Normalisation of sex work

[MaryGubbins]

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/mum-who-lost-job-lockdown-23819036.amp

This popped up on my face book today. And while I’m not personally condemning the woman in question the comments were so disheartening. Along the long the lines of “good on her” “well done.”

Sorry, underneath this is a story that a woman who has fallen on hard times has resorted to sex work. I think that at any other point in history we’d consider that, well, at least a bit shit.

Young men posting - saying it’s nothing to be ashamed of, an honest days work etc. I wonder how they would feel in a hypothetical world where the job centre said “well it’s honest work so get your bits out for cash on the internet for blokes to see or your benefits are sanctioned.”

Just read that according to new data, cases of sexual exploitation (in the UK) including people held captive in brothels and coerced into prostitution rose by a quarter in 2020 and nearly a quarter of the cases involved children.

@flyingfoxkins

Just read that according to new data, cases of sexual exploitation (in the UK) including people held captive in brothels and coerced into prostitution rose by a quarter in 2020 and nearly a quarter of the cases involved children.

Source?

"Lockdown brings alarming rise in modern slavery...

Cases of sexual exploitation, which includes people held captive in brothels and coerced into prostitution, rose by a quarter in 2020 compared with the previous year. Nearly a quarter of cases involved children."

www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/lockdown-brings-alarming-rise-in-modern-slavery/ar-BB1fhOrK

It's from the Modern Slavery and Exploitation Helpline annual assessment.

It's seen a sharp increase in lockdown and had been increasing in the last 5 years:

www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/articles/modernslaveryintheuk/march2020

It's seen a sharp increase in lockdown and had been increasing in the last 5 years:

One of my apprehensions about lockdown is that the overwhelming burden of caring for house and children has created further exploitation opportunities that affect very vulnerable groups of people so as those affected by the rulings on 'no recourse to public funds' whose relationships break down etc.

"Lockdown brings alarming rise in modern slavery...

Cases of sexual exploitation, which includes people held captive in brothels and coerced into prostitution, rose by a quarter in 2020 compared with the previous year. Nearly a quarter of cases involved children."

It's from the Modern Slavery and Exploitation Helpline annual assessment.

I've just read the reports covering the years 2017-2020 (those are the only ones available online).

There really doesn't seem to have been an "alarming rise" at all. The numbers they give tend to bounce up and down from year to year.

They give headline figures for "potential victims" ie people who may be victims of slavery.

The figures they give for the number of potential victims identified to them each year as a result of sexual exploitation are:-

2017 - 774
2018 - 517
2019 - 421
2020 - 481

So, yes, the number is higher than 2019 but certainly less than 2018 or 2017.

It's interesting to compare this with numbers for non-sexual exploitation (eg labour exploitation). Here, the equivalent figures are:-

2017 - 3,540
2018 - 5,258
2019 - 3,195
2020 - 1,889

There has been a massive fall in the reporting of labour exploitation in 2020, presumably due to covid.

All figures taken from the report you linked to for the years 2017-2020

Just to add, the report from the Helpline really is eye opening stuff to what is going on in modern slavery in this country. This is the latest report:-

www.modernslaveryhelpline.org/uploads/20210407114600907.pdf

"The report, "Behind Closed Doors: Organised Sexual Exploitation in England and Wales", found that there are at least 212 active police operations into sexual slavery and there were 1,185 referrals of potential victims of sexual exploitation last year, 94% of whom were female. However, campaigners believe the true extent of the problem is likely to be far greater.

Who is being exploited?

The vulnerable women are thought to be 85% non-UK nationals, with the majority from eastern Europe and the largest nationality group among potential victims thought to be Romanians. Romanians are also the largest nationality group thought to be among the suspects, followed by Britons."

www.refinery29.com/en-gb/2018/05/199857/pop-up-brothels

"SOLD FOR SEX Inside the Romanian human trafficking rings where desperate parents are selling underage daughters to be raped in UK"

go.mumsnet.com/?xs=1&id=470X1554755&url=www.thesun.co.uk/news/13492095/romania-human-trafficking-uk-gangs-sex-trade/ -

"Detectives stormed a brothel 500 metres away from Croydon police station after receiving information that trafficked women were being held there against their will.
The raid in Park Lane came after a sex worker was taped claiming she had been trafficked and was being forced to work as a prostitute - right under the noses of police."

www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/news/1986119.exclusive-sex-slaves-by-police-station/

Today, DecrimNow have shared an open letter they have sent to Diana Johnson MP regarding her proposal to criminalise prostitution ("Nordic model") in England.

decrimnow.org.uk/open-letter-on-the-nordic-model/

This part is interesting:

"In countries that have brought in the Nordic Model, sex workers have not, as is often promised, been ‘decriminalised’. Brothel-keeping – which is defined as two or more people working together – remains a crime, forcing women to work alone or risk arrest. When police raid workplaces with the stated aim of arresting clients, it is repeatedly sex workers who are charged. This has happened in Ireland, Norway, Finland, and Sweden."

The same is also true when police raid brothels with the stated aim of "fighting trafficking" what usually happens is the sex workers themselves are charged with running a brothel.

Well done The Sun and reporter

Graeme Culliford for the accuracy in their headline.

SOLD FOR SEXInside the Romanian human trafficking rings where desperate parents are selling underage daughters to be raped in UK