European sex workers rescued as four people arrested

SIX suspected victims of human trafficking have been rescued in a police operation in Belfast.

All the women are from eastern Europe and were allegedly being forced into prostitution.

Three men and a woman were arrested in Belfast yesterday as part of the planned Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) operation against organised crime and the illicit prostitution trade.

The women are being cared for at a specialist police facility in the city where they will be offered services provided by the Human Trafficking Centre.

Two of them, both aged in their 20s, were rescued from an apartment block in the King Street area and a property in College Park North.

Police said the other four women had been rescued over the past number of weeks as part of a three-month PSNI investigation.

Details of those rescues have only now been made public.

Of the four suspects detained, two men — aged 29 and 22 — were arrested in the King Street apartments while a 24-year-old man and a 22-year-old woman were taken into custody on Cavendish Street, off the Falls Road in west Belfast.

The four suspects have been taken to police stations in Belfast for questioning. Police said three of them are eastern European; the fourth is from the North.

The PSNI officer leading the investigation, Detective Inspector Douglas Grant, said the suspected criminal operation stretched well beyond the North.

“We have been investigating a trafficking and prostitution ring stretching across Europe for the past three months,” he said.

“Police have an ongoing commitment to rescue victims of human trafficking, who in this case we believe were being used for the vice trade.

“And we have an equally strong commitment to dismantle the organised crime gangs involved.

“Today’s arrest and rescue operation is the latest stage in this ongoing, proactive investigation.

“Our enquiries will continue over the coming weeks and will involve other law enforcement agencies across Europe.”

Sinn Féin MLA for west Belfast, Paul Maskey MP, welcomed the success of the operation: “The crime of people trafficking is among the most vile activities imaginable.

“Those involved in this activity need taken out of our society and anyone with the slightest information should provide it to the PSNI immediately.”

The victims of human trafficking are usually brought here under the false impression of a better life, only to be forced against into prostitution.

* The Irish Examiner’s special investigation into sex trafficking begins next Wednesday.