Alliance Youth Chair hails human trafficking breakthrough and says keep up campaign

12.09.00pm GMT Mon 14th Jan 2008

Alliance Youth Chair Stephen Martin has welcomed news that the PSNI have rescued three women from a house in Belfast where they were being used for prostitution. At the end of last year, Alliance Youth organised a highly successful campaign, with much support from Alliance South Belfast MLA Anna Lo, highlighting the issues of human trafficking here in Northern Ireland.

Stephen Martin said: "Many people are simply not aware of the full scale of the work of human traffickers within our own country. The news of three women being rescued in Belfast is further evidence of the growing effects of human trafficking right on our very door-steps. The trade in human beings is on the increase and feeds into another areas of criminality such as prostitution, drug-related offences and violent crimes. The police operation against human trafficking is a very welcome step in tackling this abhorrent trade. Those who mastermind, assist and promote human trafficking in Northern Ireland and those who benefit from their activities must feel the full force of the law for their crimes.

The Alliance Youth Chair continued, "Imagine if it was your children, your brother, sister, parent of friend that found themselves caught up in a situation like this. We wouldn't let anything stop us from preventing them being hurt or abused. Human traffickers trade in vulnerable human beings, exploiting them for their own personal profit. The PSNI crackdown is encouraging and the police must be commended for their hard work on this occasion. Alliance Youth hope that this is only one of many more successes in the future but they can not do it by themselves. Human trafficking is far too important an issue to go un-noticed and un-tackled. We must all play our part in bringing these criminals to justice by giving all useful information that we may have to the PSNI."

ENDS