Essex Police are targetting modern slavery and trafficking criminals operating in airports.

Yesterday (July 30), as part of World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, officers at Stansted Airport spent the day working alongside Border Force to raise awareness of the signs of modern slavery and human trafficking.

The teams worked together to monitor incoming flights, offer advice to incoming passengers about spotting the signs and spoke to those who seemed like they may have been in a vulnerable position.

Chief Inspector Lisa Cooke, who is based at the airport, said: “Modern slavery and human trafficking is a huge problem across the world and, here at Stansted, we conduct regular operations and patrols to spot the signs of anyone who may be being exploited.

“It’s just as important that fellow passengers, or other workers at the airport, know how to spot the signs of someone who may have been threatened or coerced into getting on that flight. Are they travelling alone and do they look lost? Is someone else holding their passport? Do they look malnourished, or have you heard them being verbally abused on the plane? Are they travelling with an abnormal amount of cash? These are questions our officers and partners ask every day.

“Today we’ve managed to engage with people incoming from all sorts of different flights and, hopefully, they’ll continue to look out for the tell-tale signs of victims next time they’re near an airport, port or train station, and in their everyday lives.”

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