Olympic sex trafficking fears cost police £500,000 - Assembly Member

Scare-mongering over an outbreak of sex trafficking during the Olympics resulted in half a million pounds being wasted, a London Assembly Member has claimed.

Conservative Member Andrew Boff said that just four cases of trafficking were discovered last year – despite an extra £500,000 being diverted to police after warnings that the Games would spark a boom in the sex trade.

“Before the 2012 Games there was a great deal of hype around the idea that the Olympics would open the flood gates to sex trafficked women”, he said.

“And now I have data that confirms that these fears were misplaced and there was no increase in prostitution or human trafficking.”

“Yet a huge amount of time, money and resources was poured into this search, which turned out to be nothing more than tilting at windmills.”

Mr Boff was speaking following the publication of his report on human trafficking and the sex workers, “Silence on Violence”. He concluded that resources were too often focused in the wrong areas due to the amount of trafficking which takes place outside the sex industry.