This article is more than 11 years old

This article is more than 11 years old

Members of the Women's Institute are to keep watch for sex ads in local papers that could involve trafficked women, in a crackdown that could involve the "naming and shaming" of publishers.

The minister for women, Harriet Harman, today addressed WI members at a conference in London and called on them to look out for suspicious sex ads.

"Look at the adverts in your local newspaper. They advertise women for sale for sex," Harman told the National Federation of Women's Institutes conference.

"Many are young women from eastern Europe, from Africa or south east Asia, tricked and trafficked into this country and forced into prostitution."

Harman pointed to suspicious ads that might carry wording such as "Angel's Massage - different girls daily. Seven days" and "Young Asian girl new to Cambridge 10am-10pm seven days".

Harman will say that when WI members see such ads they could "think about writing to the editor and complaining".

Isla Arundell, a campaigner for the WI, said in an interview on BBC Radio 4's Today programme this morning that the organisation was aiming to collate members' findings for use in the new year.

"We want members to be aware of the wording on the adverts. Things like 'new girls', 'exotic girls', 'Romanian girls', 'Polish girls', 'new girls every week', that type of thing. The sort of things that are going to set alarm bells ringing," Arundell added.

She said that members can send letter to newspaper editors directly "if they wish".

However, the WI, which has more than 200,000 members in the UK, preferred information to be sent to its headquarters so it could be collated.

Arundell said the WI was not sure what it would do with the information, but added that "naming and shaming" of offending newspapers was a possibility.

"What we want to do is raise awareness to spread the message of what is happening with these girls. We are going to wait and see what we have [in terms of findings] - we may well name the newspapers," she said.

A number of regional newspaper groups have dropped all sex ads, including MEN Media, part of the Guardian Media Group, which publishes MediaGuardian.co.uk, Newsquest and Johnston Press.

The regional newspaper trade body, the Newspaper Society, has issued guidance to beware of ads that imply the exploitation of women.

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