The hidden lives of sex slaves in Wales

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Sex trafficking is happening in Wales today... and not just in our urban centres, says Cathy Owens of Amnesty International
TANYA, an 18 year-old Lithuanian girl, found herself forced to work as a prostitute in Cardiff after being promised a new life as a hotel waitress. She was trafficked and sold into sexual slavery in London by a police officer from her village. Her new owners then took her to Cardiff and gang-raped her to prepare her for her new job.
Tanya is one of thousands of women who are trafficked into the UK and forced into prostitution each year. Although it is difficult to monitor the exact scale of human trafficking, by 2003 the UK government estimated that 4,000 victims of trafficking for the sex trade were in the UK at any one time. Prostitution and the trafficking of women is the third highest black market income- earner globally, after arms and drugs, and is growing every year.
One or two court cases that involved trafficking for the sex trade had occurred in Cardiff, and I wanted to find out how extensive an issue this was in Wales. I knew our capital city had a bit of a dark underside, but was it true that there were women suffering this brutal existence within a few miles of my home in the city centre?
We talked to police officers, outreach workers and voluntary organisations to produce a snapshot of the extent of the issue here. What we found was shocking, and I am sure that people across Wales will be surprised and appalled by the number of victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation and the level of violence used.
The findings outlined in the report we are publishing this week estimates there may be up to 60 trafficked women in Cardiff at any one time. They live in appalling conditions and suffer daily brutality. Most are controlled as commodities by sophisticated criminal gangs. They are forced to see up to 10 men a day and are beaten if they are uncooperative. They can be moved from city to city to ensure they do not build relationships and are told their families will be harmed if they go to the police.
Smaller, though significant, numbers of trafficked women are understood to be in Swansea and Cardiff but what surprised me most was that small pockets of victims were found in a handful of small communities across North Wales. It is a myth to suggest this cruel trade is limited to our urban centres.
In all, we think there are around 150 women in Wales, right now, who have been trafficked here and live under the constant threat of violence.