Girls tricked into sexual slavery by gangsters who trade them as assets

Olessia Khledod's mistake was to answer a newspaper advertisement offering the prospect of work as a dancer in Brussels.

The student from St Petersburg in Russia had hoped to earn some money during the holidays of her university course in philosophy.

But soon after she arrived in the Belgian capital, Ms Khledod, 19, was abducted and raped by Albanian gangsters and forced to work as a prostitute in Britain.

She says she was deprived of her passport and kept captive for seven days before being forced to go to London on a forged Czech passport.

Ms Khledod became one of a pool of 15 eastern European prostitutes working for an Albanian pimp. Based in a flat she was obliged to have sex with dozens of men, before being "sold" to another Albanian gangster.

She claims that in a four-month period last year she earned her pimps £20,000. One of the clients made her pregnant but she was forced back to work only days after having a termination. She eventually managed to escape after using a Russian-English dictionary to explain to a woman that she had been kidnapped.

Many of the eastern European prostitutes coming to Britain are younger than Ms Khledod. Barbara Limanowska, author of a Unicef report on the trafficking of women and children, told an international conference in Rome earlier this year that at least 10 to 30 per cent of all eastern European sex workers are minors. It is thought that up to 80 per cent of victims from Albania are girls under 18. While several European countries have taken steps to tackle the problem, she said, Britain has been slow to act.

A 15-year-old girl with the working name of Lisa was recently rescued by the authorities while working as a prostitute in a sauna and massage parlour in Camden Town, north London. The girl had been abused by her father at home in Romania but when she tried to escape she was sold to a gangster, who took her to Macedonia.

She was sold again to an Albanian who passed her to pimps in Italy. A young Albanian man befriended her and arranged for her to travel to Britain on false documents. Lisa learnt later that this man had paid 4,000 Deutschmarks (about £1,300) for her.

He raped her and forced her to work in London brothels. She worked until 7am, slept for a few hours, and was then taken to work in sauna and massage parlours. She charged £30 for oral sex and £50 for more extensive activities. All the money went to her pimp.

Police were finally tipped off about Lisa's plight by another brothel owner. Her pimp was arrested and found guilty of raping her and living off immoral earnings. Lisa was put in care.