MP calls for end to 'slave prostitute' exploitation

A London MP has called for more to be done to rescue unwilling prostitutes from the "physical and mental torture of their sex slavery".

Stephen Pound was reacting to research by the Poppy Project that found hundreds of women had been trafficked from Eastern Europe and Asia to work in the Capital's brothels.

The project discovered more than 8,000 prostitutes working in 730 venues around London, some of whom had been traded and kept in virtual slavery.

More than 30 premises were reported as being used by the sex trade around Pound’s Ealing North constituency alone.

He told ePolitix.com: "St Augustine said prostitution is as necessary to civilisation as gutters are to a palace.

"However distasteful it might be these things exist and we need to manage them. We do need to look again at options like the tolerance zones they have in Edinburgh.

"I haven't had a complaint from a constituent about a brothel for years and we have to accept that some women do this voluntarily.

"It is hard to accept, but having spoken to a number of sex workers, on a purely non-professional basis, some of them volunteer to do it."

But Pound said the priority was to liberate women who had been forced into a life of prostitution against their will by criminals.

"A lot of these women are chattel slaves bought and sold, often by men from their own countries.

"It’s not just a bit of saucy fun but hellish physical and mental torture for these women and we all need to be vigilant and do more to stop it," he added.

The Ealing North MP also reacted to the news that his borough was home to more than 30 brothels.

"Ealing has many wonderful things to attract the tourist but I wouldn’t put the whore houses on the itinerary," he said