Ruhama notes increase in demand for services; new report published in UK on trafficking

Ruhama, an NGO which supports women affected by prostitution and trafficking, has noted that the number of women accessing their support services grew by almost one-fifth last year. The figures contained in their Annual Report show that the group supported 241 women last year. 41 of these women were assisted through Ruhama’s street outreach programme, while the remaining 200 were assisted through casework. 91 of the women Ruhama helped were suspected to be victims of sex-trafficking.

Sarah Benson, Ruhama's CEO, said that the experiences of the women “echo those reported by women every year for the last 22 years of Ruhama’s existence”, and that “the over reliance on the immigration system to detect victims of trafficking and the fact that most victims are forced to make their own escape from traffickers, if they are to access help, results in a relatively low number of victims receiving assistance in Ireland”.

Click here to read an article in the Journal.

Click here to read Ruhama's Annual Report for 2011. 

Meanwhile, a recent report published by the United Kingdom Human Trafficking Centre has revealed the purposes for which people are being trafficked into the UK and the numbers of those trafficked. The 2011 baseline assessment reports that 2,077 potential victims of trafficking were identified in the UK last year and that 11% of victims are trafficked for the purposes of domestic servitude, 1% for organ harvesting, 5% for multiple exploitation, 17% for criminal exploitation, 22% for labour exploitation, 31% for sexual exploitation and 13% for reasons unknown.

The report is compiled using information from a number of bodies including the police forces and the UK Border Agency. A notable statistic from the report is  that the majority of trafficking in the UK is for purposes other than sex trafficking. A programme coordinator of Anti-Slavery International said that “the prevalence of trafficking for forced labour in industries like agriculture, construction or food processing is a problem we have been pointing to for a number of years. It is important that the law enforcement authorities now increase efforts to arrest those who profit from forced labour and ensure that all victims of trafficking see their exploiters brought to justice”.

Click here to read an article in the Guardian about the report.

Click here to download a copy of the UKHTC's assessment.

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