As human trafficking continues to be growing problem in London, police have created a dedicated unit to support those being victimized and to stop those responsible.
During a London Police Services Board meeting on Thursday, Detective Michael Hay detailed how the number of potential victims of human trafficking has increased locally, as well as the number of suspected traffickers.
In 2015, there were 88 potential at risk victims and 33 people who police suspected were committing human trafficking offences in London. In 2016, those numbers grew to 111 potential victims and 81 suspected traffickers.
Statistics in London also showed that 93% of victims of human trafficking are female, 47% are between the ages of 18-24, and 25% are under 18 years old.
In 2016, 74 criminal charges were laid by London police in connection to incidents of human trafficking.
As of January 1, a new human trafficking unit with the London Police Service has been given permanent status within the police department. The unit, which was first active back in October 2016 on a temporary basis, is made up of one detective and two detective constables.
Hay, who is part of the unit, said their first priority is to rescue those who have become the victims of human trafficking. The unit's secondary priority is to lay criminal charges.
"If we come across a victim who advises [police] that they are being trafficked and they don't want to be in the situation they are currently in, we'll take them out of that situation and bring them to a safe place," he said. "[We'll also] get them in touch with social agencies who can assist them."
Between October and December, the unit was able to rescue seven female victims in London. Only three of those victims agreed to provide information to police that resulted in criminal charges.
"Any given day, there's probably 90 sex trade workers working as escorts in London. And I would estimate 25% of them are being trafficked," he said. "Three out of five of them, we believe, are traveling up and down the 401 corridor."
Hay said the biggest challenges the unit faces are the complexity of the investigations, and convincing victims of human trafficking to talk to the police.
"Because of the trauma bond they have with their abuser, they have a great deal of difficulty opening up and telling us what's going on. They don't want cooperate with police," he said. "We try reach out to people we suspect are victims in a covert manner, and that's for their own safety as well. We don't want the people who are trafficking them to know they've had an interaction with police.
"There's a lot of victims in London right now. We are going to do everything we can to help everyone we can, but I think we're just scraping the surface."
Megan Walker, executive director of the London Abused Women's Centre, was also at the police service board meeting and said the new human trafficking unit gives her a lot of hope for the future.
She said her centre served 490 women and girls over the last 17 months. Of those, 158 said they were being trafficked for the purpose of prostitution.
"We've never seen anything like it. It's never been like this," said Walker. "[The London Abused Women's Centre] started doing this work 16 years ago, and at that time, most of the girls and women we were seeing were actually trafficked into London. We're now seeing a huge number of women trafficked or recruited from London.... so it's very fluid."
Walker added that while she's happy to see the permanent formation of the new police unit, it should have been created much sooner. She said it was disappointing London City Council took soon long to allocate the funding, despite the centre's efforts.
"We had been passing on our statistics on human trafficking to the City of London, we called city councillors and talked to them about the importance of having a dedicated unit... but unfortunately they wouldn't agree to give the funding," she said "So we were happy at the last minute [when the funding was granted], but we continue to think of how many women we lost, how many young girls we lost, waiting for that to happen."
-With files from Miranda Chant
