HUNDREDS of breaches of Covid-19 restrictions are believed to have taken place during the pandemic amid demand for sex workers, according to a council report on modern slavery.

The report will come before Warrington Borough Council’s protecting the most vulnerable policy committee during its Town Hall meeting on Wednesday.

It states, currently, the most common form of human trafficking in the UK is forced labour in industries such as agriculture, construction and hospitality.

However, this is closely followed by the trafficking of people, the vast majority of whom are women and girls, for sexual exploitation or domestic slavery.

Other victims, especially children, are forced into criminal activities such as cannabis production, petty thefts and begging, according to the report.

It says, locally, modern slavery is a ‘growing agenda’ in terms of awareness, presentation and identification of cases and multi-agency work to combat it and support victims.

Since January 2020, the Warrington Anti‐Slavery Network (WASN) group has discussed 13 cases where there was suspected or known modern slavery or trafficking within Warrington.

However, the report confirms that ‘not all cases were confirmed as modern slavery’.

It said: “Given the small number of cases it is challenging to identify themes or trends.

“The cases have included trafficked young people found in cannabis farms, individuals in domestic servitude situations, women trafficked into sex work and individuals trafficked into working in warehouses.

“While the trend of number of cases indicates there has not been a change as a result of Covid‐19 restrictions, there was a discussion at the most recent WASN meeting that the number of adults identified as potential victims of modern slavery has reduced in the last 12 months.”

The report says Cheshire Police reports that Covid-19 restrictions has resulted in a reduction in intelligence relating to modern slavery across Cheshire.

It adds: “However, with the reopening of car washes following lifting of Covid restrictions, it is understood, particularly when combined with a recent increase in illegal entries to the UK, that these car washes pose the perfect breeding ground for exploitation of vulnerable persons. This is a continued area of focus for Cheshire Police.

“They also report that there has been a 50 per cent reduction in sex workers advertising on adult service websites across Cheshire following Covid restrictions being put in place.

“The restrictions did not stop demand for sex workers, resulting in hundreds of unreported Covid breaches across Cheshire.

“It had been anticipated that advertising would have returned to pre‐pandemic figures by now, but this has not been the case.

“It is unclear what is causing the delay in regenerating the pre‐Covid capacity. Current adverts have seen an increased emergence of Chinese sex workers.

“It is not currently anticipated that this is linked with recent increase in Hong Kong nationals relocating to the UK, as majority of victims are from mainland China.”