- by Abby Alford, Wales On Sunday
- Apr 3 2011
Wales could be swamped by adults and children forced to work as sex slaves, beggars and cannabis farmers by ruthless human traffickers.
That is the stark warning from the man charged with stemming the tide of human misery flowing from the world’s poorest nations on the eve of his first day in the job.
Bob Tooby, the country’s first anti-human trafficking tsar, told Wales on Sunday the problem is already firmly entrenched in cities, coastal areas and even tranquil rural idylls.
But as he begins his fight to make Wales the most hostile UK territory for traffickers, the former Chief Superintendent of Cardiff said many continue to deny that the worst forms of human exploitation are taking place right on their doorstep.
“Other countries that have staged the games have seen a surge in trafficking,” said the 49-year-old from Cardiff, who has been appointed to his new role, a UK first, by the Assembly Government. “It’s at almost epidemic levels in London and is now creeping into other areas.
“Unless we do something about it, we are in danger of being swamped by human trafficking in Wales.
“But there are a lot of people in denial that it is happening. Yet there is clear evidence that it is happening, albeit on a small scale at the moment. Adults and children are trafficked from Nigeria, Lithuania, Romania, China, Vietnam and the Czech Republic. These people have no choice but to earn money for their families. They are coming here for legitimate jobs like bar work.”
But he said many of those who come to the Wales in search of a better life never find the well-paid work they long for.
He said they are often forced to work by traffickers to pay back the money they were loaned at an extortionate rate of interest to pay for their passage from their home country.
Others are brought here against their will.
“It’s 21st century slavery and they are sold as commodities,” he said.
“It’s actually worth £32bn a year in profit for the organised crime gangs.
“It’s the fastest growing crime globally because it covers different areas including sexual exploitation, criminal exploitation including cannabis farming, domestic servitude and large- scale fraud such as shoplifting and begging.
“There have already been examples in Wrexham, Cardiff and Pembrokeshire.”
While working as a senior detective in 2005, Mr Tooby dealt with a case which graphically illustrated the horror endured by trafficking victims.
He said a girl brought to Wales against her will from Lithuania was forced to work as a prostitute, seeing up to 30 customers a day. She was paid just £5 a day.
“She was suffering from all sorts of diseases. It was an horrendous crime.”
He does not believe her case is unique. But he said at the moment no-one knows the true scale of the problem and work to combat it is not properly co-ordinated.
He said while “tremendous work” is being done by the police, UK Border Agency and charities, including the NSPCC, “they are working in silos”.
“It’s about gelling all these different people together.
“We need to be victim focused, but also need to hit the traffickers for six. And not just with convictions, but also on proceeds of crime.”
The former regional crime squad detective, who worked undercover tracking drug dealers, said another major barrier to establishing the true scale of trafficking is that victims are often too scared to come forward.
“Victims have no faith in the police and the public sector in their own countries because they are corrupt and traffickers will tell them it is the same here,” he said.
Over the next 12 months, Mr Tooby will attempt to win the trust of minority communities in a bid to lure victims out from the shadows.
He will also help target police and other enforcement action in the areas where it is most needed. “If we can make Wales a hostile place for human traffickers a lot of my work will have been achieved,” he said.
“But it’s not going to happen overnight.”
Irishman Thomas Carroll was jailed for seven years for controlling a prostitution ring from a former vicarage in a Pembrokeshire village.
Carroll’s network, which he ran from a rented house in Castlemartin, involved trafficking Nigerian women into Ireland and forcing them to work as prostitutes all over the country.
Carroll, 49, originally from Bagenalstown, Co Carlow, in the Irish Republic, had fled to Wales to avoid prosecution when he was questioned by gardai over his network of brothels, but continued to run his criminal empire along with his partner Shamiela Clark, 33, and his 27-year-old daughter Toma Carroll.
An investigation into Cardiff’s sex trade heard how Eastern European gangs are trafficking women into the city for sexual exploitation.
A human rights organisation told a committee set up by Cardiff council how up to 60 women – from countries including Croatia, Albania, Czech Republic, Thailand, China, Kenya, Uganda and Nigeria – may be involved in prostitution in the city at any one time.
Witnesses also told the committee that trafficking was a serious and growing issue in the city.
TWO men were jailed for 10 years in 2005 for bringing a woman sex slave into Britain.
The blonde 21-year-old was smuggled into Cardiff from Lithuania to be sold for £5,000 to work in brothels.
She was then forced to work in three brothels where she was expected to have sex with up to nine men a day and hand over all her earnings to the Albanian gang.
At the sentencing in Cardiff, Judge Phillip Richards told the two gang members: “Both of you were involved in an evil trade which has been described as the 21st century’s slavery.”
Gang leader Akil Likcami, 20, was jailed for six years. He admitted trafficking the woman for sexual exploitation and controlling her activities as a prostitute.
His friend Gjerji Mungiovi-Cuka, 19, got four years for trafficking and being convicted of transporting the woman to various brothels in Cardiff.
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2011/04/03/tsar-warns-that-human-traffic-could-swamp-wales-91466-28447765/2/#ixzz1IUYSsQ00Source: walesonline.co.uk
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