Alda was a virgin and she had never dreamt of starting her sex life with a succession of strangers. A few weeks after she started this working life, Belgian police raided the brothel and picked the girl up for being under age. Reliable statistics on how many women are leaving Albania and becoming sex workers in Western Europe, and how many are trapped into sexual slavery, are hard to establish, but Alda's story is not unique. The British authorities are now so concerned about the problem that the Home Office has commissioned a report on such human trafficking to the UK, which will be published next year. The researchers, Liz Kelly and Linda Regan, of the University of North London, believe that hundreds of women are moved into Britain each year.
Police often turn a blind eye to it.
But it happens, and it involves gross abuse of these women's human rights. The UK has to act on the issue. It is a measure of the Government's concern that the Department for International Development recently funded a conference in Tirana to address the issue. Thailand and Latin America used to be the prime centres of trafficking to Britain, but the focus has shifted to Eastern Europe, and Albania is becoming a centre of the trade. But desperate circumstances do not breed free choice.