Moldovan sex slaves released in U.K. human trafficking raids

Underage girls from Moldova are sold by government connected gangs and smuggled to Britain as forced sex slaves, authorities say

NORWICH (Tiraspol Times) - A group of Moldovan women who were forced into prostitution have been freed in raids across London and Surrey, in the United Kingdom. The raids, which took place over the past three days, uncovered a Moldovan-linked network of brothels and human trafficking which so far has led to the arrest of 15 people. They are suspected of being involved in an international criminal network managing people trafficking and prostitution, the Norwich Evening Post reports.

Moldova, Europe's poorest country, is the continent's leading supplier of underage girls for sexual exploitation. Human trafficking rings operate with impunity in Moldova, where they are for the most part under government protection and where a number of local government officials are involved as participants behind the rings. Due to a climate of impunity, no government officials have ever been charged with human trafficking and prostitution offenses in Moldova.

" - This major operation successfully disrupted a long standing organized criminal network. Human trafficking is simply modern day slavery and, as we've discovered, it is happening in this county," said British Detective Chief Inspector Christine Wilson, head of Norfolk's Vulnerable People Directorate. In the investigation into the gangs involved in human trafficking, British police received no cooperation of any kind from Moldova's authorities.

Europe's largest sex-trafficker

Human trafficking networks and sex slavery gangs bring young women to the United Kingdom where they are “debt-bonded” and ordered to pay debts of up to £25,000 for travel and board. In order to pay off their "debt", the victims are sold between traffickers and forced into prostitution. Many commit suicide and of the survivors, a large number get infected with AIDS before they turn 20.

This is not the first time that British authorities are cracking down on Moldova's sex trafficking rings. In February, the British government announced the results of a case against Europe's largest sex trafficker, a Moldovan, who had all his assets seized in a record-sized bust in London. The ring-leader, Gheorghe Virtosu, earned $1.5 million by smuggling prostitutes from Moldova. London's High Court ruled that all of his assets, including five properties and hundreds of thousands of pounds in cash, were proceeds of crime and could be seized by the U.K.'s Assets Recovery Agency.

Moldova is Europe's poorest country and has been officially classified as a failed state by the Washington-based annual Failed State Index for the past two years in a row. It has poverty and corruption levels which are are below many African countries.

The current Republic of Moldova has existed since 1991, when it unilaterally broke free from the Soviet Union. One year earlier, in 1990, the 'de facto' independent republic of Pridnestrovie had already declared its own independence. It had already left Moldova and been self-governing for a year by the time Moldova declared independence. (With information from Norwich Evening News)

See also:
» Moldovan sex trafficker's assets seized in record bust
» Official involvement in Moldova's human trafficking and sex slave trade
» Moldova: Lower prices behind sex slavery boom and child prostitution