When asked about sex trafficking many people may associate it as a faraway problem in countries in Eastern Europe or Africa

or simply know little to nothing about it. This was the main response I gained when conducting a survey of 50 people on the streets of Leeds. Unfortunately this ideology is far from the reality and sex trafficking is a growing problem here in Leeds and around West Yorkshire. Human trafficking is a huge problem across the UK, with women and girls being tricked into coming to the UK from some of the poorest countries in the world. It is a modern form of slavery. Between 2006 and 2010 there were 32 reports of sex trafficking in West Yorkshire a number that has increased in recent years. Due to the covert nature of trafficking it is extremely difficult to gain an accurate insight into the amount of unreported and undiscovered cases. In August 2012 there were 51 referrals to the Government-funded support service for adult victims of human trafficking in England and Wales administered by the Salvation Army. 13 were found in West Yorkshire. The women were originally from Moldova, Pakistani, Thailand and Slovakia all trafficked illegally to the UK and placed in west Yorkshire to work as prostitutes against their will. In 2011 8 defendants were found guilty of trafficking offences in the UK, this number does not add up to the mass scale of the operations that are being conducted throughout the UK. Human and sex trafficking is such a huge problem and ran so securely as a business from all corners of the globe with assistance from corrupt border control and police that it is extremely difficult to not only assess the amount of women that are being trafficked and how many illegal brothels exist but who the key players are in each country. Women are falsely lured across the borders of Europe on the promise of waitressing or nursery jobs, the prospect of a better life teamed by what seems to be a legitimate employer sees these women wave goodbye to their family, naive to what awaits them and often never returning. Traffickers go to vast lengths to make their fake jobs seem safe often setting up fictitious websites, placing ads in newspapers, going through interview processes and even going to the lengths of recruiting a trustworthy woman to meet these girls and recount how great their jobs are and encourage the girls to leave home and improve their lifes. In October 2012 a Leeds brothel was raided and two Romanian men were arrested on suspicion of human trafficking. However the number of how many more brothels housing trafficked women remains to exist in Leeds is unknown. The problem is not only facing those women in poverty stricken countries that are then tricked and trafficked into West Yorkshire it works both ways. Leeds resident Sophie Hayes met Albanian boyfriend Kastriot in a Leeds nightclub and within two years found herself forced to work the streets of Italy as a prostitute. The plan for Sophie had been determined by Kastriot upon the first meeting and he had deceived her into trusting him before forcing her into a life familiar to so many more trafficked girls across the world. Sophie was abused until she managed to escape her ordeal and return to Leeds. She later shared her story in her debut book Trafficked LAST is a Leeds based against sex trafficking charity working to spread awareness in the city about the scale of the problem. Jacinta Kent from LAST commented that "Trafficking knows no borders so we need to work collaboratively across communities, cities, counties

and countries in order to combat it. The more we know, the brighter the light we can shine on this shadowy industry. The more we do, the closer we come to eradicating this exploitation and being a part of positive change". Leeds also has its own safe house for trafficked women; the Anneli project ran by the Leeds womens aid. They say We run a safe house service for women who have been trafficked for sexual exploitation. Some women have been trafficked internationally; whilst others are British-born women who have been trafficked internally within the UK They added we have been fighting against the problem in Leeds for the past 37 years. The misconception with sex trafficking is often that the girls working in these brothels and on the streets are prostitutes there by choice, the police often arrest these girls upon finding them either for prostitution which is illegal in the UK or for living here as illegal immigrants what the police services later realise is that the paperwork and passports of these girls is seized by the pimps that have bought them from the traffickers. The girls are here against their will, abused day in day out and unable to escape their captors. They cannot leave, they are either emotionally abused or threatened to the level that they dont feel strong enough to contact someone for help or they found themselves in the UK without knowing a word of English or even what city they are being held in. To work towards combating human and sex trafficking in West Yorkshire awareness is key. Follow the work of LAST and the Amnesty international society at Leeds university to see how you can get involved and contribute towards helping the stolen lifes of these women on your doorstep.