Woman across the UK are being exploited in the sex trade at record levels as experts have exposed some victims are living in agony after pimps force them to undergo botched cosmetic surgeries
Countless sex workers across the UK are facing horrific conditions as the number of women trapped in the endless cycle of sexploitation has spiked in recent years.
Experts have pulled back the lid on the horrors many victims face from the vile underground industry. Pimps running prostitution rings are said to terrorise their victims forcing women to undergo botched cosmetic surgeries and subjecting them to horror 20 hour shifts.
After busting a prostitution ring near Birmingham police discovered 14 women who had been a victim of trafficking and had been starved and forced into sex work. One victim of the sex trade stated she had been forced to work horrific 20-hour shifts leaving her so malnourished her bones were left sticking out of her skin.
The grotesque prostitution ring was run by a deranged couple Luigi Cucu, 46, and Costela Soare, 37 who were both thrown behind bars for their foul abuse.
The couple bagged themselves more than £700,000 through exploiting their victims. The number of women and girls who have been referred for sexual exploitation via the Government’s National Referral Mechanism (NRM) has surged in recent years. Since 2020 the number of women who have used this service has nearly doubled, rising from just over 1,600 to almost 3,000.
Speaking to the Sun the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner Eleanor Lyons said: “Increasingly British women and girls are being sexually exploited and criminal gangs are trafficking vulnerable women from abroad to abuse them on our shore.
“This exploitation is happening on our streets and is often hidden in plain sight.”
The added: “Behind closed doors women and girls are being raped, trafficked and abused by organised criminal gangs. They are enduring unimaginable horrors on a daily basis, held in horrific conditions, trapped in brothels and stripped of their freedoms.”
The commissioner added social media had made it easier for victims to be manipulated and drawn into online exploitation. The first Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner Kevin Hyland has revealed some victims of sex trafficking had been forced into getting plastic surgery by their “pimps.”
The former commissioner spoke of one victim who was trafficked to London from southeast Asia that was left in a state of agony after a botched cosmetic procedure. Hyland stated: “We don’t know where the surgery was carried out, but it all went wrong. The implants moved through her body and caused extreme pain.
“She can’t sit down or walk properly, and she can’t provide the services her controllers expected her to provide.”
Hyland has stated “all cites” across the UK are facing problems around exploitation and prostitution. However he notes London in particular is a hotspot for for the issue.
Hyland said: “The Soho brothels, for example, were often small flats with extortionate fees. There would usually be a minder, often another British woman, overseeing very young women, many from Eastern Europe.
“There were often queues outside these places. One brothel would run in shifts: 12-hour or 8-hour shifts. Many are advertised online. We used to track the same telephone numbers appearing across multiple brothels, which clearly indicated organised criminal networks.
“I remember operations where we found 50 or 60 phones lined up on tables so calls could constantly be answered.”
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