Croydon Council will continue to fight the battle against sex trafficking in the borough.
Councillor Gavin Barwell, cabinet member for safety and cohesion, made the pledge to a Croydon Community Against Trafficking (CCAT) conference last week.
More than 100 delegates from councils and pressure groups gathered at the conference to talk about the impact of modern-day slavery.
Newsquest, the publisher of the Croydon Guardian, was praised for taking the lead in dropping sex ads from its 305 titles across the UK.
Other newspapers, including the Croydon Advertiser and The Post were urged to do the same.
Coun Barwell said: “There is still a trade in human beings going on in our towns.
“This is being done before our eyes and not enough is being done to tackle it.
“Men that use these services need to be aware of the risk that the person they are sleeping with is being coerced into doing so.
“One of our newspapers has stopped carrying the adverts and that is the way forward.”
CCAT said it had made real progress in identifying and closing brothels where trafficked women were being forced to work.
When they started in Croydon, they identified 73 brothels. At the last count there were 50.
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