Scandal of girls sold into vice

Hove MP Ivor Caplin said: "I am very concerned at this trade and want it brought to an end. If this means lobbying parliament I will do so."

A BBC documentary will tonight feature the illegal trade in children who have been taken from council care in West Sussex and made to work the streets in Italy.

West Sussex councillor James Walsh, former social services chairman, called it a scandal that youngsters in care were being led into prostitution.

The victims, mostly from African countries, have been disappearing from care homes for the last two years, a county council spokesman said.

Council bosses and the police believe they have been targeted by gangs.

The number of girls who have gone missing has dropped recently as the county council works more closely with the police to step up security at a special social services home dedicated to child asylum seekers.

It is thought around 40 children have gone missing from West Sussex.

A council spokesman said: "It is true to say that a certain number of asylum seekers, minors, have gone missing from social services care. We believe they may have been taken by gangs abroad.

"We have always done as much as we can to prevent this happening, but we cannot force people to stay inside all the time.

"We are reducing the numbers who are going missing by working very closely with all the agencies, including the police. We are doing everything in our power to stop this."

Police uncovered a scam run by gangs who sold girls into prostitution throughout Europe.

Most of the girls have been willing partners wanting to pay off debts.

Unlike some European countries, Britain has no specific legislation against trafficking in humans but that may change.

Sussex Police, the only force to carry out an investigation into the trafficking, confirmed today that it had been asked to produce a paper on the subject.

A force spokesman said: "The Home Office is looking at it with a view to new legislation being brought in."

In 1997 the Argus revealed how seven West African girls had vanished from care homes in Hove and Worthing.

Police at the time said they feared the asylum seekers had fallen prey to racketeers.

The investigation proved girls were being sold into prostitution but there were no laws to stop the trafficking.

One officer who spent months on the trail was Detective Sergeant Andy Cummins, now with Brighton police.

The girls, some of them already working as prostitutes in their home countries, would arrive at Gatwick Airport to seek political asylum.

Mr Cummins said their real aim was to find a better environment in which to live.

They were provided with free flights by their "owners" and the girls would be expected to pay them back about $30,000 before they would be released from their obligations.

Sometimes the owners would sell the debt and the girl to brothel owners or madams in Europe.

The girls began arriving in 1996. They would have no documentation and because of their ages - some were just 14 or 15 - they were placed in care homes by social services.

Most claimed to be from strife-torn Sierra Leone.

Relatives, some bogus, made contact and after satisfying Immigration and social service officials they could provide a secure place to live, the girls were released.

Others simply ran away and made contact with their owners in London. They could have fled to safety but many were under voodoo threats.

One such girl, a Catholic, was found by Sussex police in Verona, Italy. She claimed the majority of girls were content with their lives.

The Sussex Police investigation was handed to the National Crime Squad in January last year but six months later the inquiry was closed. Police had evidence but no laws to prosecute with.

One officer said: "It was a pointless exercise and we were all wasting our time."

Mr Cummins said: "This is a massive business, probably all over the country, and I don't think we have even scratched the surface."

The BBC 2 Southern Eye documentary is at 7.30pm tonight.