Major anti-prostitution raid in Bosnia

Police in Bosnia have discovered more than a hundred-and-seventy women who're believed to have been smuggled into the country and forced to work as prostitutes.

The women -- mostly from Moldova, Romania and Ukraine -- were found in bars, hotels and nightclubs across the country in the largest operation of its kind.

More than two-hundred people have been detained for questioning.

Officials say any women found to have been taken to Bosnia against their will will be offered the chance of repatriation.

Human rights officials say trafficking of women to Bosnia has increased in recent years many of them smuggled through Hungary or Yugoslavia before being sold on in the northern town of Brcko. in part because of a growing demand for prostitutes from the twenty-thousand peacekeeping troops and international police stationed there.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service