Britain's 55 police forces joined together today in a nationwide operation to fight the trafficking of women and children into sexual slavery.

Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, officially launched Operation Pentameter 2 to combat “an appalling and devastating crime which destroys the lives of its victims”. She added: “This is a national operation to identify, disrupt and bring to justice those involved in human trafficking.”

She ruled out any immediate move to criminalise men who used brothels and said that she could not guarantee that women who were freed from brothels would not be deported.

Police chiefs said that three trafficked women had been rescued from off-street brothels since the operation began on the ground on Monday.

The Times revealed last week that sex trafficking has spread from the big cities into towns across Britain. Cambridgeshire police have raided 80 brothels this year in an effort to clamp down on the trade.

Anti-trafficking campaigners believe that a 2003 Home Office figure of 4,000 trafficked women in Britain is out of date and a huge underestimation of the scale of the problem.

Pentameter 2 is thought to be the first truly British Isles police operation, involving forces in England, Scotland and Wales and from both sides of the Irish border. The Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) is involved as are the UK Human Trafficking Centre, customs and immigration agencies and the voluntary sector.

The Home Office has provided an extra £100,000 to the Poppy Project, which looks after trafficking victims, to help to care for women rescued during the operation.

Efforts are being made to work with police forces and other agencies across Europe and a victim-identification process is being piloted. The Home Secretary said that she hoped to be able soon to ratify the European Convention against Trafficking.

Tim Brain, Chief Constable of Gloucestershire and Gold commander for Pentameter 2, said it was apt that the campaign was being launched in the year that marked the 200th anniversary of the Act to abolish slavery.

“It is clear that slavery still exists,” Dr Brain said. “Individuals are still being brought into this country, moved across borders against their will and being forced into servitude.

“Pentameter 2 aims to discover the extent of the issue and put in place whatever means available to prevent anyone else falling victim to this evil trade.”

During Operation Pentameter 1 last year, 88 victims of trafficking from 22 countries were rescued from brothels in Britain. There were 232 arrests and 134 people were charged with a range of offences.

Denise Marshall, of the Poppy Project, welcomed the police initiative and said that the extra funding for her work was “a start” towards dealing with a serious problem. Her charity had helped 722 trafficking victims — ranging in age from 14 to 50, she said. One woman currently receiving help was a 19-year-old with a mental age of seven who had been held in a brothel in Tottenham, North London, for two years.

Ms Marshall said that 14 of the women referred to her project had been identified as victims by customers of brothels. She added: “I have very lttle sympathy for those men who have abused and exploited these women. The fact is that if there wasn’t the demand for women to be trafficked into prostitution there wouldn't be the supply.”

Sitting alongside the Home Secretary at the launch of Pentameter 2, Ms Marshall said she believed that the question of criminalising brothel customers was “a no-brainer”.

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