. A simple search of Adultwork lists 14422 of which 3472 are listed in London.
The statistic I don't believe is that 2,600 are victims of trafficking and that 10,000 out of 17,000 are vunerable. I think that's just nonsense propaganda.
- Stuart Robb, St Albans, Hertfordshire, 19/08/2010 13:22
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Real, Camden. Much of the profit sadly goes up their nostrils, even in the so-called 'upmarket' houses in Mayfair etc. Take that from someone who knows!
- Terry, London, 19/08/2010 11:53
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This is surely an historically low figure, about one woman in a thousand? I wonder what the related figure is for street prostitutes? More or fewer? It's not nice to think of anyone in this business against their will, but compared with Victorian London these are tiny figures.
- mdj, london uk, 19/08/2010 00:07
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People who know their history of London ,and these days of dumbing down i presume not many,but London has and always will have toms, as will all big cities in the U.K. For every tom that is trafficked you can bet your life 5 are doing it of their own back.
- Leonard Lillywhites, Tottenham, 18/08/2010 20:07
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Prostitution should be legalised now and put under licence for health checks and abuse, anyone found who is not licenced to be given very heavy sentences, any person who is caught living off the proceeds to be given heavy sentences, the tax take would be enormous and the women would have no reason to hide or do it secretly those who do have something to hide.
- James, Grays, 18/08/2010 18:10
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It is organised properly, highly sophisicated in fact, and well known about by the average person in the street. It's just part of the massive black market economy that the government persistently and repeatedly refuse to confront and the media present as some mythological system of abuse. It's actually women working of their own free will for a lot of money.
It's the biggest myth of our society that there's these underground chambers full of chained up underage abused girls. They're residential houses in every neighbourhood with beautiful young women who choose to come here illigally do their work, have freedom of movement, live comfortably, and earn a lot of money. The 'tax' they pay is to the brothel organisers, not the government. The profit they make goes back to their home countries.
Somehow the media can't get their heads around this. The police must know it or they'd spend more time 'rescuing' these poor (non-existent) women. The government must be aware of it. But they choose to ignore the truth.
I do wonder why.....?
- Real, Camden, 18/08/2010 17:10
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If this situation was organised properly you could pull in some Taxes from these people.
- Davey_buoy, Chertsey, 18/08/2010 16:45
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