The Home Office announcement (Citizen 12/3/03) regarding the Eaves Housing project shelter for victims of sex trafficking is to be welcomed, but it must be put in perspective. It makes 25 places available. But every year, at least 200 victims of sex slavery are kicked out of Britain, often to be received home as vilified outcasts.

Coincidentally, this week's Green Party conference in Llandrindod, mid-Wales, will be considering a report on sex trafficking. It argues these women need support, counselling, and same-sex interviewers and translators. They are often terrified when arrested and need a secure, safe environment, sympathetic treatment - and an offer of asylum if necessary.

As Gloucestershires Chief Constable Dr Tim Brain, notes in The Citizen, better treatment for trafficked women, rather than their rapid repatriation, would help the police to gather the information they need to track down the traffickers themselves, who are the real criminals.

We need more support than has been announced this week, for sex-trafficked women in Britain and it is time to get serious on traffickers who are today's slave-owners.

Philip Booth, Gloucestershire Green Party.