Linda

Press Release: “It’s a brothel. I’ll end you!” – chilling words of a man who attacked two sex workers

October 14, 2020

Yellow siren Today the Sex Workers Alliance Ireland (SWAI) learned that two sex workers working together for safety were attacked precisely because they were, in the eyes of the law, working illegally.

Two workers were sharing a premises in Limerick when a client refused to shower properly. When he was requested to shower thoroughly he lost his temper and threw objects at the worker. She politely asked him to leave and when he reacted badly again she asked the other worker on the premises for help. He attacked them, and in the worker’s own words “He treats us with violence”. The workers involved want to warn any other sex workers in the area.

Barbara*, the sex worker involved said “This is why it has to be legal to share a flat with another worker. I can’t imagine what would have happened to her if she was here alone. One of the things that he screamed at us was “its two of you! It’s a brothel. I’ll end you!”

Kate McGrew, active sex worker and director of SWAI said “Incidences like this are the reason that sex workers work together for safety and risk breaking the law by so-called brothel-keeping. Who knows what would have happened if the worker was on her own when the client assaulted her? We need policymakers, politicians and sex work prohibitionists to understand that this is what happens when you criminalise one part of transactional sex.”

She continued “Sex workers warned that the End Demand model, brought in with great fanfare in 2017, would mean increased violence for sex workers. In fact, violent crime against sex workers has increased by 92%! The law prohibited the purchase of sex and increased penalties and added a jail sentence for workers sharing a premises. Decent clients disappeared and it became necessary to take on clients with nothing to lose, more dangerous clients to make ends meet. This is evidenced also by the fact that even in a pandemic the client refused to shower thoroughly, showing scant regard for the sex worker’s health.

Sex work is an economic activity and until it is understood as such and our needs are met in other ways sex workers will continue working. Sex workers have been forced to return to work as they have been out of work for over 7 months. Would you be able to survive without an income for that amount of time?

It is extremely unlikely that these workers will report to the Gardaí as they themselves risk arrest for breaking the law. No exploitation was involved, these women were working together for safety but, as evidenced by the HIV Ireland report published recently, sex workers are at pains to avoid interaction with the Gardaí. The so-called brothel-keeping laws have been almost exclusively used to prosecute young, migrant sex workers. Today’s incident comes on the back of the news that another migrant was prosecuted last week for brothel-keeping. These are not hypothetical scenarios, these are very real concerns of a population who are already extremely marginalised.

Sex workers look out for each other because no one else will. We have been marginalised even in discussions that affect our lives and livelihood. We need to decriminalise sex work in Ireland so that we can work with another worker legally and we can report crimes against us without fear. We all deserve to be safe in our job.

The Sex Workers Alliance Ireland is a peer-led service for anyone who sells sexual services in Ireland. Please contact us at info@swai.eu or 085 824 9305 if you are a sex worker and need our help.

#DecrimforSafety #SupportSafeSexWork

*Real name not given

Press Release: Migrant worker guilty of working with another worker says Sex Workers Alliance Ireland

October 10, 2020

red umbrella raindrops

Today the Sex Workers Alliance Ireland (SWAI) learned of a migrant who has pled guilty to brothel-keeping charges in Waterford.

Kate McGrew, active sex worker and director of the Sex Workers Alliance Ireland (SWAI) said “The crime of so-called brothel-keeping punishes sex workers for working together for safety. If a worker shares a space with another worker she is breaking the law. This law has been almost exclusively used to prosecute young, migrant sex workers.

Sex work is legal in Ireland but only if you work alone. A sex worker cannot work legally and work with a friend for safety. What other job, or economic activity requires you to work alone to be legal? Working alone makes sex workers vulnerable to criminals who target them precisely because they are on their own. Sharing a space with another worker for safety may also make those workers vulnerable to attack as sex workers fear that they will be arrested, not the assaulter, should they call the Gardaí. As highlighted by the recently published reports by HIV Ireland, the law has made sex workers less likely to report to the Gardaí even when they have been raped.”

She continues “Violent crime against sex workers is up 92% since the Nordic Model was introduced in Ireland in 2017 which may explain why the sex worker involved in this case was in possession of pepper spray. Pepper spray is legal to carry in other countries in the EU.

SWAI understands that the woman did not have legal representation in court which casts doubt on whether she received due process. The lack of legal representation is a common and concerning feature of prosecutions of sex workers.

Being prosecuted for working together for safety can have devastating effects on a sex worker’s life. A criminal record can affect other job opportunities or housing security. Sex workers are also affected by our current housing crisis and impending recession and during the pandemic, many were not able to give up working. Sex workers need better protections, not just policing.

A review of the laws governing sex work is currently underway. Despite several attempts at getting clarification from the Department of Justice SWAI are still unsure as to whether the brothel-keeping laws will be examined under this review. Legal avenues for co-working with another worker for safety is just one way in which the lives and safety of sex workers could be improved. SWAI calls for the decriminalisation of sex work as a matter of urgency so that we can be safe and heard about the reality of our lives.”

#DecrimforSafety #SupportSafeSexWork

Press release: World Day Against Trafficking in Persons highlights Ireland’s failure

July 29, 2020

Today, 30th July is World Day Against Trafficking in Persons. Falling from Tier 1 to Tier 2 Watchlist in the Trafficking in Person’s Report since the purchase of sex law was introduced shows that Ireland is not utilising its best weapon against sex trafficking: sex workers themselves

“The long-awaited review of the Review of Part 4 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017 law governing sex work is underway. This is an opportunity for policymakers in this country to listen to current sex workers about how the decriminalisation of sex work will keep everyone safer, including those who have been trafficked” says Kate Mc Grew, director of the Sex Workers Alliance Ireland (SWAI) and current sex worker.

She continues “Globally, sex work prohibitionists have been successful in conflating all sex work as trafficking. This, combined with the fact that other forms of labour draw more trafficking victims into Ireland, has meant that resources are being misspent on a strategy of criminalising the purchase of sex that has not been proven to stop trafficking. This conflation has also meant that consenting sex workers working together for safety have been caught up in so-called brothel raids. In fact, the only people who have been arrested for brothel-keeping in Ireland have been young, migrant women. The Sexual Offences law 2017 is being applied in a racist way, which has been noted by IHREC.”

“US State Dept Trafficking in Person’s Report, released earlier this month, highlights how Ireland struggles to identify victims of trafficking. No one has been arrested for trafficking in Ireland since 2013. In fact, our laws have caused a 92% increase in crime against sex workers. What use are these laws, if not to protect people?

The crime of sex trafficking is despicable and we in SWAI condemn it in the strongest way. It’s unhelpful to separate out sex trafficking from other forms of labour trafficking. Central to anti-trafficking strategies in other sectors are workers ability to organise, unionise and report. Exploitative working conditions such as those experienced by people who have been labour trafficked in other sectors has led to the loss of limbs, and the report notes that ‘The government has reported the problem of forced labor in the country is growing’.

The best tool the state and Gardaí have to find trafficked victims is un-utilised and even ostracised: sex workers. Criminalisation of any aspect of sex work drives sex work underground, making it more difficult to finding those vulnerable to exploitation, including trafficking victims. Data shows that sex workers are extremely unlikely to report to the Gardaí after being victims of a crime. Other avenues of reporting and identification should be available to trafficking victims as recommended by this report. A firewall is needed between immigration and sex crimes so that undocumented people feel safe to report crimes against them without fear of deportation.

Prevention of trafficking is key to reducing its prevalence. Oppressive border controls and lack of legal migration avenues, as well as poverty and addiction increase trafficking. We must reallocate some of the resources spent campaigning against sex work and “awareness-raising” of trafficking into prevention and poverty alleviation.

Now is not the time to increase oppressive laws in the hopes that this will deter traffickers. In fact, the pandemic and the review are opportunities to step back and reassess our laws and their failures. Pouring money into anti-sex work campaigns has not been successful, let us reimagine our anti-trafficking endeavours to include sex workers who are on the ground and are best placed to identify and call-out exploitation in the industry. Anti-trafficking laws are often used as a tool of immigration instead of care and refuge. The reality is that in Ireland many more sex workers have been arrested than clients. Workers are often asked to leave the country or face prosecution. This flies in the face of the care and the rights-based approach that the state is supposed to show.

Decriminalisation of sex work is key and is a stance supported by PICUM Members (Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants, International Labour Organization and The Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW). It does not decriminalise the crime of trafficking or coercion, but it moves sex work out of its quasi-legal state and empowers sex workers with labour rights and pathways to justice. Sex workers want to be allies, and we are best placed to do so. But the law does not respond to the circumstances of deep poverty, domestic violence, homelessness, and drug mis-use that lead some to becoming susceptible to trafficking.”

Press release: Review will show that the current law is a failed experiment

July 9, 2020

Review image

Sex workers must be listened to in the review of the sex work law

Currently working sex workers in Ireland are central to the review of the law, says Kate McGrew, sex worker and director of the Sex Workers Alliance Ireland (SWAI). We are the experts in how this law has affected the health and safety of sex workers in Ireland. The voice of SWAI, the only frontline, sex worker-led organisation in Ireland, was largely excluded when this law was debated in 2017. This was unacceptable.

In response to enquiring about other organisations receiving government funding during the pandemic, the Department of Justice, under the previous Minister for Justice Charles Flanagan, refused SWAI explicitly for as long as we refer to all sex work not as gender-based violence but as an economic activity. Without help from the state, sex workers – already on the margins – were forced to risk their health by continuing to work for survival. SWAI was faced with doing the work of crowdfunding a hardship fund to successfully give small grants of €100 to over 150 female, male and trans sex workers in Ireland since the beginning of the pandemic to help flatten the curve.

SWAI exists to fight exploitation and to empower people in the sex industry via the labour rights other workers rely on and by removing stigma and criminal laws that have proven to leave sex workers with only illegal avenues, creating barriers to reporting crime and violence, and providing no viable alternatives to working.

We hope that the new Minister for Justice Helen McEntee, who was so active on the repeal of the 8th amendment, remembers how it is essential to centre those with lived experience when discussing the law that affects their lives. Bodily autonomy is not just about abortion and we are the next in line to see the effect of a more progressive, caring Ireland who is moving away from its dark past.

We welcome that the review will focus on the impact the law has had on the health and wellbeing of currently working sex workers. We do not speak over sex workers, we ARE sex workers and we know that this law has failed in its ambitions.

The review will also focus on how the law has achieved and not achieved its aims. It has succeeded in prosecuting young migrant sex workers working together for safety. It has failed to lead to the arrests of traffickers. It has succeeded in increasing violence against sex workers by 92%. It has failed to decrease the number of people sex work. Its has succeeded distancing sex workers from supports including Gardai. It has failed to increase sex workers trust in the Gardaí, there was a near 20% decrease in workers who wished their reports of crime or violence would be passed on to Gardai. It has not made Ireland a safer place for sex workers. It has failed.

We welcome the news that Maura Butler has been appointed to oversee the review of the Sexual Offences Law (2017). We note her many years of experience in the legal field, her academic record and her clear commitment to equality. We also note that she has been chair of the National Women’s Council of Ireland (NWCI) and their representative at the European Women’s Lobby (EWL). Both of these organisations have a strong stance against sex work and SWAI has been refused membership of the NWCI for 3 years, an unacceptable exclusion of a key population of vulnerable women.

Government policy should be based on outcomes, not morality. We need to get real about sex work in Ireland and work towards a law that means that sex workers are safe, as healthy as they can be and have laws that protect us. We welcome the review of this law and the opportunity to finally be heard.

Press release: Time to decriminalise sex work in order to combat Ireland’s failure to combat trafficking

June 26, 2020

Ireland has moved from Tier 2 to Tier 2 Watch List in the US State Department Trafficking in Persons report, released yesterday. This shows that our sex work laws are failing to help sex trafficking victims. Gardaí are ignoring and creating antagonism with their best resource to identify victims of sex trafficking, which are sex workers themselves.

Kate Mc Grew, director of the Sex Workers Alliance Ireland (SWAI) and current sex worker said “Globally, sex work prohibitionists have been successful in conflating all sex work as trafficking. This, combined with the fact that other forms of labour draw more trafficking victims into Ireland, has meant that resources are being misspent on a strategy of criminalising the purchase of sex that has not been proven to stop trafficking. This conflation has also meant that consenting sex workers working together for safety have been caught up in so-called brothel raids. In fact, the only people who have been arrested for brothel-keeping in Ireland have been young, migrant women. The Sexual Offences law 2017 is being applied in a racist way, which has been noted by IHREC.”

She continued “This report highlights how Ireland struggles to identify victims of trafficking. No one has been arrested for trafficking in Ireland since 2013. In 2017 our sex work laws changed and still, this has not changed. In fact, our laws have caused a 92% increase in crime against sex workers. What use are these laws, if not to protect people?

The crime of sex trafficking is despicable and we in SWAI condemn it in the strongest way. It’s unhelpful to separate out sex trafficking from other forms of labour trafficking. Central to anti-trafficking strategies in other sectors are workers ability to organise, unionise and report. Exploitative working conditions such as those experienced by people who have been labour trafficked have led to the loss of limbs and the report notes that ‘The government has reported the problem of forced labor in the country is growing’.

The best tool the state and Gardaí have to find trafficked victims is not utilised; sex workers. Our sex purchase laws have driven sex work underground, moving the small but very real number of sex trafficked victims away from agencies which can help them. Data shows that sex workers are extremely unlikely to report to the Gardaí after being victims of a crime, despite violent crimes increasing against us by 92%. Other avenues of reporting and identification should be available to trafficking victims as recommended by this report. A firewall is needed between immigration and sex crimes so that undocumented people feel safe to report crimes against them without fear of deportation.

Now is not the time to increase oppressive laws in the hopes that this will deter traffickers. In fact, the pandemic is an opportunity to step back and reassess our laws and their failures. Pouring money into anti-sex work campaigns has not been successful, let us reimagine our anti-trafficking endeavours to include sex workers who are on the ground and are best placed to identify exploitation in the industry.

Press release: Ireland is a safer place thanks to sex workers coming forward

June 26, 2020

We deserve to be safe image “When sex workers work together with Gardaí we can make society better,” says Kate McGrew, current sex worker and director of the Sex Workers Alliance Ireland (SWAI) commenting on two court cases involving attacks on sex workers which were reported on today.

She continues “In the case in Tralee the judge warned the accused to not contact any sex workers. Was this warning extended to sex workers in the area? There are currently at least 13 workers working in Kerry who may in danger. As the only frontline, sex worker-led organisation in Ireland we could be a help to the Gardaí in warning workers about this predator.

We were pleased to see the prosecution of Ioan Galben today. It is all too rare for a sex worker’s report to be taken seriously enough to lead to a conviction. Violent crime against sex work has risen by 92% since the purchase of sex was criminalised while the likelihood of sex workers reporting to Gardaí has fallen. We want to emphasise the bravery of the workers in both these cases for coming forward, against the odds.

The reality in Ireland is that sex workers want to work with Gardaí. Criminalising parts of sex work such as the purchase of sex distances us from Gardaí, thereby losing us as the best-placed actors on the ground in the fight against trafficking, exploitation and violence. Nobody wants a safer industry more than sex workers ourselves.

Sex work must be decriminalised to make us safer. Instead, people already on the margins, who do sex work as the best or only option to survive are forced to do so on a black market, where exploiters are poised ready to take advantage of our lack of options. In this quasi-illegal environment, these people offer us assistance and can exploit or abuse us, knowing we are unlikely to report.

This criminal law was passed without listening to what sex workers ourselves need to make our lives better. The government needs to offer viable alternatives for income so that those who do not want to do sex work can work elsewhere. During the pandemic, we created a hardship fund to ensure that sex workers were taken care of, instead of falling through the cracks, which raised over €25,000. Currently, we can only rely on ourselves and our community to keep us safe. The next government needs to decriminalize our work, name and officially recognise us in society, so that next time there is a pandemic, recession, or climate crisis, this population will not be left to face risking our health or experience deeper precarity, as we have during this time.”

Blood donation and sex work in Ireland

June 14, 2020

14th June Blood Donor Day by Adeline Berry

The world appears to be in turmoil and many of us are looking for ways to be part of the progress in making things better. In that spirit I recently emailed the blood donation service in Ireland to ask about their restrictions on donating. I must confess that it’s been a while since I last donated, the last time having been in the US some years ago. The biggest reason I hadn’t donated, besides just being a busy single parent, was that I had gotten tattooed regularly. In Ireland, the waiting period to donate blood after getting tattooed is four months. For many years I supported myself and my family through tattooing, and an occupational hazard associated with working as a tattooer is getting tattooed oneself. I am also a sex worker and have engaged in sex work since my teenage years in one form or another. The reason for my email enquiry was to find out how long I would have to wait since my last sex work appointment before donating. Because of Coronavirus and COVID-19 it has been a few months since most sex workers in Ireland have had physical contact with clients. A day after emailing my enquiry I received a response. I am banned from donating blood indefinitely. This was surprising to me. I of course fully support reasonable precautions designed to protect us all, but I can’t help wondering how reasonable these precautions are. I am not a haematologist of course, but I do know we live in a complex world where sometimes precautions that are purported to help can also be designed to cause harm. An example of this would be Irish laws relating to sex work which were promised to benefit sex workers but have instead resulted in a ninety-two percent increase in violence and evictions, jailings and deportations for the very population these laws were purported to help. These laws were fought for by non-governmental organisations purportedly founded with the idea of helping the vulnerable. The organisations that lead the charge however were founded by religious orders, or were themselves religious orders, whose histories are steeped in human rights abuses designed to control the Irish working class population by rounding up and imprisoning Irish women that fell outside of polite society’s notions of what constituted an acceptable woman: impoverished sex workers and single mothers.

So why is there a lifetime ban on sex workers donating blood? As a client, you are asked to wait twelve months before donating after having engaged in sex with a sex worker. Similarly, you are asked to wait twelve months before donating if you are a cisgender man who has had sex with another man even if a condom was worn. This is effectively a lifetime ban on monogamous cisgender gay couples from donating as long as they are sexually active. So, what about cisgender heterosexuals? Why is there a presumption that heterosexuals are more likely to be sexually monogamous than gay men? To say that we in Ireland have been provided with substandard sex education for all would be an understatement. My experience of formal sex education was being taught the very basics of human reproduction during religious studies in my teenage years. Outside the classroom my informal sex education is ongoing. From my perspective as a sex worker who is constantly in communication with other sex workers, it is quite common to encounter Irish clients both young and old that do not understand the importance of wearing condoms during sex. Rather than empower sex workers as recent changes to Irish laws and policing were purported to do, sex workers have instead been made more vulnerable. Though street work in Ireland has been legalised, heavy Gardaí presence, intimidation by Gardaí and continuing arrests have reduced bargaining and negotiation time for sex workers and time to decide whether a vehicle is safe before stepping into it. Undocumented workers are afraid to carry contraception for fear of having them in their possession used against them by Gardaí as proof of engagement in sex work. Clients have been emboldened by sex workers’ increased vulnerability, demanding unprotected sex and lower rates from workers with threats of bad reviews and refusal to continue seeing them as clients. I have spoken to numerous migrant sex workers that have told me about their frustrating attempts to educate Irish clients regarding the use of condoms. So, are we then to simply assume and accept that Irish cisgender clients are using condoms with their partners and spouses if they are that adamant about refusing to use them while having sex with a stranger? Are we to simply accept and assume that cisgender, heterosexual, Irish men and women are being open and honest with their partners and spouses regarding their various infidelities and excursions to visit sex workers? Do current blood donation restrictions account for cisgender Irish men that identify as heterosexual while continuing to secretly engage in sex with other men? Stigma in Ireland still keeps many married heterosexual, heterosexual-identifying and bisexual men closeted and secretive with regards to their sexual encounters with other men, transgender women.

When I emailed the blood donation service, I didn’t disclose what type of sex work I engaged in and nor was I asked. What if it had been camming? Or phone sex? Sex work encompasses many forms, from in person sex to pornography. The form of sex work I have been engaged in for the past several years, domination, has not involved me receiving the body fluids of someone else or transmitting mine to them. What if it was simply a cuddling service that I provided, where the client and I lay fully clothed in a bed just holding each other while we nap for a while? In Ireland, paying for sex work is defined as

“Payment etc. for sexual activity with prostitute: 7A. (1) A person who pays, gives, offers or promises to pay or give a person (including a prostitute) money or any other form of renumeration or consideration for the purpose of engaging in sexual activity with a prostitute” while sexual activity is defined as “any activity where a reasonable person would consider that (a) whatever its circumstances or the purpose of any person in relation to it, the activity is because of its nature sexual, or (b) because of its nature the activity may be sexual and because of its circumstances or the purposes of any person in relation to it (or both) the activity is sexual” (Criminal Law, 2017).

There’s that word reasonable again. In Ireland all manner of activities have been deemed sexual by people we have assumed to be reasonable, from jazz dancing and attending the cinema to driving in a car (Luddy, 2007). “Reasonable” Irish men and women fought for recent harmful changes to Irish sex work law. “Reasonable” Irish men and women in the Gardaí Síochána regularly evict sex working women, including single mothers, from their homes and imprison young women, including ones that are pregnant, simply for working together for safety. I am friends with a married couple that do cam work together. This mostly involves them having sex with each other in front of a camera. To the best of my knowledge they are completely monogamous and faithful to each other. Is it right that they be banned from donating blood for life simply because they pay their rent through camming? I myself am in a monogamous relationship. My spouse is also a sex worker. Neither of us receive bodily fluids from anyone outside of our marriage during sex either through work or outside of work.

Reasonable precautions protect us all, but can restrictions on blood donation by sex workers be considered reasonable? Or are they designed, intentionally or otherwise, to further the long, continuing, persecutory history of stigma against us? If the purpose of these precautions is to decrease risk of infecting the blood supply and not to stigmatise segments of the population, then blanket bans on sex workers need to be lifted and then considered on a case by case basis.

References

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) 2017, Retrieved from http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2017/act/2/section/25/enacted/en/html

Luddy, M. (2007). Prostitution and Irish society, 1800-1940. Cambridge University Press.

Time to get real about sex work in Ireland on International Sex Workers Day

June 2, 2020

International Whores Day “Today is International Sex Workers Day and we are marking it while slowly emerging from the throes of a global pandemic”, says Kate McGrew, current sex worker and director of the Sex Workers Alliance Ireland (SWAI).

She continues “Even a global pandemic cannot successfully eradicate the in-person sex industry in Ireland. Over half of the workers who we in the Sex Workers Alliance Ireland – the only frontline sex worker-led organisation in Ireland – are in touch with, have been contacted by clients requesting in-person sexual services. In fact, some workers have not seen a reduction in the number of clients at all. In some instances, clients are offering double the workers’ rates, in an attempt to get them to come out of quarantine. Clients are also threatening workers by saying if they don’t see them now, during the pandemic, they will not hear from them when it all blows over. Desperate workers cannot afford to lose what little future income they can expect.

This virus exposes one of the great fallacies of the Nordic Model and lays bare the state’s abandonment of so many vulnerable people. Providing structural and economic supports and safety nets are what really reduces the number of sex workers and ensures that those who don’t want to do sex work aren’t. Criminal laws are not the answer, and they never were. Unless proper financial support for everyone, including undocumented people and those traditionally unwilling to engage with the state, are explicitly offered support with no barriers or strings attached, we are about to see a lot more harm. These supports cannot solely be tied to exiting strategies if we want them to succeed.

Media campaigns by anti-sex work NGOs have used vital money that could have provided support for sex workers but instead has been squandered. Their campaigns to pressure financial platforms to ban sex workers has resulted in sex workers being unable to receive emergency funds, forcing people back to work.

Health and safety is a top priority right now. This pandemic is putting our society and communities to the test in a way we have not seen before. Are our laws up to the task?

COVID-19 has had a catastrophic effect on in-person sex work in Ireland. The numbers of people doing in-person sex work are reduced, but not because of the failed experiment that is the Nordic Model laws. Rather it is because of health warnings from the government and the HSE. The government’s refusal to recognise our means of survival as work has left sex workers overwhelmingly excluded from emergency payments.

While the pandemic continues, rents will continue to need to be paid, migrant college students still have to pay for colleges and universities which they can no longer attend, children need to be fed, debts accrue, food needs to go on the table. One-third of the workers we are in contact with have not been able to give up selling sex.

This desperation will exacerbate an already existing problem; the laws have created a buyers’ market where clients can demand more risky behaviours such a no-condom use and workers will comply because they need the money more than the client needs the sex.

Everyone deserves to be safe and as healthy as they can be. The criminalisation of the purchase of sex is not going to achieve that. We need a social safety net, affordable childcare, a health system that works for everyone and focuses on harm reduction, affordable third-level education, affordable and secure housing and legal avenues for migration.

#DecrimforSafety #SupportSafeSexWork

International Workers Day – Sex Work is Work

May 1, 2020

Neon sign of workers holding a hammer and a vibrator

Has your income dried up because of the pandemic?

Do you put in more hours online for less money than you would have before Covid-19?

As a freelance worker do you find it hard to prove where your money came from to apply for emergency welfare?

Well, then your experience of the coronavirus is much like a sex worker’s. Sex workers should have your solidarity because sex work is work and we should all be as safe as we can be.

Unions and labour movements have fought for safer and fairer working conditions. They have changed laws and brought in regulations to ensure that society is structured to benefit the worker. Do you stand with all workers?

This pandemic shines a light on the cracks in society that we knew already existed.

There are many individuals that are shut out of traditional types of work for a plethora of reasons, people such as transgender individuals, undocumented migrants, members of the travelling community, people living with disabilities and people who use drugs. People in direct provision are refused permission to work while being forced to survive on €38 a week. International students are only allowed 20 hours a week and single mothers without family support and college students often find it difficult to find work that fits their available hours while paying their bills.

Right now, in Ireland, a law exists which puts workers in danger. It was brought in with great fanfare by groups whose funding is dependent on the silence or compliance of sex workers, purporting to save workers from their own exploitation. The workers themselves were against the law and were not listened to when they warned that it would make them less safe. Workers were told that they would not be heard because we have a financial interest in the laws that govern our very lives and existences. What they are referring to is our survival. Since the law was passed violence against these workers has risen by 92%. But the law has made it less likely for these workers to report crimes against them. Trust in Gardaí has dropped to less than 1%. Workers want to be able to contact Gardaí without fear of worse repercussions such as arrest, eviction and deportation. Workers can now be jailed for working together for safety. Workers are being evicted and denied housing because of these very laws. This leaves them open to exploiters who take advantage of them being alone. We are flat-out refused to be recognised as workers, Ireland has criminalised our means of survival. We are stigmatised as people suffering from false-consciousness or as vectors or disease, and so at this time we continue to operate on the fringes of society, becoming even more susceptible to poverty and or ill-health. Not everyone gets to decide the type of work that is available to them but they still have rent and bills that need to be paid regardless. Every worker deserves to be safe, including sex workers.

Press release: Over 100 European NGOs endorse a statement calling for emergency support to sex workers amid the COVID-19 crisis

April 27, 2020

The International Committee on the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe (ICRSE), a network of more than 100 organisations supporting sex workers has published its demands to European institutions and national governments, including emergency income replacement, a moratorium on fines, arrests and prosecution related to sex work and immigration status, access to health care for all and regularisation of undocumented migrants.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc on European societies, many organisations ring the alarm on the exclusion of the most marginalised people such as migrants, homeless people and precarious workers from current governmental measures and European policies. Some states have rightfully implemented actions, such as emergency housing, income substitution and regularisation of migrants. However, sex workers, most of them working in the informal economy due to the criminalised and stigmatised nature of the work, have in many countries been completely excluded from social and economic aid. In the absence of European Commission and government attention, sex worker organisations started to self-organise to provide direct support to sex workers – distributing food parcels, cash to cover accommodation and basic necessities – as well as offering emotional and administrative support to each other and formulating their common demands to policy makers across borders.

Sabrina Sanchez, co-convenor of ICRSE and Secretary of the Spanish sex workers’ union OTRAS said: “Like every member of society, sex workers want to contribute to ending this pandemic. However, unable to work and without economic support from the state, how are we meant to survive? The situation is critical. The EU and Member States must include sex workers in the emergency measures and long term recovery plans. Ignoring us and our demands must end now.”

Kate McGrew, also co-convenor of ICRSE and Director of Sex Workers Alliance Ireland added: ‘’In Ireland, the sex worker community has been facing an increased level of surveillance, exploitation and violence since the introduction of the abolitionist Swedish model, the criminalisation of clients in 2017. The crisis is now revealing the huge risks associated with any type of criminalisation of the sex industry: without state protection and labour rights, the most precarious sex workers face the hard choice between abiding the confinement rules by not working and selling sex to feed themselves and their families”.

The demands endorsed by key European anti-trafficking, migrant, LGBTIQ and sexual health networks emphasise that inclusion of marginalised communities must be a central element of public health, social and economic responses. Global health institutions, such as the World Health Organization has for long recommended the inclusion of sex workers in the development and implementation of health measures and the decriminalisation of sex work for maximum impact. ICRSE – in a letter sent to the President of the European Commission and members of the Crisis Coordination Committee – also demands that sex workers’ concerns are mainstreamed in European policies after years of ignoring their voices.

ICRSE warns that, as evidenced by the post-2008 recession, the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic will increase the number of women and LGBTIQ people selling sexual services to compensate for income loss and reimburse debts accrued during the crisis. Instead of addressing sex work through an ideological and punitive lens, European institutions and states must implement evidence and rights based policies. Ignoring the most marginalised communities could prove not only short-sighted but detrimental to EU efforts to end the pandemic.