Exclusive:Nearly 80% of women and girls trafficked in Scotland suffered sexual exploitation

While four fifths of trafficking survivors overall are men, data shows that number reverses for sexual crimes with females far more likely to be victims.

Meanwhile, the number of children and young people trafficked for sexual exploitation rose by 50 per cent between 2024 and 2025.

Campaigners claim proposed new legislation - which faces a crunch Holyrood vote on Tuesday - would help crack down on human trafficking.

Legislators are to vote on the Prostitution (Offences and Support) (Scotland) Bill, brought by independent MSP Ash Regan.

If passed, it would introduce fines of up to £10,000 or jail sentences for those caught buying sex, and give a statutory right to support for people leaving prostitution.

Ms Regan said: “Where there is demand for paid sexual access, supply will always be created, not through choice, but through coercion, grooming, trafficking and exploitation of vulnerabilities.

“That is how the sex trade operates: normalising the marketing of people as products creates a state-sanctioned surge in sex buyer demand, that pulls more and more vulnerable women and children into harm to fulfil it, as exposed globally by the Epstein scandal.”

New analysis of National Referral Mechanism (NRM) 2024 data highlights a significant and growing concern around human trafficking in Scotland.

The figures involving women and girls are particularly stark.

While the overall trafficking population is 78 per cent male, the figure for sex-trafficking switches to 78 per cent female.

Among trafficked children, boys are the majority overall - but for sex trafficking, 83 per cent of victims are girls.

While NRM figures are the UK’s primary official dataset, they capture only a fraction of real-world trafficking, meaning the scale of abuse is greater than recorded.

Among 135 victims of sexual exploitation in 2024, 36 were children and the majority girls.

Police Scotland figures show the numbers for detected crimes are low but saw the number of children trafficked for sex rise from six in 2024 to nine in 2025.

In a letter to the Scottish Parliament, Eleanor Lyons, the UK’s Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner, called for MSPs to “address demand”.

She said: “Survivors describe being trafficked via adult services websites by organised criminal gangs and express fear of these networks long after they have managed to exit exploitation.

“Their accounts include experiences of rape and violence, and some link these gangs to grooming operations.”

She added: “The evidence is clear. Sexual exploitation is increasing. Demand is increasing.

“The way that online platforms currently operate gives the potential to accelerate and conceal harm.

“The “sex work is work” narrative does not reflect the reality described by survivors or by frontline law enforcement.

“The reality is that exploitation is being normalised, particularly for younger women.”

Ahead of Tuesday’s vote, the Scottish Government has said it “regretfully” will not back the legislation, which would impose fines of up to £10,000 or jail sentences on those caught paying for sex.

Community safety minister Siobhan Brown said the government agreed with the principles of the Bill, the parliament had run out of time to make any necessary changes to it.

Officials, Ms Brown added, would start work “immediately” with a commission to be set up “so that options for legislation are available as soon as possible following the formation of the next government”.

The minister also promised support for women seeking to leave prostitution would be increased by £65,000 on top of the £400,000 already promised in in the draft budget.

It is understood the Bill will have backing from the Scottish Conservatives and Scottish Labour.

Ms Regan added: “If MSPs agree with the Scottish Government and COSLA that prostitution is a form of violence against women, then we must also accept the unavoidable conclusion: those who commit that violence must be criminalised.

“You cannot name something as violence while continuing to protect the perpetrators from legal consequences.

“I would hope every MSP agrees we have a duty to support those exploited in prostitution.”