Charity claims human trafficking 'huge' problem in Northern Ireland

A women's charity has said it receives around one referral every day to provide support to a potential victim of human trafficking.

Women's Aid Belfast and Lisburn said the problem was huge.

Noelle Collins told BBC News NI that the charity's trafficking project is currently supporting 168 women and almost 200 children.

It comes after two suspected victims of human trafficking were rescued from a property in south Belfast.

They were found following a police search of a flat in the Annadale Embankment area on Friday.

Three people who were arrested during the police operation have been released on bail to allow for further enquiries.

They were questioned on a number of offences, including brothel keeping and controlling prostitution.

A sum of cash was also seized.

During a follow-up search of a property in the Newtownards Road area, three suspected firearms were recovered.

Ms Collins said Women's Aid Belfast and Lisburn had seen an increase in referrals for support for potential victims over the last number of years.

She said most of the women referred to the charity are done so by the Home Office.

They are newcomers to Northern Ireland who tend to have been trafficked prior to their arrival here.

But some others, she said, are brought to Northern Ireland specifically to be exploited - whether sexually or for domestic servitude.

While others include women who are from Northern Ireland and who are exploited by people from here.

"Certainly we're seeing more and more operations by the PSNI (Police Service of Northern Ireland)," Ms Collins said.

"The human trafficking team within the PSNI, who we work very, very closely with, is doing more operations, so therefore more women are coming to us."

She said there was "obviously a market" for brothels and that they could be operating anywhere.

"We've heard of brothels in housing estates, and unless you have the intelligence police don't actually know what's happening," she said.

"It's our experience that they don't stay in the one address for too long. They do move around and have different properties that are rented out. So it may not be that it's long-term because people become very suspicious."

South Belfast MP Claire Hanna said her thoughts were with the women at the centre of this kind of criminality.

"It's just hard to comprehend, and difficult to comprehend, the life that these women will be facing," she told BBC News NI.

"We don't know what they've experienced getting to this point, but the fact that they are clearly being here against their will, being used for sexual exploitation throughout the day, throughout the week, they'll need a lot of support in their recovery.

"We need to make sure that as few people as possible are trafficked into this sort of criminal enterprise."

Hanna also said that work is needed to be done to identify the people behind human trafficking, which include organised criminal gangs.