I lived in long-term hostel accommodation during my studies at a specialist music college in a European capital city 35 years ago, aged 15. My home town was too remote for me to study closer to home.
It was an open secret that a gang ran things in the area, consisting of members from a group mentioned upthread and some from a protected minority. There was no religious overlap; the former were Muslim and the latter culturally Catholic. Neither group presented itself as particularly observant or devout. One of the things they ran was the hostel, using the basement to store stolen goods, weapons and drugs, 'guarded' by resident girls like me. We really did think those men were our 'boyfriends' -what I now understand as grooming was so skilfully done. I'd never tried drugs before, but before long I was stoned and out of it all the time. There was also lots of coerced, non-consensual sex, but again, wrapped up in guilt, entrapment and, I'm ashamed to say, crazy reasoning and manipulation which should have been so obvious and easy to see through: "Hey, my cousin is visiting, he's having a hard time -I know you can put a smile back on his face. Can I send him over at half eleven?" So many cousins. And uncles. And associates. So many adults who ought to have paid closer attention and acted.
It's taken me decades to see this for what it was and it was a big contributing factor to why I left my country, on my own, when still a teen, to come to the UK. I'm still in touch with one of the other girls who, like me, was lucky to find an 'out' and seize it.
Men exploiting vulnerability in girls and women is as old as time. It's entirely opportunistic and parasitic and often just a portion of a whole suite of criminal, violent and coercive endeavours in which men like this are simultaneously engaged. I was a passive income stream to the men who I knew then, while they busied themselves with aspects of their business which needed more hands-on presence and attention. Men, irrespective of nationality, ethnicity or creed, seem capable of inflicting suffering like this on women and girls, acting with impunity. I'm not saying that ethnicity or religion are red herrings in the cases reported from towns and cities across the UK, but rather that the common denominator always seems to be men who hate women. Also, wherever there is organised crime, the likelihood is that there will be girls and women exploited, trapped and coerced somewhere as part of those networks, perhaps not systematically raped and trafficked, but harmed and suffering nonetheless, hidden away.