Michael Bower stated, “I congratulate the police for their work in rescuing these women from the living hell that they must have experienced. Human trafficking is a disgusting feature of modern society which must be tackled as robustly as possible.
“Last year, Alliance Youth ran a campaign to raise awareness about human trafficking in Northern Ireland and organised a petition signed by over 200 young people. Our campaign called for the Executive and the PSNI to take this issue seriously and to invest further resources into tackling the problem.
“Since then, the PSNI has set up an office to specifically investigate incidents of human trafficking, but we also heard Security Minister Paul Goggins state that it is not a real problem in Northern Ireland. We do however welcome the fact that following a meeting with Alliance Representatives, Paul Goggins is taking this issue more seriously.
“This police rescue shows that this sickening trade is a real problem and this incident is probably just the tip of the iceberg here.
“Alliance Youth once again calls for more resources to be invested into combating this problem and bringing the perpetrators to justice.”
ENDS