Slavery

The National Crime Agency (NCA) said it has seen some evidence of potential trafficking victims being marked with tattoos - like branding.

The report found that victims were marked with "various symbols signifying ownership or to show that a victim is over 18".

The report said it included the evidence to give front line responders another sign to look out for when dealing with potential victims.

By far the most common type of exploitation was sexual in nature. Other common exploitation types suffered by potential victims included:

• Sexual exploitation (41%)
• Labour exploitation (27%)
• Criminal exploitation (9%)
• Unknown (9%)
• Domestic servitude (8%)
• Organ harvesting (less than 1%)

Last year saw the number of potential trafficking victims from the UK more than double, according to a new report.

The potential victims came from 86 different countries. The most common countries of origin were:

• Romania (11%)
• Poland (9%)
• UK (7%)
• Albania (7%)
• Nigeria (6%)

The number of potential slavery victims exploited in car washes has risen from just seven cases in 2012 to 30 in 2013. Half of these were from Romania.

The National Crime Agency found that many of these were forced to work for low pay and bound to traffickers through debt bondage.

Of those trafficked for labour exploitation, most (around 10%) were put to work in the paving and tarmacking industry by members of the UK Traveller community.

There were also significant numbers being exploited in the agriculture, construction and food industries.