SEX trafficking victims are being “failed” by the Home Office, according to a new report that claims women are being detained for months or released back to the addresses where they were abused.
The charity Women for Refugee Women (WRW) report into the much-criticised Yarl’s Wood detention centre heard evidence from 14 Chinese trafficking victims, who told of the anguish they suffered as a result of being detained.
WRW claims women became suicidal through being locked up, despite Government guidance stating that those deemed to be particularly vulnerable should be released to safe-house accommodation.
Its report said that in nine of the 14 cases women had been forced into prostitution in brothels or massage parlours, and in the remaining five women had been forced to work in restaurants, or other forms of forced labour, including domestic servitude.
Most had managed to escape the exploitative situation by the time they were encountered by immigration enforcement and taken to Yarl’s Wood, the report said.
All 14 in the report have since been released from the centre and are seeking asylum.
One sex trafficking victim described how her removal to Yarl’s Wood was like being “taken from one hell to another”.
She said: “The gang leaders forced me to have sex with men who would come to the house where I was imprisoned. If I tried to refuse they would beat me and starve me. Then one day men in uniforms came to the house. I was terrified. They took me to Yarl’s Wood. I was taken from one hell to another.”
WRW director Natasha Walter said: “In all my time working with refugee and asylum-seeking women I have never heard stories more harrowing than those we are hearing from Chinese trafficked women in detention. These women have suffered extreme abuse and exploitation and do not receive the support and protection that is promised in policies. Instead, they are locked up and threatened with deportation. This situation must change now.”
Solicitor Shalini Patel, who helped the women involved in the report, said there was “sheer disregard” for the safety of those “who have already been subjected to such horrendous sexual abuse and exploitation”.
She added: “These women are by no means fit for detention but despite this fact they are detained for months at a time with no adequate support.”
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