A NEW strategy to train professionals to spot the signs of human trafficking in Helensburgh and beyond will get under way later this year.

The Scottish Government’s Trafficking and Exploitation Strategy aims to identify victims and support them to safety and recovery, identify perpetrators and disrupt their activity, and address the conditions that foster trafficking and exploitation.

News of the strategy follows the arrest of two Vietnamese men in Helensburgh after an operation at Nail Art in Sinclair Street on May 15 in which a 15-year-old girl, thought to be a trafficking victim, was found and taken into care.

Cabinet secretary for justice Michael Matheson said: “Following the passing of legislation to create an offence of human trafficking with a possible life sentence attached, I am pleased that Police Scotland and the Crown Office will be able apply for new orders to disrupt traffickers’ activity.”

“Today’s strategy is the blueprint towards realising that aim and eliminating such appalling activity in Scotland.”

Detective Superintendent Stuart Houston, of Police Scotland’s human trafficking unit, added: “Communities are key in helping us identify people who may be the victims of trafficking and exploitation.

“We are asking people to be aware and to report to us or our partners if they suspect someone may be the victim of traffickers.”

Earlier this year a teenage boy was discovered in bushes in nearby Dumbarton.

It was discovered that the youngster had been trafficked from Vietnam.