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British police have rescued 84 women and girls forced into prostitution, one of whom was just 14, during a four-month crackdown on the sex industry, officers said on Wednesday.
Operation Pentameter had so far led to 232 arrests and 134 charges, as a result of police raids on 515 brothels, massage parlours, private homes and other premises across Britain and Ireland, they said.
About half the rescued women and girls came from eastern Europe, the rest from the Far East, Africa and Latin America.
Most of the 12 children rescued were from African nations and half were discarded because they were pregnant, reducing their value to pimps.
A spokeswoman for Operation Pentameter said there was an "emerging trend" for child victims from Africa and Latin America.
In order to identify sex workers who were victims of human trafficking, police asked men who used prostitutes to look out for women who appeared to have been lured in to the sex trade against their will.
In return, they guaranteed that clients who tipped them off would not face charges.
South Yorkshire Assistant Chief Constable Bill Skelly said pimps would on average pay "2,000 to 3,000 pounds" (2,900 to 4,370 euros, 3,700 to 5540 dollars) for a trafficked woman or girl.
"Prices for newly-trafficked women can be much higher, sometimes up to 8,000 pounds (11,650 euros, 14,770 dollars)," he said.
"Young, innocent, virginal women attract the highest prices.
"It is awful to talk about people as commodities but that is how they are viewed by the trafficking gangs."
One Lithuanian girl was sold for 8,000 pounds when she arrived in Britain because she was a virgin, officers said.
South Yorkshire Deputy Chief Constable Grahame Maxwell said the influx of women trafficked into Britain in the last two years was causing the prices paid for full sexual intercourse with prostitutes to fall to between 40 and 50 pounds (75 to 90 dollars, 60 to 75 euros).
Gloucestershire Chief Constable Tim Brain said there was much more to be done since only about 10 percent of the open prostitution market had been targeted in the operation.
"We think we have got only the tip of the iceberg," he said.
Junior Home Office minister Vernon Coaker said the government would set up a permanent Human Trafficking Centre (UKHTC) to continue the operation's work.
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Britain-prostitution
AFP 212017 GMT 06 06
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