Human traffic victim from Latvia rescued in UK

  • 2014-08-22
  • From wire reports, RIGA

(photo: twitter)

A Latvian woman believed to have been trafficked into the UK and imprisoned has been rescued by police, the BBC reports. 

British police said it rescued the 36-year-old on Tuesday after Interpol contacted the force when her mother reported she was being held against her will in Manchester, England.

Two men, aged 31, and a woman, 46, have been arrested on suspicion of false imprisonment and human trafficking at an address in Longsight.

The woman's mother said her daughter had travelled to the UK on the promise of getting a job but later told her she had been held against her will for almost 14 months.

Police believe the victim had been imprisoned in the UK since the middle of last year, but had been moved to a series of addresses in Longsight over the last eight months. The victim described details of the flat where she was being held to her mother, but could not give the exact address.

Detective Inspector Dave Turner of Greater Manchester Police said: "From what we have established so far, we believe this woman was lured into the country and kept against her will in a number of addresses, unsure whether she would ever be able to see her family again.

"We have to commend her bravery, defying her captors to pass the vital information about her whereabouts to her mother and thus assist her own rescue."