Police have revealed that up to 12,000 foreign women are being forced into a life of ‘sex slavery’ by criminal gangsters in British brothels.

The figure was revealed in a new report commissioned by the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) – which highlighted, for the first time, the true extent of immigration prostitution and sex trafficking in this country.

Over 2,500 women were said to have been trafficked into England and Wales and forced to work as sex slaves.

In addition to this, just under 10,000 prostitutes at brothels and other ‘businesses’ were considered to be “vulnerable migrants” working against their will in the sex industry. Researchers, however could not be sure if these workers had been trafficked.

Police officials said they were surprised by the number of Chinese sex workers across the country.

In one example, one women brought into the UK doesn’t know she’s going to be used as a prostitute but is forced into selling herself to pay off a large debt.

Photo by Rainer Ebert