Stop Trafficking in People says MP                                                                                           

Neil Gerrard, Labour MP for Walthamstow, last week chaired a meeting at the House of Commons with Anti-Slavery International, to highlight the campaign against the trafficking of people, especially children.

"This is a modern form of slavery" said Neil Gerrard, "and it is a growing problem world wide. The United Nations estimates that trafficking in people generates huge profits for the traffickers, as much as $US 7 billion a year. This is not about people being smuggled into the UK or any other country who know where they are going, are paying a fee to the smuggler, and then try to remain here illegally once the smuggler has left them. People who are trafficked are sold into prostitution, or forced labour."

"Detectives from Scotland Yard who attended the meeting described how young girls, often from Eastern Europe, are brought into this country, and then forced to work in the sex trade in London or other large cities. Their families will often have been tricked into letting them come by false promises of jobs when they arrive, and the girls themselves have no idea what lies in store for them when they arrive here."

"It is an absolutely abhorrent trade which needs to be stamped out, and we have to recognise in doing this that the people who have been trafficked are the victims, and need help. It is the gangmasters who run the rackets who we have to target. There are proposals now for concerted action across the European Union to act, and to have greater co-operation between Police forces to share information and work together. I welcome that and I hope that we can start to crack down on those responsible."

Dec 2001

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