ECPAT-TBS

Like many teenage girls, Sasha had dreams of becoming a model.

With a mixture of excitement and nervousness she answered an ad in her local paper and couldn't believe her luck when she was told to come and see them the next day. Her interview couldn't have gone better and to her delight she was offered the job there and then. It would be a fabulous opportunity as the shoot was in another country and she'd never been abroad. Scared her parents would stop her, she decided not to tell them until afterwards and made up a story that she was staying with a friend's family for a couple of days.

The next day she arrived at the agency and was shown into a van with two other girls. Because they were all quite young they travelled with a chaperone who insisted on taking their passports for safekeeping. The long journey didn't dampen their excitement and when they eventually arrived at the location they were still too happy to notice that something was wrong. The photographer was waiting for them in the attic of a house and told them to strip. Confused, they thought there must have been a mistake but the chaperone became angry and started threatening them. What followed was a weeklong nightmare for the girls. Held against their will, they were forced to prostitute themselves and had pornographic photography and film made of them.

Back home Sasha's parents were frantically searching for her. None of her friends had any information to help trace her and as the days passed they grew more scared for her safety.

Sasha eventually managed to escape her captors but alone and frightened in a strange city with no passport, had no idea how to get home. Too scared to go to the police incase they didn't believe her and arrested her instead and equally as scared they'd tell her parents the shameful things that had happened to her, she roamed the streets, trapped in a foreign country with no ID.

Kit didn't have a very happy family life and escaped his problems by surfing the net.

While in a chat room he mad friends with Ray who came from a similar situation so they shared their troubles and soon became good friends. One day, a frustrated Ray said he was running away and asked Kit to come with him.

Unhappy with his home life, Kit readily agreed and they arranged to meet at a train station. At the station they decided to head for the seaside as there would be a good chance they'd both be able to find work there. On board the train, Ray bought them both a drink. That was the last thing Kit remembered about the journey.

When he woke up he was locked in a small room with several other terrified young boys all shackled by the feet and hands. A man entered the room carrying a big stick and starting beating them. Shouting, he told them that they had to earn $40,000 before they'd be set free. To pay off their debt they'd have to work in a club entertaining clients and dancing in the bar. The man warned them that if they tried to escape they'd be severely beaten and their debt would increase. Kit was forced into sex work a few months before the police raided the club and rescued the abused boys. Not wanting to go back home the police eventually found him a place in a shelter for boys.

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