It is not clear from the report below the nationalities of the missing rescued women or girls from Operation Pentameter, but we do know that the European sex industry is fueled by girls, women mainly trafficked from Africa, Asia and some Eastern European countries. Are the world law enforcement and 'rescue' agencies well equipped to deal with the rising number of women and girls, men invlolved in sex slavery and are the post-rescue efforts strategic?
Sex trafficked victims ‘missing’
Daily Graphic, Tuesday, February 5, 2008. Page 11 (Women’s World)
The UK government does not know where the majority of sex-trafficked women rescued as part of the two national police operations are, BBC Wales has learnt. Operation Pentameter, launched by the Home Office in 2006, aimed to free an estimated 4,500 victims of trafficking forced to work in the sex industry. It was also designed to catch the criminals responsible for the exploitation.
But a BBC Wales “Week in Week Out” investigation has revealed serious concerns that it is not delivering. Operation Pentameter One resulted in 88 victims being rescued, but Vernon Coaker MP, a Home Office Minister, admitted to programme-makers he did not know where the vast majority were.
“I don’t know where all the 76 actually are, but what I do know is that they will have been dealt with in the appropriate way,” he said. He said he did not know how much public money had been spent across Wales and the rest of UK on Pentameter One or Pentameter Two-which followed a year later on. Nor could he tell the programme how many victims had been rescued in total.
The admission comes in the wake of a high-profile court case last week, involving brothel boos Diana Jones, who ran a string of illegal operations in Cardiff and Swindon. She was prosecuted as part of Pentameter, but there was no evidence of trafficking and the judge said no one at her brothels had been harmed.
In the “Week in Week Out” programme broadcast on Monday evening, she gave an insight into the illegal operation which police said turned over ₤3m. The programme reveals how it is business as usual throughout the investigation.
The court heard the brothels had run with at least some police officers knowing what went on behind closed doors-something the force had contested in court. When challenged in the programme about whether South Wales Police officers had “turned a blind eye” to Diana Jones illegal operations, Assistant Chief Constable Giles York said: “I do not know what is the minds of my officers, but what I can tell is the she has been prosecuted now, and it was a successful operation and she’s pleaded guilty to it.”
He said he believed Pentameter had been a success in his force area with five victims rescued, and nearly ₤500,000 recovered from offenders. He said his officers will continue to pursue Diana Jones for the money she made from her illegal activities. She was given a suspended prison sentence for brothel keeping and faces financial ruin. She was investigated after taking two trafficked eastern Europeans women to police for safety.
“I think Pentameter had all the right reasons for starting the operation off, but in terms of success, and capturing traffickers, no, they got far more success from people in the sex industry, in the know, passing information on” she told the programme. -BBC
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