Memorandum submitted by the International
Union of Sex Workers
A BRIEF INTRODUCTION
OF THE
ORGANISATION MAKING
THIS SUBMISSION
1. The International Union of Sex Workers
is the only UK organisation of individuals themselves working
in the sex industry. We campaign for human, civil and labour rights,
and the full protection of the law for everyone who works in the
sex industry and for the inclusion of sex workers in decisions
which will affect our rights and safety. The IUSW offers a unique
source of expertise and experience from people who see reality
of the industry day to day: we are the experts on our own lives.
2. Sex workers are part of the solution,
not part of the problem. Real solutions to problems associated
with the sex industry cannot be found while we go unheeded. The
only way to create policies that effectively address the very
real abuses which take place within the sex industry is to base
them in reality, rather than on the ideology, assumption and stereotypes
which often hold sway. There is no more valid group of stakeholders
in this debate than sex workers themselves.
3. We call upon the Select Committee to
prioritise the rights and safety of victims of trafficking, migrant
sex workers and British citizens working in the sex industry.
This is particularly important at a time when the Home Office
is considering changes to the law which, however well intentioned,
will further endanger us all.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
4. Debates around the sex industry are generally
informed more by ideology and personal emotional reactions rather
than factual evidence and the diverse experiences of sex workers
themselves. Emotive opinions are not a sound basis for policy,
particularly when contradicted by a substantial body of academic
evidence and accounts from organisations of those concerned in
the industry themselves.
5. The criminalisation of the sex industry,
in addition to jeopardising the safety and other fundamental human
rights of UK citizens who sell sex, actively protects traffickers
by creating a hidden environment in which they can more easily
exploit their victims. It facilitates violence against sex workers
in general and migrant sex workers and trafficked persons in particular.
It ensures that the vast majority of people who are in a position
to report anxieties about coercion and trafficking for sexual
exploitation face enormous disincentives to do so.
6. Ignorance about the reality of the sex
industry and the way the industry is distorted by criminalisation
results in entirely erroneous estimates of the number of victims
of trafficking and the ineffectiveness of current measures to
locate them.
7. There is no evidence that demand for
commercial sex is the primary cause of trafficking: trafficking
occurs within the sex industry for the same reasons it occurs
in other industries.
8. Trafficking is fuelled by poverty and
global economic inequalities, restrictive migration policies and
the resultant illegal migration, combined with the relatively
higher remuneration offered by the sex industry (when compared
with other productive sectors available to migrants in the UK).
9. Measures which improve the situation
of migrant workers in other industries will improve the situation
of migrant workers in the sex industry. Trafficked persons are
not found in sectors where workers are organised and where labour
standards regarding working hours, health and safety, wages and
employment contracts are well established, and routinely monitored
and enforced.
10. UK policy should take as its first priority
the safety and human rights of migrant sex workers and victims
of trafficking. Present law relating to the sex industry is complicated,
ineffective and in breach of the UN Declaration of Human Rights
(particularly Articles 7, 20, 21 and 23). By preventing us from
working together and decreasing the protection available from
the police, it actively endangers people working in the sex industry
and prevents the development of good practice.
SOLUTIONS BEGIN
WITH INCLUSION
11. Article 21 of the UN Declaration of
Human Rights states "Everyone has the right to take part
in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen
representatives." Resolution 1,579 of the Parliamentary Assembly
of the Council of Europe recognises voluntary adult prostitution,
and requires that member states formulate policy that avoids double
standards that force sex workers underground and make them more
vulnerable—instead they should seek to empower them. The
resolution explicitly recommends that member states "respect
the right of prostitutes... to have a say in any policies... concerning
them".
12. Politicians and others have lamented
our social exclusion as one more harmful consequence of sex work.
However, little can be done to remedy this until it is acknowledged
that sex workers themselves, historically marginalised and excluded
from the debates around prostitution, have the right to participate
in civil society. By refusing to accept that sex workers have
a contribution to make to these discussions, and ignoring our
voices when we speak, our exclusion is perpetuated and endorsed
by government.
FACTUAL INFORMATION
The ideological context of debates on trafficking
and the sex industry
13. The majority of the evidence related
specifically to the sex industry already taken by the Committee
is from the perspective that all prostitution is violence against
women. This is the view of the Poppy Project and of Harriet Harman.
This ideological position, their entirely subjective opinion,
necessarily impacts their estimation of the scale of abuses within
the sex industry and distorts their proposals for appropriate
responses to those abuses as they consider everyone who offers
us a place in which to work to promote violence against us and
every client a rapist.
14. This is not the view of people who themselves
work in the sex industry, who can tell the difference between
safe, fair and honest working environments and those who coerce,
exploit and abuse us, between those who pay us money for sexual
services clearly negotiated and those who take advantage of our
criminalisation and social exclusion to rape, rob or assault us.
15. We see how the social and legal framework
in which the sex industry is placed perpetuates our exclusion
and increases our vulnerability to violence and other abuses.
Exclusion and vulnerability are perpetuated by those who refuse
to listen to our complaints of actual violence and real abuses
because they consider all our work to be violent and abusive.
16. In addition, this is not the view of
projects affiliated to the UK Network of Sex Work Projects. The
70 members of this umbrella body all recognise sex workers' rights
to self determination, including the decision to stay in or leave
sex work. Compared to the Poppy Project's 925 referrals over the
past five years, many of the UKNSWP's 17 member projects in London
see more than a thousand clients every year, and draw very different
conclusions about sex work and the most effective ways to tackle
harms associated with the sex industry; for more information see
submissions to the Home Office's review of demand for sexual services.
17. As a society, in discussions of prostitution,
we must not allow emotion to overrule our judgement. Policy must
be based on evidence rather than ideology, and, as with any other
policy discussion, include those affected by its development.
Those most affected are workers in the sex industry, not the staff
of government funded NGOs or the deputy prime minister.
18. The solution to problems in other industries
are the same solutions that will address issues in the sex industry—giving
workers human, civil and labour rights, the full protection of
the law, and distinguishing between safe, honest and fair work
places and those where abuse, exploitation and coercion takes
place. Current British law around sex work does none of these
things.
CAUSES OF
TRAFFICKING
19. As Ms Skrivankova said in evidence to
the Committee "there is no conclusive evidence based on research
that would suggest that the existence of the sex industry would
be the main reason why trafficking exists because trafficking
exists in other industries as well. So it is really looking at
the protection and the rights aspect of the issue that unveils
what are the underlying problems that are connected to poverty,
lack of opportunity and people being forced into survival strategies
that they would not choose if they had opportunities."
20. The origins of trafficking for sexual
exploitation are the same as those of trafficking in any other
industry—poverty and lack of opportunity in countries of
origin—and the determination of many to build what they
see as a better life for themselves in countries such as the UK.
This is evidenced by the number of cases where someone has been
deported, they successfully (and illegally) re-enter the UK, doubling
the profits of the gang which brought them here. (As Mr Winnick
remarks, referring to written evidence from the Poppy Project,
"deportation of victims invariably leads to re-trafficking
and you have plenty of evidence along those lines. So, once they
are deported or they leave the United Kingdom, they simply become
victims of these gangsters again.")
21. The reasons victims of trafficking are
found in the sex industry is largely due to its criminalisation
and marginalisation, giving traffickers opportunities less easily
found within legal labour markets.
22. In addition, the rates of pay within
the sex industry are conspicuously higher than in hotel and catering,
agricultural labour etc.
23. There is no evidence that demand for
sexual services fuels trafficking in women. Harriet Harman did
not attempt to give the Committee evidence to this effect, nor
was it requested. If a false premise is accepted as the basis
for an argument, all conclusions drawn will likewise be false.
24. The IUSW is aware of a number of pieces
of academic research which undermine the "demand" argument
but have not yet been published.
25. We say again, if realistic evidence
relating to the sex industry were included in the formation of
policy, it is much more likely effective policies will be created.
In London, prices for sexual services have been static for the
past eight to 12 years, a significant drop in real terms. Generally,
even the longest established premises, whether their selling point
has been a central location, a friendly ambience or competitive
pricing, are quiet compared to five years ago—and have experienced
a significant decrease in the number of clients they were receiving
10 years ago. This would indicate this it is not a demand lead
market, so criminalising demand, though doing much to endanger
all sex workers (and, of course, most affecting the most vulnerable)
will do nothing to decrease trafficking.
26. There are, however, many cases of trafficking
victims being brought to the attention of the authorities by clients;
clients who are currently demonised by those who consider all
sex work violence against women and who the government wishes
to criminalise.
THE SCALE
OF TRAFFICKING
WITHIN THE
SEX INDUSTRY
27. It is undoubtedly the case that women
are trafficked into the sex industry. However, the proportion
of sex workers of whom this is true is relatively small, both
compared to the sex industry as a whole, and to other industries.
For example, it is widely accepted that 80,000 women sell sex,
both UK nationals and migrants. However, it is estimated that
there are 420,000 to 600,000 migrant workers in the agricultural
sector. Pentameter 1 and 2, nationwide intelligence lead police
operations, raided 1,337 premises and located 255 people considered
to have been trafficked under UK law (five of which were unconnected
with the sex industry) over a period of more than a year. In mid
November 2008 a single raid on a single farm in Lincolnshire found
60 Eastern European victims of trafficking, and suspected the
exploitation of hundreds more.
28. The police estimate that Pentameter
1 raided 10% of sex work establishments in the UK, and found 88
victims. If this is correct, and proportionate, then the sex industry
as a whole would harbour less than 900 trafficked women.
29. It is impossible to gain accurate estimations
when they are often made on gross ignorance of how the sex industry
works. For example, a large anti-trafficking campaigning organisation
alleges they can tell an area has a considerable population of
trafficked sex workers as brothels and working flats will have
different women present on different days—as this is seen
as evidence of organised movement of women by the gangs that own
them.
30. It is, in fact, evidence of knowledge
of the complex laws governing sex work in Britain, which often
leave us in a legal grey area. Two women working in the same flat
at the same time are automatically criminalised (with obvious
implications for our safety) and are more likely to be raided
as a brothel. Therefore working on different days (increasing
our isolation and the opportunities for sex workers to observe
and report anxieties about trafficking) is industry standard practice.
But if this is used to gather evidence of trafficking, estimates
of victims will indeed be sky high.
31. Limits on sex workers working together
breaches Article 20 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights, "Everyone
has the right to freedom of.. association".
32. It seems Harriet Harman shares this
ignorance of the customary operation of an industry about which
she has strong feelings, but little information; she has quoted
newspaper advertisements that describe this working arrangement
when exhorting members of the Women's Institute to complain about
such advertisements. This will do nothing to target trafficking
but much to perpetuate sex workers' social exclusion.
33. Another feature of advertisements referred
to by Ms Harman as an indicator of trafficking are terms such
as "New girls" "Fresh in town". The sex industry
is characterised by frequent movement between informal workplaces.
Sex workers will experiment with different workplaces till they
find somewhere that suits them. As sex workers are not salaried
but earn for each client they see, there is no cost to brothel
keepers in offering work to someone new and seeing if they are
suitable—some advertisements aimed at clients always include
"New staff welcome". Many clients are keen to meet a
new girl in a familiar brothel, and maids and receptionists may
make a particular effort to promote a new face so there is an
advantage to changing locations. These commonplace practices in
the industry are the explanation for this text appearing in advertising—if
a location does contain trafficked women, they will not want to
advertise the fact.
34. In addition, it is advisable to bear
in mind that advertisements are promotional material, so should
be regarded in the same way as any other sales pitch. There is
at least one highly successful escort in London who has advertised
as "new in town" for the past 10 years.
35. Similarly the Poppy Project's "Big
Brothel" report of September this year, though it found no
quantifiable evidence of trafficking, raised great alarms. This
report was compiled by a succession of hoax calls to sex workers
and was considered sufficiently unethical for 28 academics to
put their names to a refutation of both the report's data and
analysis. Anecdotal signs of trafficking were considered to include
"Kissing available for £20 depending on what you
look like." [our italics] which could conceivably be
a decision made by the brothel receptionist. However, to interpret
statements such as:
— "£30 extra for anal if
caller is `smallish down there'" [our italics];
— "Anal price negotiable `depending
on size'" [our italics];
as indicators of trafficking betrays a fundamental
ignorance of how sex is negotiated in a commercial environment.
The only person who would see the client's erect penis, and therefore
be able to assess and agree to this transaction, is the sex worker
herself—it is unheard of for the maid to examine a man intending
to pay for sex in order to tell the woman providing the service
that the organ in question is of acceptable dimensions. Yet, of
course, if these are misinterpreted as evidence of trafficking
the figures for trafficked women will be very high. In fact these
statements demonstrate the exact opposite—agency, choice
and decision-making power by the woman selling sex.
36. There are migrant workers, illegal migrants
and victims of trafficking, across the UK sex industry, as is
also the case in the hotel and catering industry, agriculture,
and domestic service.
37. There is great risk that national policy
be made on the basis of information factually incorrect even for
London—indeed, sometimes from Westminster borough alone—and
then projected across the UK where it will bear even less relationship
to the reality of the sex industry, and be even less effective
as a solution to the problems of human trafficking.
38. Certainly London, and central London
in particular, has high levels of sex workers from outside the
UK. Many of them are from countries regarded as sources for trafficking
(for example, Moldova, where a third of the population has migrated).
However, although there is much difference between being a migrant
working in the UK sex industry, even when entry to the UK was
achieved by resorting to being smuggled by criminal networks,
and a victim of trafficking, often these categories are elided—all
of which make it more difficult to identify and support the real
victims that do exist.
39. If we accept that 70-85% of sex workers
in London are non-UK nationals—in common with other service
industries in the capital, most of which pay minimum wage—it
is important to recognise that this picture is not duplicated
elsewhere. Liverpool, a port city with a long history of immigration,
still has only 6-8% migrants in its sex industry, according to
the health project that has been operating there for nine years.
15% of indoor sex workers in Edinburgh are from outside the UK—a
complete reversal of the estimated picture in London. In Newcastle,
most non-UK based workers are failed asylum seekers, and a minimal
proportion (1-2%) of escorts are from outside the UK.
40. Despite the clear personal distaste
of one of your witnesses for such establishments, there is no
evidence of human trafficking in strip tease establishments or
lap-dancing clubs.
HOW BRITISH
LAW ON
THE SEX
INDUSTRY FACILITATES
TRAFFICKING
41. It would be useful if the Committee
were aware that prostitution in itself is not illegal (for example,
Mr Davies speaks of prostitution being illegal in his questions
to Klara Skrivankova, though it seems possible he is referring
to laws against brothel keeping, not against selling sexual services).
Clearly the law is confusing, and the complex legal framework
surrounding sex workers endangers us and facilitates abuses.
42. None of the laws specific to the sex
industry refer to coercion, exploitation, abuse or violence. They
criminalise all street sex work and a wide range of working options
in the indoor industry and ensure sex workers do not have the
full protection of the law. This breaches Articles 7 and 21 of
the UN Declaration of Human Rights: "All... are entitled...
to equal protection of the law".
43. Violence against sex workers is promoted
by this situation—for example, there are many cases of robbery
gangs targeting brothels in the expectation crimes will not be
reported, some of which are prosecuted after diligent investigation
by the police and recognition of the bravery required to come
forward in a court of law. There are also cases of sex workers
reporting crimes against them to the police, and being told they
are themselves at risk of arrest for brothel keeping, soliciting
etc.
44. This situation is particularly acute
for migrant sex workers. Although entirely unfunded, the IUSW
has supported a number of people through a range of court cases
that shared the characteristic that the sex worker was regarded
as an easy target, unlikely to report and unlikely to be believed
if reporting, by police, judge, and jury in turn. Those who abuse
migrants frequently threaten them with deportation or false allegations
to the authorities, whatever their rights to remain. At its most
extreme, gangs who have robbed and raped in brothels have called
UK Borders Agency as they depart to ensure their victims and potential
accusers are likely to try leave before the arrival of the authorities.
45. However, these legally created vulnerabilities
are common to all sex workers, though fall with greater impact
on migrants. How does UK law specifically assist traffickers and
make it more difficult for their victims to find safety?
46. The UK victim centred approach focuses
solely on utilising victims of trafficking within the criminal
justice system to gather intelligence and provide evidence against
traffickers rather than prioritising a human rights approach which
puts the person first.
47. Although it is legal to sell sexual
services, many activities around the sale of sex are criminalised
(for example, providing a work space to another, arranging appointments,
driving someone to see clients and waiting outside to ensure their
safety: all these are criminal acts). For a non-UK national, probably
not a native English speaker, the law can be incomprehensible—certainly
there is no easy way to discover what the law is and how it may
affect your legal status within the UK. The widespread criminalisation
and marginalisation of the sex industry offers a ready made opportunity
for those who wish to exploit and abuse, for example, telling
their victims they will be imprisoned for selling sex, that they
will be raped by the police, that they will be deported etc. A
decriminalised sex industry, free to operate in an open and transparent
way, would remove this opportunity to manipulate and misinform.
48. Mr Davies suggests an advantage of our
criminalisation is the vulnerability of all brothels to police
raids, and that such raids would be impossible without evidence
were brothels not an illegal working environment, or would require
increased compliance with red tape if they were legal.
49. State officials other than police have
powers to inspect for the purposes of monitoring health and safety
and other legal obligations such as tax regulation. All such state
officials have a duty of care to protect vulnerable individuals.
50. Police paperwork not withstanding, it
is a surely a reasonable expectation of any citizen that evidence
of a crime be required before the police are permitted to raid
a home or workplace (and for many sex workers, these two locations
are the same)—why should it be different for sex workers?
51. There is an inherent conflict between
the police roles of protection and enforcement in an industry
where, as Mr Davies says "the police can put the door through
at any time".
52. This criminalisation does much to deprive
sex workers of the full protection of the law. Mr Russell, referring
to advertisements by sex workers, says, "I am pretty sure
that it is not the role of the police to give a blessing to prostitution":
sex workers would be very pleased to receive the protection of
the police if not their blessing.
53. Though the vulnerability of UK nationals
is not the purview of this enquiry, this situation creates even
greater vulnerability among migrant sex workers and victims of
trafficking.
54. There are three groups of people most
likely to see victims of trafficking—sex workers, clients
and those who run brothels, working flats and escort agencies.
Existing and proposed law distorts the sex industry to build in
structural reasons to prevent all of these groups to report anxieties
about trafficking.
55. As two women working together fulfils
the legal definition of a brothel, many working flats decrease
their likelihood of being raided by arranging for individual women
work on different days of the week, with a (usually full-time)
"maid" or receptionist. The maid is criminalised under
legislation relating to controlling for gain (which applies equally
in law to fair and honest workplaces as exploitative and dangerous
ones), but the woman selling sexual services is not. However,
due to the "rota system" adopted as a result of brothel
keeping legislation, sex workers are unlikely to see other women
working in the same flat, loosing another opportunity to identify
and report anxieties about trafficking.
56. Sex workers who work collectively in
"brothels" are discouraged from reporting concerns by
fear of losing their livelihood as a result and the potential
for arrest and prosecution: such prosecutions may fail or may
succeed, and have succeeded.
57. Anyone who runs a brothel, working flat
or escort agency is criminalised under legislation against controlling
for gain, brothel keeping etc. It is directly against their interests
to come to the attention of the authorities.
58. Despite this, there have been cases
where police have been alerted to suspicions of trafficking by
members of this criminalised group. Regrettably, there have also
been cases—where those suspicions have been proven correct,
where women have been rescued, traffickers arrested—and
the police have then returned to the source of their information,
to arrest, prosecute, imprison and confiscate their assets. This
acts as a considerable disincentive to report, a fact which traffickers
are aware.
59. The government is now considering the
indiscriminate criminalisation of clients of sex workers "controlled
for gain", described by Harriet Harman as "if the woman
is there for somebody else's gain or she has been trafficked in
and is being held captive".
60. In previous evidence to the Committee,
Misha Glenny averred "The reason why there are so many brothels
in this country is that there are so many men prepared to visit
those brothels," though he supplied no data to support this
statement. There is no definitive evidence that British men are
more likely to pay for sex than men of other nationalities. One
study showed an increase from 2% (1990) to 4.2% (2000) of men
reporting paying for sex in the last five years. In another, 10%
reported having paid for sex. Research in Switzerland showed 11.5%
of men aged 17-30 and 21.5% of men aged 31-45. An international
comparison of payment for sex within the last year showed median
values in Western Europe of 2.9% and a mean of 3.6%.
61. Anna Johansson of the Poppy Project
makes the unsubstantiated assertion "...someone who has been
a victim of crime in the UK who would not necessarily be here
if it was not for the demand that is present in the UK that is
fuelling the sex industry and the trafficking." Her colleague
Denise Marshall goes on to give the example that a woman may travel
through Spain and Germany to London and "she would not come
to London or to the rest of the UK if there was not demand".
62. However, figures for percentages of
men buying sex are higher in Germany (4.8%) and Spain (11%) so
if the demand lead argument were correct, traffickers would concentrate
on those countries.
63. Both Spain and Germany have legalised
prostitution, which creates a less hospitable environment for
unlawful acts than the UK's largely criminalised sex industry.
64. Despite Harriet Harman's interpretation,
the legal definition of "controlling for gain" makes
no reference to coercion, deception, exploitation, violence, rape,
abuse or trafficking. Home Office proposals would not target clients
of the vulnerable, but criminalise all clients of anyone who works
in premises run by a third party or for an agency: the very kinds
of working situations that offer most support and safety to vulnerable
workers and probably the most common working arrangement in the
indoor industry.
65. There have been successful prosecutions
for controlling for gain even when it has been accepted in court
that the plaintiff offered sex workers a fair, safe and honest
working environment. Indeed, if the definition of "controlling
for gain" were applied to other industries, it would criminalise
the work of authors, actors, models, barristers in chambers, many
hairdressers, mini cab drivers, and every single permanent or
temporary employment agency.
66. Not only do these proposals entirely
fail to target trafficking, the case Ms Harman mentioned to the
Committee to illustrate her point in fact shows the enormous potential
benefit from involving clients in the fight against trafficking,
rather than criminalising them. One of the women from the Oriental
Gems agency was able to give evidence, leading to successful convictions,
as a result of a client paying £20,000 of her debt and freeing
her from slavery. Under proposed legislation, this man would be
confessing to a crime by bringing such a woman to the attention
of the police. As it is proposed that the crime be judged under
terms of strict liability, his action to save this woman would
be no defence. This would create a significant disincentive for
clients to report anxieties about trafficking or help women they
think are trapped.
67. Mr Davies suggested that by the same
logic we should criminalise anyone who gives money to a migrant
child begging in the street—in fact such a measure would
be far more closely targetted than current government proposals
allegedly intended to assist trafficked women.
68. In research by CWASU (the Child and
Woman Abuse Studies Unit at London Metropolitan University), less
than 5% of clients interviewed said that they would be deterred
by legal sanction (though 20% said they'd stop paying for sex
if they had a girlfriend). Clients most likely to report abuses
are the most law-abiding and these are, by definition, those most
likely to be dissuaded from buying sexual services by legal sanction.
69. Clients and others involved in sex work
are the most effective source of information on abuse within the
sex industry and there is evidence clients are keen to report
this if informed of means to do so. Even Poppy, which campaigns
for this criminalisation of our clients on the basis of their
belief that all sex work is violence, receives 2% of its referrals
from clients of sex workers, and a further 6% from unspecified
"members of the public".
70. In Turkey the government set up a well-publicised
hotline for reporting trafficking, across all industries. In the
six months to January 2006, three quarters of tip offs came from
sex workers' clients, and those calls resulted in the destruction
of 10 trafficking networks and freedom of 100 women from coercion—a
greater number in a shorter time than the intelligence lead Pentameter
1 operation—and probably at lesser cost.
71. We are already seeing a reluctance by
owners and managers of premises to hire migrant sex workers. Sometimes
this is a decision of conscience, due to anxieties they may inadvertently
offer work to someone who is coerced into selling sex. Sometimes
the choice is pragmatic—the fewer migrants on the premises,
the less likely those premises will receive unwelcome police attention.
In either case, the result is to decrease the choice of workplaces
available to migrant sex workers and thereby further isolate victims
of trafficking from those who might report anxieties. Migrants
working in the sex industry by choice or coercion will be pushed
into worse and worse working conditions, where the organisers
making the profit and exploiting individuals' vulnerability are
at greater distance from the business and, in consequence, more
likely to get away with abuses.
72. Mr Streeter suggested that there should
be a "massive campaign", and that this should take the
form of confidential interviews of sex workers by the police,
who would then be removed to a place of safety if they said they
had been trafficked. Such a massive campaign has, in fact, taken
place: the Pentameter 1 and 2 police operations. The small number
of trafficking victims located (255) has been described; the police
have not revealed how many migrant sex workers were deported either
as illegal migrants or because they were working in terms which
rescinded their visas (although the government do not recognise
sex work as work, it is considered as such by the UK Borders Agency
and has resulted in deportation for breaking the terms of a visa).
73. Neither have other consequences of Pentameter
been drawn to the Committee's attention. The most obvious is the
heightened fear of deportation that is the constant companion
of migrants working in the sex industry, whether they are in the
UK legally or otherwise. It is less common these days that women
are deported still in their working clothes (ie, their underwear)
but they are, of course, penniless as deported sex workers are
not allowed to retain the money they have worked so hard to earn.
74. Pentameter has also resulted in the
alienation of working flats, brothels and individual women from
all "state authorities", including health projects and
other support services which may have worked over the past twenty
years to develop relationships now impeded by distrust and apprehension.
There are suspicions of all agencies with any association with
the authorities, particularly by migrants from countries where
links between different arms of government are stronger, or corruption
means that there is no confidentiality in medical treatment and
health services may report "useful information" to the
police.
75. Despite Mr Streeter's hopes, for those
who do identify as victims of trafficking under these circumstances,
there is no "safe place" to which they can be removed,
except under terms highly conditional and strictly time limited.
Access to assistance is dependent on the victim's willingness
to co-operate and his/her "usefulness" in the criminal
proceedings. For example in 2003 the UK Home Office established
criteria for trafficked persons to be referred to special services
such as the Poppy Project, including that: they have been working
as a prostitute for the last 30 days (in the UK); that they have
come forward to the authorities, and that they are willing to
co-operate with the authorities. After two years of research,
Anti-Slavery International found that the models of protection
offered by the state to trafficked persons prioritise law enforcement
requirements over the rights of victims. In the vast majority
of cases, the trafficked person, if recognised, is seen primarily
as a witness, and as a tool of law enforcement. If this continues
to be the case, trafficked persons' right to justice will continue
to be denied, and prosecutions of traffickers will fail because
their victims are neither willing nor able to testify.
76. In addition to the structural priorities
built in to the limited support for victims of trafficking, precedence
is also given to the security of our borders in the case of criminal
prosecutions of those who do violence to illegal migrants. There
have been cases where, to the frustration of the police, the main
witness in a rape trial has been deported before giving evidence.
Even if UK Borders Agency are persuaded to delay deportation,
coming to the attention of the authorities because you have reported
a crime against you is of no relevance in determining your right
to remain.
77. Rape, robbery and crimes of violence
against migrant women are effectively treated as of less importance
than victim's breach of immigration rules.
78. Criminals are often aware of this, and
select victims from amongst the most vulnerable accordingly. Migrant
women reporting attacks to health and support agencies describe
perpetrators' comments to this effect in the course of assaults
upon them.
79. For example, in meetings a health project
has brokered between migrant sex workers who have been gang raped
and police known to and trusted by the project, as soon as the
police officer has revealed they have an obligation to inform
UK Borders Agency of the possible presence of an illegal migrant,
the complaint is invariably dropped, even if the woman were previously
keen to report and give evidence against her attackers.
80. The most profound effect of criminalisation
on the sex industry is echoed in Alan Campbell's quote to the
committee "They are in the darkness, in the shadows."
The obscurity offered by an industry in which the vast majority
of participants are criminalised, regardless of whether they exploit
or abuse others, and in which even UK national sex workers are
denied the full protection of the law, offers an ideal environment
for criminals to prosper in their abuse and exploitation of sex
workers. Ms Harman stated to the Committee "I do not think
anybody challenges what I have said, which is that the sex trade
is changing in nature and becoming part of serious organised crime."
The IUSW challenges this statement—but if the government
wishes it to become true, existing law and current proposals are
creating close to ideal conditions for it. Prohibition of alcohol
in America gave violent criminals increased opportunity to make
themselves part of American society. Criminalisation of sex work
here offers similar opportunities, with disastrous consequences
for both UK born and migrant sex workers.
81. This can be seen already in the discrimination
experienced by sex workers by local newspapers refusing to accept
advertisements, a subject mentioned several times by Committee
members and described as "obnoxious advertisements"
"feeding the frenzy of the sex trade" "not only
aiding and abetting prostitution but they are aiding and abetting
people trafficking".
82. Such statements seem to indicate moral
objections on the part of Committee members towards sex workers
and the purchase of sexual services in and of themselves. These
moral judgements of the sexual behaviour of consenting adults
have no place in policy making, particularly in policy making
intended to address coercion, exploitation, violence and abuse.
83. As already stated, the selling and purchasing
of sexual services is not illegal. Many members of the IUSW have
advertised such services, entirely legally, in local newspapers
like any other independent business within their community. To
eliminate these advertisements drives prostitution further underground,
assisting those who wish to abuse and exploit, and marginalises
and excludes all sex workers, perpetuating problems, not solving
them.
RECOMMENDATIONS
84. Decriminalisation of sex work is the
essential first step towards combating trafficking, tackling abuses
within the sex industry and ending the social exclusion of sex
workers.
85. Decriminalisation alone is not enough
to create a Britain in which sex workers are treated as full and
equal members of society.
86. Even without change to current legislation,
there is much that can be done without changing the law that would
have enormous beneficial effect.
87. Formal inclusion of sex workers and
sex workers' organisations on discussions on the sex industry
at a national and local level.
88. Recognise the trafficking occurs within
the sex industry for the same reasons it occurs in other industries.
89. Apply the definition of trafficking
used in the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking
in Persons, especially Women and Children supplementing the UN
Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (commonly known
as the Palermo Protocol). This refers to coercion, deception,
abuse and exploitation, all of which are absent from the current
UK definition of trafficking.
90. To reduce the abuse and exploitation
of migrants in many industries, as well as the sex industry, ratify
the UN International Convention on the Protection of the Rights
of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (1990), thereby
requiring a thorough review of immigration and work restrictions.
91. Adopt the Italian model of support for
victims of trafficking: the experience of Italy shows that a truly
human rights based approach to issues of trafficking can work
effectively and that there is no significant pull factor associated
with giving victims of trafficking full human rights. Other countries
have introduced or are considering introducing a similar regime.
92. Tackle trafficking at source through
partnership working with countries of origin involving sex workers,
taking a migrants' rights approach, drawing on existing good practise—eg,
the Global Alliance Against Trafficking in Women's the Migrant
Women's Handbook or Ziteng's What to Know Before You Go. The European
Union Expert Group on Trafficking recognised this as one of the
most effective approaches in combating trafficking.
93. Treat crimes of violence against migrant
sex workers as a priority. Reporting or giving evidence about
a crime of violence should not result in deportation.
94. Work with sex workers' organisations,
health projects and support services to increase reporting of
crimes of violence against sex workers.
95. Encourage clients to report concerns
about trafficking or coercion, either by a dedicated hotline or
through Crimestoppers.
96. Resources devoted to those who purchase
sex should focus on addressing the perpetrators of violence against
sex workers rather than the purchasers of sexual services. It
should not be the aim of government to judge and/or punish consensual
adult sexual behaviour.
19 December 2008
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