PROSTITUTES in Newport, who are selling themselves to pay for a drug habit, were offered the chance of a fresh start in a five-week police operation.

Operation Barbara was run by Newport police and Women In Need to assess the situation and offer the women help to get out of prostitution. Inspector Geraint Evans said they had discovered up to 20 women across the city, generally aged 18 to 25, selling themselves to pay for their Class A drugs.

Insp Evans said: "They were given the opportunity to get out of the sex trade.

"Operation Barbara was set up in line with our strategy to deal with those people at risk - whether they are juveniles, or vulnerable because they are foreign nationals or on-street sex workers.

"It was run with the intent of assessing the off-street market, offering assistance to sex workers and offering diversions through health, welfare and housing, to help them lead a safer quality of life.

"On-street prostitution is very much linked with Class A drug use, that's why it's so hard for them to get out of it."

He said: "The cattle market in Pill is a site where they congregate because you get the lorry drivers there, but there are other areas throughout Newport.

"Sometimes they arrange to meet clients by phone boxes as a one-off. "Newport, as with other cities and large urban areas, has a prostitute problem, although the problem is far smaller than it could be in a city this size.

"There are a very limited number of prostitutes on the streets of Newport and to our knowledge there are less than 20 involved in on-street prostitution."

Paula Christie, an outreach worker for Newport-based Women In Need, which was set up six months ago, said the women were referred to them for support.

"If they have an appointment to get help for drug abuse or for housing or anything like that, we can go with them or set up the meetings for them," she said.

"It's a slow process but we keep plodding away, keeping in touch and letting them know we are there."

You can call Women in Need on freephone 0800 7310298.