Catherine Davison. Redbridge, in east London, has become a magnet for vulnerable young women illegally trafficked by organised crooks, largely from Romania and other eastern European countries, who are then forced to sell their bodies on the streets and in "pop-up" brothels.
Police officers told a crime scrutiny meeting at Redbridge Town Hall they were currently "closing on average one brothel a week," Ilfordrecorder. It also emerged nearly half of the customers are men flocking to Redbridge from other areas because of its now infamous reputation for sex workers. Ilford Lane, Ilford, has become the epicentre for on-street prostitution, and the number of girls working the road ballooned after nationals from Romania were allowed to work unrestricted in the UK from However, after a police blitz on the area, when more than 40 people were arrested and 41 cautions were issued, many of the young women have been moved into makeshift brothels which have sprung up all over the borough, often near tube stations, spreading the problem out.
A Met Police spokesman said: "We are seeing a movement into premises and that will continue to be a problem for us. Redbridge Council was forced to set up a specialist prostitution scrutiny panel to deal with the issue, after residents complained and an online petition was launched. He described it as "absolutely horrendous" that very young girls were trafficked across national borders and between different locations in the borough. We are seeing a movement into premises and that will continue to be a problem for us.
The Met Police targeted Ilford Lane in the summer after a spike of complaints from residents of girls out all night, used condoms thrown in gardens and people having sex in the street on dumped mattresses. In one case mobile brothels with mattresses in the backs of vans were set up and later seized by police. Pc Hass Memish was involved in an operation that reduced numbers of on street prostitutes before the brothel issue exploded. He said: "When I started, like I said, I was shocked.
There were two or three girls on every corner. Between 20 and Officers worked with detectives, seconded from the Romanian police, charities to combat the problem. The scrutiny meeting heard less women are seen in the streets, but the moving brothel problem has taken over as organised crooks rent flats for the women to work from.
