LONDON, UK by Jantine Werdmiller of The Platform (4/19/12) — The UK is the destination for men, women and children primarily from Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe who are subjected to sexual exploitation, forced labour, domestic servitude, forced street crime, cannabis cultivation, benefit fraud, and forced marriage.
In the first two years since the setup of the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) in April 2009, 1,481 referrals were made to the UK Human Trafficking Centre (UKHTC). In reality the numbers are greater, confirmed in the Project Acumen report (2010) by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO). According to this report, of the 17,000 identified migrant women involved in prostitution in England and Wales, 2,600 were trafficked. It is important to acknowledge that this report only explored trafficking for sexual exploitation, excluding other forms of human trafficking, and only looked into migrant women, so did not analyse internal trafficking within the UK. Of 61 known nationalities of individuals identified as likely trafficking victims in the UK, British nationals are the fourth largest group after Nigerian, Chinese, and Vietnamese nationals.
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