A TEENAGE girl was saved from potential sex abuse by police working to snare trafficking gangs at Glasgow Airport.
The 18-year-old told Border Force officers she thought she was coming to work in a hotel in Edinburgh and didn’t know the two Romanian men waiting for her.
One claimed to be the owner of a maid and cleaning company.
However, the address of his company was a vacant pub in Tollcross, in the East End of Glasgow.
The other man had convictions for sexual offences.
The woman was among 300 passengers travelling into Glasgow and questioned by specialist police officers because of a suspicion they were being trafficked.
Police said that almost a third of those were refused entry and returned to their home country.
In another case, a 23-year-old Romanian girl told officers she was here to visit her boyfriend.
However, checks revealed that the address he was taking her to had 13 men living there – two of which had convictions for sexual offences.
Safeguarding and Trafficking (SAT) officers have been based at the airport since November, 2016 working on Operation Outrun.
In another case, checks on a 32-year-old Romanian woman, with no money, revealed she had previously been working as a prostitute in Glasgow's East End.
She provided the names of two men in the UK, believed to be Romanian and who were known to be linked to prostitution.
She was refused admission at Glasgow in May 2017, then again in Liverpool in July 2017 and was stopped at Belfast docks attempting to get to Scotland. She was removed to Romania.
In another case, officers came to the aid of a Romanian female escort who had been abducted and raped at a house in Falkirk in December 2014.
The perpetrator had also murdered a Romanian woman in his home and was jailed for life in May 2015 with a minimum sentence of 22 years.
Where Border Force have concerns that a person could be trafficked, but do not have enough evidence to return them to their home country, officials will refer them to the charities Unseen and Trafficking Awareness Raising Alliance (TARA).
Police say suspected victims of trafficking tend to be young women who are about to turn 18 or who have just turned 18.
Some women openly admit they are working in the sex industry and they believe they are here to make better money.
Others are brought over for sham marriages to men who are not from the European Economic Area.
Gordon Summers, Assistant Director Border Force North, said: “This is about safeguarding vulnerable young women, and men, who are being trafficked and exploited as well as protecting the communities people are living in.
Border Force is working with partners to identify the traffickers and organisers, and looking to flush out those behind the brothels and who sell girls on.
“Those attending brothels are encouraging criminality and exploitation of young women.
"Often these women have been forced into this lifestyle against their will and they are exposed to violence and intimidation by the gangs who brought them here. They are powerless.”
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 hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel