Amnesty testifies on the trauma suffered by trafficking victims

Members of the Scottish parliament have been hearing testimony by Amnesty International on the trauma suffered by women who have been trafficked into sexual exploitation, a trauma so severe that Amnesty found 40% of victims had considered suicide.
Dr Cathy Zimmerman from Amnesty International said: “Serious levels of anxiety, sleep disorders and depression, severe depression. In fact, the women that we interviewed their depression levels compared with the ten percent of those most depressed women in the general population.”
Despite successful raids across the UK during the recent police “Operation Pentameter”, it is difficult to assess the extent of the problem because many of the women brought to the country are kept locked in private houses and apartments.
The UK government is still unsure of signing and ratifying the Council of Europe Convention on human trafficking because that would grant victims the right to remain in the country for a 30 day reflection period, but this is what is necessary as a minimum for people to start to recover from their ordeal and make informed choices about their lives. The government is afraid that such a move might encourage illegal immigration.