Watch as police raid Dundee home in human trafficking crackdown

Police in Dundee have taken a week of action aimed at disrupting organised crime groups.

Officers targeted a house in the affluent Fairmuir area of the city in connection with suspected human trafficking and sexual exploitation offences.

Police say they are focused on disrupting the groups that exploit vulnerable men, women and children sexually, financially and emotionally.

STV News joined officers for the raid in Fairview earlier this week.

Plainclothes officers were eventually let into the property, avoiding forced entry by officers standing by with a battering ram.

A specialist police dog was also drafted in to sniff out any proof of exploitation. Evidence was later removed, but no-one was arrested.

The operation was designed to build a bigger picture of the extent of human trafficking and sexual exploitation across Dundee.

It’s a growing problem across Scotland. In the last six years, the number of human trafficking victims in Scotland has increased by 260%, according to the organisation Survivors of Human Trafficking in Scotland (SOHTIS).

Cases have been found in every local authority of Scotland.

There are an estimated 360,000 trafficked people in the UK but only 10% are found every year, the charity said.

Detective superintendent Ray Birnie of Police Scotland said, “The most common (type of exploitation crime) for us is people being trafficked in to work in the sex industry and we’ve real concerns for the people involved, often against their will and often brought in from foreign countries.

“But it takes many forms and many different guises – including in the drugs trade – and including modern slavery, where people are brought in to work for wages way below what they should get and are exploited that way.”

Victims found during the police action are being supported by navigators from the charity Justice & Care. The organisation helps victims of exploitation to rebuild their lives and supports them through the justice process.

So far this week, six properties across Tayside have been searched and 17 people have been arrested for various offences.

Detectives say disrupting the organised crime groups behind human trafficking is complex.

They are urging anyone with suspicions to report this hidden crime as it could happen on anyone’s doorstep.