Dispatches documentry tonight at 10.30, channel 4 investigating British gangs grooming young girls for sex.
The programme highlights the grooming of young girls for sexual exploitation, an issue linked closely to internal trafficking.
True Vision describe the film on their website;
Later this month the Minister for Children and Families will launch an action plan outlining what the coalition proposes to do to tackle the problem of sex gangs grooming then abusing vulnerable children and young adults on the streets of Britain.
Recent research suggest that thousands of children are potentially being abused by street grooming gangs: and this may only be tip of the iceberg, as experts believe many crimes of this nature go unreported, partly because of sensitivities over race.
Dispatches reveals that over the last four years a disproportionately high number of men convicted of these crimes are British Pakistani. Our investigation also shows this type of crime has been going on for many years.
Tazeen Ahmad investigates why British Pakistani men are over represented in convictions for this pattern of crime, and hears from some quarters of the Pakistani community in the UK that say enough is enough, and that now is the time for decisive action on the issue.
She meets victims of grooming and their parents whose lives have been torn apart, in an attempt to understand how girls as young as 12 have been targeted by these gangs, and then so terrorised and brainwashed that they keep the secret of their ordeal hidden for years.
In a particularly shocking encounter she talks to two young Pakistani men who explain in detail how grooming by gangs is perpetrated, why virgins are more highly prized, and how the commerce of this type of brutal exploitation unfolds.
Analysing in detail recent cases in Derby and Rotherham, Tazeen meets police, charities and the father of two men convicted of these crimes, who speaks for the first time ever on camera.
She also attends a sex education workshop run by a forward thinking Imam, who has very forthright views on the issue.
This film asks if there are cultural, social or religious contributory factors; how the Pakistani community feel about it; how it is being exploited by the far right; how can it be policed; and what can be changed to protect young people from Britain’s Sex Gangs.
Extract from: http://truevisiontv.com/films/details/101/britains-sex-gangs
Read an interview with Alyas Karmani, the director of STREET (Strategy to Reach Educate and Empower Teenagers) UK Ltd, a counselor and an Imam here
