The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
THE EXPLOITED
HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN THE NORTH AND NORTH-EAST EXPOSED
Sex trafficking is a growing menace in Scottish society, but one of the major barriers police have in breaking apart the criminal gangs behind the trade is the reluctance of victims to realise or accept their exploitation.
Last year, 87 victims of sexual exploitation were recorded in Scotland. The vast majority of these – 68 – were female. At least 20 victims, across both genders, were under the age of 18.
Again, the real number of victims is believed to be much higher, with detection and the cooperation of possible victims an ongoing issue.
Detective Inspector Caroline Gray, North East divisional champion for human trafficking, said: “Potential victims don’t recognise themselves as such and that can make engagement quite challenging.
“We have had that in Aberdeen on a couple of occasions with Romanian females and our assessment would be that they have been exploited but they maintain that it’s not the case and they are happy to do what they’re doing.
“It makes it more difficult to point them to the right support.”
Last autumn, Detective Superintendent Fil Capaldi’s Police Scotland National Human Trafficking Unit led a coordinated raid on properties across Scotland, England and Romania – to take down an alleged sex trafficking gang operating from the Eastern European country.
In the early hours of Wednesday September 9 2020, officers from multiple agencies, including the National Crime Agency and Romania’s Directorate for Countering Organised Crime department, swooped on 31 addresses in the international operation.
Four locations across Aberdeen and Glasgow were raided as part of the targeted deployment led by Police Scotland, resulting in three arrests.
At the same time, five properties were hit in England at Leicester, Coventry and Northampton, while Romanian police stormed the doors of 23 addresses.
Overall, 24 arrests were made across the three countries following 12 months of investigation by the partnering agencies. There were three arrests in Scotland, seven in England and 14 in Romania.
The three male suspects located in Scotland, aged 36, 34 and 30, appeared in court on petition last year.
Speaking about the raid, Det Supt Capaldi warned of the “global reach” of such criminal enterprises.
“Borders are meaningless to traffickers,” he said.
“Their illegal trade has a global reach and crosses national and international boundaries which is why our response has to be coordinated across agencies and through international co-operation.”
Detective Inspector Calum Smith, Highlands and Islands divisional champion for human trafficking, said the operation was an example of the sex exploitation he witnesses in the city.
“In the urban areas, Inverness, we see sexual exploitation,” said DI Smith.
“It went from Inverness, to Aberdeen through to Glasgow, Edinburgh and then across to Romania and even Belgium.
“Some of the brothels that were being used at that point were in Inverness.
“It’s a moving picture where the movement of victims is dependent on where the exploitation was.”
Traffickers often target vulnerable women who may have previous experience of male violence, suffered separation and isolation from their family, or live in extreme poverty.
The journeys can begin as smuggling operations where the trafficker has promised an escape that transforms into exploitation and abuse.
Upon arrival in Scotland, the nightmare for these women has only just begun.
“Quite often women aren’t living together long enough to establish a relationship,” said Bronagh Andrew, operations manager at Trafficking Awareness Raising Alliance (TARA) – an organisation which supports female victims of human trafficking and sexual exploitation in Scotland. “Or traffickers will play them off against each other – one woman will be left in charge of the others and that’s a way for her to get out of the sexual exploitation.”
Bronagh said these women are monitored, imprisoned and barred from leaving the properties unaccompanied.
Other controlling tactics usually take the form of threats and intimidation involving family, children or their visa status.
One constant in the victim’s life is being moved from location to location.
Traffickers move victims for several reasons but it is primarily to rotate women among sex clients who want “new” faces and to stop the women forming friendships, either with each other or with local shopkeepers or neighbours.
In some cases, trafficked women are dumped by their captors when they fall into the later stages of pregnancy.
Others set free may have severe physical or mental health conditions.
TARA supported 95 victims between April 2020 and April 2021, 57 of whom were new survivors.
Since April 2018, nearly 300 victims of sexual exploitation have been supported by TARA.
Detective Inspector Marc Lorente, Tayside division champion for human trafficking, says there are reasons to believe that sex trafficking gangs are operating across Tayside and the north-east with links to major criminal groups.
“Every big city is the same,” said DI Lorente.
In late 2019 a man arrived in a rural Romanian village offering the locals wellpaid jobs at a meat processing factory in Scotland.
Cristina*, a single mother of two young boys, heard about the work and thought it would be a good opportunity to make some much-needed money for her children.
With the promise she would return to Romania in a few months, Cristina left her sons in the care of a family member and was brought to Scotland by road.
The long journey took almost a week as Cristina travelled nearly 2,000 miles from her family home.
But the job Cristina had been promised was a lie.
The young mum, a woman in her late 20s, had been tricked and trafficked for sex.
Initially after arriving, Cristina was forced to clean her trafficker’s property without any pay – the promise of a job at the meat factory gone, along with her freedom.
But a little over a week later, the abuse turned even more sinister and violent.
Cristina’s captor started raping her every day.
The terrified young mum believed the trafficker was preparing to force her into the sex industry.
She was completely isolated and alone.
Since leaving Romania, the trafficker had prevented Cristina from contacting her family in any way.
Her boys didn’t even know their mum had arrived in Scotland.
With no money and unable to speak English, Cristina was a prisoner. For more than a month her only human contact was with her attacker.
She had been brought to Perth, but kept in social isolation.
Cristina’s captor eventually felt confident in letting her out of the property for short walks around the city – along the North Inch or nearby streets.
It was on one of these walks that Cristina saw a chance to escape.
In early 2020, scared and desperate, Cristina entered the reception of the PKAVS – Perth and Kinross Association of Voluntary Service – charity on North Methven Street.
The victim recognised the building from when she first arrived in Perth.
Instinctively, Cristina knew that PKAVS was an organisation that could help her.
She told the staff about the horrendous abuse she had suffered.
PKAVS, working with its partners in Perth and Kinross Council, acted quickly and managed to find Cristina a temporary place to stay.
Her ordeal was not over, though. The trafficker tracked Cristina down using her phone and took her back to his flat.
Terrified of what was to happen to her, Cristina knew she had to escape again.
But now the trafficker was unlikely to let her go for walks on her own any more.
She knew she had to seize an opportunity whenever it arose. When it did, she simply ran. She ran for the door of the flat, out on to the street in Perth city centre.
When she got to the road, Cristina started screaming as loud as she could.
She knew that creating noise was the only way to draw the neighbours’ attention.
And alert the neighbours she did. The police were called under the impression they were turning up to a domestic situation.
Despite the arrival of officers on the scene, Cristina was too afraid to speak to them.
She just wanted a safe place to stay and to get in contact with her children in Romania.
And this time she was given a place of sanctuary which was more difficult for the traffickers to find, and also got access to a phone so she could call her boys and let them know she was safe.
Jenni Keenan BEM, PKAVS’ minority communities hub team leader, said Cristina had been deeply traumatised by her experience.
“She believed he was preparing to force her into the sex industry,” said Jenni.
“We supported her to make a report to the police, but she refused to tell the officers the things she had told our team.
“She confided in us that she was worried that, if there was a court case, she would have to stay in the UK until it was concluded.
“We helped her to contact her family, and to make arrangements to get home.” * This investigation has agreed to change the victim’s name and to withhold certain information to protect her identity and preserve her safety. The above remains an accurate account of her experiences.