SCOTLAND's chief prosecutor has warned his office is not getting enough people trafficking cases to take to court.
Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland QC, speaking during a summit with colleagues from across Britain and Ireland, said: "It is clear from Police Scotland and the National Crime Agency that we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg.
"There is quite a large gap between the number of victims and the number of cases that are reported to prosecutors. We want more cases. But this is a complex area where many victims don't realise they are a victim and where there can be an emotional economic bond with the perpetrator."
The summit, hosted by Mr Mulholland in Holyrood, is the first of its kind to cover the entire archipelago, including the Republic of Ireland, and comes three years after Scotland's first successful prosecution of the crime involved women being moved across the North Channel. The UK National Crime Agency this year identified 55 Scottish potential victims - although law enforcement agencies admit they are "unsighted".
Mr Mulholland said: "People trafficking just doesn't fit the stereotype of women chained to radiators for sex. In many cases it's a lot subtler with grooming; with dependency between victims and traffickers. There may be no violence. We've seen cases down south where people, including learning disabled individuals, are working for bed and board and it's basically slavery.
"UK nationals are now third on the league table of victims. The notion this only happens in Asia or Eastern Europe is wrong. It happens in Scotland too, unfortunately."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article