Sex Slaves Auctioned at London Airports

HEATHROW AIRPORT

The BBC News Online has created a new section specifically focusing on sex trafficking and forced labor called Slavery in the 21st Century including graphs, statistics and victim's stories.

This week, the BBC reports that London's Heathrow, Gatwick and Sanstead airports are busy locations not just for travelers, but also for sex slave auctions:

The CPS [Crown Protection Services] said traffickers were trading sex workers as soon as they arrived in the UK from countries, including states in eastern Europe.

"Brothel keepers are bidding for women destined for prostitution," it said.

Meanwhile the Sunday Telegraph reported hundreds of children as young as six are brought to the UK yearly as slaves.

A CPS conference on Monday is to discuss airport crime, and its director in west London, Nazir Afzal, said: "Criminal activity at the UK's airports is on the increase.

"We are now seeing 'slave auctions' being held in public places at airports where brothel keepers are bidding for women destined for prostitution."

One auction had taken place outside a coffee shop in the arrivals hall at Gatwick Airport, the CPS said. Others were believed to have been staged at Heathrow, Stansted and other UK airports, it added.