The two sisters, aged between 15 and 17, have been taken to safe houses while the police continue their enquiries. For reasons of safety, the police are refusing to reveal either the names or nationality of the two girls at this stage. According to the newspaper, the girls are not entirely aware of what was supposed to happen to them.
 

They arrived in Finland from Russia last year with a male escort but no further details will be revealed publicly until later on in the investigation. Police were, however, prepared to reveal that the girls are not Russian.

This is not the first case of people trafficking in Finland. Last year, two young Chinese people were smuggled to the UK but later returned to Finland, according to The Kaleva, and police also broke up a smuggling ring involving fifteen Estonian women in Helsinki. Many of the women smuggled into Britain from various countries are forced into prostitution, according to recent research by the BBC.

According to the Helsingin Sanomat, these cases of people trafficking in Finland are far from isolated. Increasing numbers are attempting to enter Europe or even the USA by using Finland as a transit point. In 2006, there were 68 suspected cases up from 35 in 2005. Many of these are Chinese and government officials have connected this with Finnair’s increasingly good connections to South East Asia. The smuggled people will often arrive on false documents and, once in Finland, make their away to another Schengen country. Thousands avoid detection in this way. According legal researcher Matti Lehto, in 2000, almost 200 people, from 23 different countries, were apprehended on the Russo-Finnish border and a bus was found with secret compartments for smuggling people. In 2001, Kurds were smuggled into Finland via St Petersburg and Estonia and a Bangladeshi couple tried to smuggle in Bangladeshis, via Moscow, on false Danish and Swedish passports. Russian women make up a disproportionately large minority of prostitutes in Finland and many have been trafficked.

Despite not being part of the Schengen agreement, immigrants smuggled into Finland try to make their way to Britain. According to the BBC, organised immigrant gangs facilitate this move, charging up to 12000 euros to provide false documents and often rather dangerous transport. Once in the UK, there have been many cases of illegal immigrants being forced into dangerous jobs for slave wages and many cases of female immigrants being forced into prostitution.
 

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