POLICE in far-eastern Russia have rescued 72 young women who were to be sold as sex slaves in North America, Africa and Asia.
They also seized £270,000 and fake travel documents from the women’s captors, Rashid Nurgaliyev, the Interior Minister, said.
The young women, who came from across the former Soviet Union, had had their passports taken away and were being held in a specially equipped shelter in the Primorye region, near Vladivostok, Russian media said.
Five members of a prostitution ring that kidnapped and “psychologically prepared” the women were arrested.
Human traffickers in the former Soviet bloc often lure young women with promises of lucrative jobs abroad: Russian newspapers are full of advertisements offering more than £1,000 a month for waitressing or washing dishes.
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But girls who respond to such advertisements often have their passports taken from them and are forced into prostitution. Others are simply kidnapped.
More than 500,000 women from the former Soviet Union have been trafficked to more than 50 countries in the past ten years, according to the United Nations. Little public discussion of the issue has left many Russian women unaware of the dangers.
Parliament passed legislation tightening penalties for human trafficking last year.