Scottish campaign on 'plain sight' trafficking
- Published
Police Scotland has launched a campaign targeting the perpetrators of human trafficking and sexual exploitation.
It is aimed at raising awareness of the problem, which police say is linked to serious organised crime.
But officers say it is often hidden in "plain sight" in communities.
This year, 46 people - all but two of them women - have identified themselves in Scotland as victims of trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation.
Seven were girls under the age of 18.
One rescued woman had been forced into prostitution - working at least eight hours a day, seven days a week - with her exploiters charging £120 an hour.
She had been in Scotland for three months, and was discovered during a police operation.
Bronagh Andrew, operations manager for the charity Tara, which raises awareness of trafficking, said exploitation of women was only one part of organised criminality.
She said: "Women are trafficked to make profits for organised criminal gangs. They make those profits from people who are willing to pay to abuse those women.
"We strongly believe that paying for sex in 2018 should be viewed as unacceptable.
"It is a form of violence against women, and that demand creates that supply of women who are exploited in the most unimaginable ways."
A BBC Scotland Investigation in March last year revealed some of the ways traffickers operate.
Human rights lawyer Adina Schwartz told the programme: "The women are forced to sleep with one of the traffickers to see how well she does.
"She can start being exploited in prostitution, but later on for labour exploitation, domestic exploitation, agriculture, and eventually in old age for begging."
ACC MacDonald says signs of exploitation may include multiple women in one domestic property
Police said they found more than 1,700 adverts on the internet relating to people involved in prostitution in Scotland - although they admitted not all of those would be victims of exploitation.
Assistant Chief Constable Gillian MacDonald outlined the signs that women may have been trafficked to Scotland.
She said: "I would urge members of the community to look out for signs of multiple foreign women who are perhaps residing in the one domestic property, in a flat or a rental property.
"Also, new business start-ups in town and city centres for example.
"It may be that these women have been trafficked into the country for exploitation by others."
Rented premises
There have been a number of operations carried out by Police Scotland jointly with other forces, including those in Romania and Northern Ireland, which have resulted in victims being rescued.
In one, seven people from an Eastern European crime gang were arrested in Romania and 12 potential victims were rescued from sexual exploitation in Glasgow.
Police said all the victims were based in privately-rented premises being used for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation.
All of the flats were in busy city centre communities, with the activities described as happening in "plain sight".
But police said there had been a significant increase in the number of women coming forward seeking help from organisations such as Tara because of greater awareness of the problem - and confidence that help can be accessed.