The Gardaí, the PSNI and police forces throughout Britain are mounting a new joint operation to crackdown on the trafficking of women and children for sexual exploitation.
Operation Pentameter 2 follows a similar initiative in the UK last year which resulted in 88 victims being rescued and 134 people being charged with various offences.
The operation aims to break up gangs who force women and children, many of them from eastern Europe, to work as sex slaves in more developed countries.