A youth worker says that a dedicated child criminal exploitation team is needed within the PSNI
Young women and girls in Northern Ireland are being sexually exploited by organised crime gangs in order to pay off debts.
Read more: NI children being 'groomed by drug gang like paedophiles groom victims, says Belfast youth worker She said: "The exact same model is used by organised criminal gangs whenever they are looking to groom a child into sexual exploitation as criminal exploitation and we need to view it as being as serious as sexual exploitation as the two are very closely linked.
"On the extreme end of this, their boyfriends are asking them to have a chat with someone who they may owe money to, under the guise that they will not be as harsh on them as they are girls. But instead what will happen is she will be told that she can pay her debt a different way and then be sexually exploited or raped."
She said: "We need to recognise that while we may not have the same structure as County Lines gangs here as elsewhere in the UK, the same thing is happening here with children being transported from Belfast to Dublin to deliver and sell drugs, and this is trafficking.
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