Trafficking victims are simply those that are forced, coerced or kidnapped
into a situation that they do not consent to be in,
and that could be one of labour, sexual, domestic servitude
and different types of exploitation
UK Nationals are trafficked by people within their own country.
Smuggling is where someone normally consents, they pay a fee,
to go from one country to another country.
Somebody can actually say, 'I want to be a prostitute, I want to work in prostitution',
and they're consenting to it.
It's something they're doing for a fee. It's their choice.
Trafficking, it isn't your choice, it isn't your consent.
Somebody else is exploiting you.
They've either tricked you into it, they've either forced you into it,
but you're in a situation where you're working for somebody else
and you have no choice.
So, consent and choice are the key issues there, and that's the difference.
Either they will go and meet girls themselves,
or they will send someone of a similar age group
to make the introductions and broker the introductions
and then once they're there, they will come forward and quite often they'll say
how much they love them and want to take them out,
and how much they want to talk to them,
and how much they want to spoil them or give them presents
and it's that, it's really building a trust relationship and then it's the insidious part,
then they start either making them do stuff through theft,
or start introducing drink or drugs or building on that trust,
building almost a love relationship and taking that forward
and within that relationship getting to a point of sexual contact
then the threat will start, 'we've slept together, I'll tell your mum and dad',
trying to break down that relationship between the people they trust.
The person is then isolated and alone and the only person they've got to rely on
is the person that's exploiting them.
The other thing to be concerned about is that quite often friends can be pulled into this.
Once they've got one person involved they'll say,
'Bring a friend along, bring them along' or
'We got drink tonight, bring ...' and then it can be like a chain reaction,
they can bring different friends along and
it's all part of the same grooming process.
The things to worry about is then, after that,
it's that coercion, the deception, the force,
you're then starting to be forced into doing things that you don't want
and the people doing this are making money from it.
Victims have come out of this, they've gone forward,
they've identified this situation,
and there is help and assistance there.
There was a great story - they were talking about traffic victims coming into the country,
and they went to Gatwick Airport, and there was a 15 year old girl
they didn't know whether she was trafficked or not.
They pulled her over and she was on her sister's things
and she was, her mum was a drunk and had sold her.
She went back, she hadn't been trafficked, she didn't get raped,
she went into Social Services Care back in her home country.
If you are in this situation or feel you're getting into this situation,
or you know somebody in this situation,
there is a way out of this and please contact and seek assistance.