Sky News hears the horrific stories of human trafficking as figures show the number of potential victims rose to 5, Albanian gangs operating at the "higher end of sophistication" are being linked to a surge in the number of trafficking victims brought to the UK. Sky News met 15 victims at a shelter in Vlore, a city in the south of Albania which remains a hot spot for the country's trafficking network. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player.
These women and girls are victims of Albanian trafficking gangs and are now receiving help from the charity Vatra. She told Sky News how it brought shame on her family and described how she was beaten by her own mother and brother. After fleeing her home she ended up in the hands of one of Albania's trafficking gangs in Italy and was forced to work unpaid as a prostitute in the UK for 18 months.
She told Sky News: "It happened on the same day, as soon as we arrived at the house within an hour he [her trafficker] started to talk roughly She did manage to get away - but others end up being sold from gang to gang across Europe and increasingly into the UK.
The National Crime Agency NCA says the number of potential trafficking victims referred to British authorities rose to 5, between to Most foreign victims are from Albania, trafficked by a network of criminal gangs which operate across European countries, selling victims as commodities.
The deputy director of the NCA, Tom Dowdall, says the groups are particularly resilient to law enforcement. He said: "Albanian organised criminal gangs are operating at the higher end of sophistication and are certainly operating in the UK as they do within several other countries in western Europe.
