Silent victims: the hidden Romanian women exploited in the UK sex trade

Sex traffickers can make profits of over 1m a year per brothel - and Covid lockdowns have only made it easier for them to operate

Three weeks ago, police entered a brothel in south-east England after receiving intelligence about criminal activity there. Inside, they found eight Romanian women wearing face shields and masks, and laminated Covid-19 health and safety sheets on the wall. An industrial-size bottle of hand sanitiser stood by the front door.

On the surface, this did not look like a place where criminality and sexual exploitation was taking place," says Cristina Huddleston, a trafficking victim support specialist who joined the raid that evening.