Category: Feature News

Blood donation and sex work in Ireland

June 14, 2020

14th June Blood Donor Dayby 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

Harm reduction, sex work and Covid-19

March 27, 2020

Harm reduction, sex work and Covida-19

For sex workers

As sex workers ourselves, we know that when everyone is being told to isolate our work gets hit. If you can take some time off to stop working and social distance now is a good time. 

We also know that some people will need to work to survive. This blogspot outlines a harm reduction approach to sex work during the coronavirus. Do the best you can, that is all anyone can do and you are the best person to make decisions about the reality of your life.

Covid-19 spreads through droplets when a person sneezes or coughs. The virus has a long incubation period so people can transmit without showing symptoms. The safest possible scenario is to keep a distance from others of two to three meters. We know this makes most of our work impossible! So, some suggestions for safer work during this time are:

  • Refraining from kissing and insist on condom-covered services including for blowjobs and dental dams for rimming.
  • Positions like doggy style or reverse cowgirl are better to limit contact and make sure you and your client take long hot showers before and after.
  • Make sure your client washes his hands for 20 seconds upon entry, and when he has left clean all surfaces that he has touched (including doorknobs and handles) with soap and water. Anti-bacterial wipes are okay, soap and water is better.
  • Try not to touch your own face as this is the way the virus enters the body.
  • Take extra care to wash any sex toys that are used
  • Wash your hands for 20 seconds or longer between each client, after being outside and after handling money 
  • Do not do in-person sex work with a client who is displaying symptoms of the virus
  • Do not do in-person sex work if you are displaying symptoms of the virus
  • Each worker charges according to her situation but if possible do not drop your prices. Remember that for your client this is leisure but for you, it’s your livelihood

We know us sex workers are already very good at protecting our health, we just have to be extra careful at this moment!

Please note that there is now a firewall between immigration and the department of health so even if you are undocumented you can still contact a doctor if you have symptoms of the coronavirus.

If you need anything from SWAI, even just for a chat please get in contact with us. We would love to hear from you. 

For clients

Please note that sex workers have always been impeccable when it comes to hygiene. 

  • If possible try to seek remote sexual services such as video or phone sex. Please note that this may not always be possible
  • Ensure your hygiene is exemplary. Note that you are responsible for your own health
  • Wash your hands immediate for 20 seconds or more when entering the premises
  • If running water is not available please use hand sanitiser
  • You should always respect the boundaries a sex worker has but now please do so for your own safety
  • Tip generously, sex workers are always impeccable about hygiene but are taking a risk to see you
  • Wear a condom for all sex acts (without complaint!)
  • Do not seek the services of a sex worker if you are displaying symptoms of the virus
  • Do not be racist to members of the Asian community
  • Donate to the SWAI hardship fund https://swai-hardship-fund.causevox.com/
For allies

SWAI Hardship Fund

March 22, 2020

SWAI Hardship Fund

On Saturday 21st March the Sex Workers Alliance Ireland launched our crowdfund to ensure that some of society’s most vulnerable people can survive. 

All non-essential workplaces have closed and people are being advised to stay indoors and to ‘social distance’ from each other. This is having a particular impact on the sex industry. Already sex workers are seeing a dramatic decrease in clients. Clients are staying away, hotels are closing or at least disallowing non-residents in, and university students are being evicted in swaths if they are in student housing, in order to keep people apart.

We in Ireland were already living under the Nordic Model, which meant a reduction in decent clients for sex workers. This pandemic will make it so much worse for sex workers.

We know from first-hand accounts that street workers, in particular, are feeling the sting of the efforts to curb COVID-19. Most of the street workers in Ireland are truly working at a survival level and this will not change under the current lockdown.

We have also contacted high-level politicians and government departments to request that we are included in any meetings about high-risk populations. We have asked for the cessation of all garda raids on sex work-related activity for the duration of Covid-19, in particular for issues such as ‘brothel keeping’, which in most cases involves two or more people working together for health and safety.

We ask you to give what you can to help precarious workers make it through. This money will go directly into the hands of sex workers through individual emergency payments. Any little helps.

Covid-19, sex workers and the state’s response

March 20, 2020

Woman in mask imageEarlier this week we sent the following email to the caretaker Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and caretaker Minister for Health Simon Harris as well as other state departments. Sex workers who are experiencing financial difficulties, much like other precarious workers during these times, are being affected by Covid-19. We must be included in any plans for vulnerable populations and we cannot remain invisible to the state during this time.

We are writing on behalf of the Sex Workers Alliance Ireland (SWAI) regarding measures and public awareness strategies to combat Covid-19. We wish to offer the full support of SWAI and to participate positively in all efforts to mitigate the impact of this health crisis.
There are currently thousands of people in Ireland involved in sex work-related activity involving considerable interpersonal contact. Examples include escorting, massage, stripping and sugaring. For some of the more vulnerable members of the sex working community their accommodation in hostels and homeless accommodation may increase their risk further.
The advice of the National Health Emergency Team to minimise social contact will inevitably reduce the levels of this work. However, it is inevitable that sex work-related activity will continue.
This situation will both very seriously impact the ability of sex workers, many of whom have dependents and family, to earn an income and continue to pose significant threats to the health and general wellbeing of both sex workers and their clients.
Openly addressing this health crisis is greatly complicated in the area of sex work by the fact, that while our work is deemed legal under 2017 legislation, our clients at the criminalised.  Co-operation with health professionals, contact tracing measures, self-isolation, etc are seriously impeded by the provisions of this law.
To facilitate the fullest engagement by sex workers in the battle against Covid-19 we request the following:
1) Inclusion of SWAII in all communications and information regarding best practice and control measures related to Covid-19
2) Participation of SWAI in relevant sub-committees dealing with vulnerable and most-at-risk categories of individuals and communities
3) Confirmation that funding and welfare payment measures for the general community, including earlier sickness benefit and its extension to the self-employed, applies fully to sex workers.
4) Cessation of all garda raids on sex work-related activity for the duration of Covid-19, in particular for issues such as ‘brothel keeping’, which in most cases involves two or more people working together for health and safety.
5) Establishment of a specific SWAI /gardaí liaison arrangement to address the separate issue of trafficking during the period of Covid-10 measures.
6) Suspension of current stigmatising advertising campaigns such as ‘We don’t buy it’ during Covid-19, as the messaging in these campaigns drives sex workers and their clients further away from engagement with health professionals and necessary participation in mitigation and self-isolation requirements. 
7) Inclusion of SWAI in the notification for any process related to small grants or payments to promote health and safety at local community level or vulnerable persons categories related to Covid-19.
We look forward to supporting the combined government and community based effort to successfully address Covid-19 and to hearing from you.

 

Ask your candidate about sex work laws

May 13, 2019

In less than 2 weeks we take to the polls again to vote for politicians to represent us on a local and European level. Sex workers are rarely heard by politicians so WE NEED YOUR HELP! Please ask your candidates about what they will do to help sex workers. Many politicians will not have considered sex work outside of Ending Demand so we need to change that.

Ask your candidate about sex work laws
  1. What do you think about the new sex work legislation here in Ireland?
  2. Do you support the health and safety of all women and trans people?
  3. Do you believe in evidence-based policy?
  4. Did you know that since the laws changed in 2017 there has been a 92% increase in violent crime against sex workers? Do you know there has also been a near 20% decrease in willingness to report to Gardai?
  5. Do you support the rights of sex workers, beyond them exiting sex work? What do you think sex workers would need to leave sex work or to not engage in the first place?
  6. How are you going to support migrant sex workers to work safely, when they are often conflated with trafficking victims and therefore perceived as needing rescue?
  7. Do you think the policing of consenting adults is a good use of Garda resources? Do you want everyone to be served by the Gardaí, including the most marginalised? Did you realise that many more sex workers due to brothel-keeping laws have been arrested than their clients?
  8. Did you support the campaign to repeal the 8th? Do you think bodily autonomy extends beyond abortion? We have passed progressive legislation about same-sex marriage, gender recognition and abortion in the last by listening to the people directly affected. Are you willing to do the same for sex workers?
  9. What will you do to support sex workers rights? Will you support their call for full decriminalisation of sex work?
  10. Have you heard of the Sex Workers Alliance Ireland, the only sex-worker centred front-line service here? How are you going to make sure that at the legislative review of the Sexual Offences Bill in 2020, the Oireachtas Committee prioritizes the voices of current sex workers as they are the ones with the first-hand knowledge of this new law’s impact?
Politicians will try and avoid answers to hard questions so you can use this opportunity to inform them that:
  • 55 workers have been arrested and only one client has been prosecuted under our law. This shows the law isn’t fit for purpose.
  • Where any aspect of sex work is criminalised, including client criminalisation it has adverse health outcomes for the workers.
  • Our laws criminalise two or more sex workers working together from the same place, despite the fact would be safer for them to work together.
  • Client criminalisation makes it much more difficult to find trafficking victims.
  • If we truly want to reduce or eliminate sex trafficking we must understand how immigration policies lead to trafficking.
  • People enter sex work for a variety of reason, often because they have no choice. Austerity, visa status, precarious work and housing, lack of childcare, drug-use, debt and lack of decent employment are all factors.
  • 65% of all murdered trans and gender diverse people were sex workers.
  • We are an Ireland moving away from its dark past. Stigma and shame weigh heavily on sex workers.

We’ve made a handy printable pdf for you to stick up on the back of your door so you have it ready to question your candidate. 

Candidate checklist

Belfast Coffee Gatherings

July 20, 2015

Emily very kindly offered to host our first Belfast Coffee Gathering in May and we have just had a second one in July. Not only did we get a choice of coffee, tea or squash, but also Emily made to die for freshly baked cakes, that totally ruined my diet, as they were so morish! Whoever thinks that Escorts have no other talents, really don’t have a clue!

The venue is very discreet and fairly easy to find. It has plenty of space and hopefully we will be able to offer more than tea and coffee in the future, with possibly some holistic and therapeutic services , again using the talents of the sex workers attending.

The first meeting had a great turn out with mostly local sex workers turning up. Please be assured that it is all anonymous and no one has to say who they are or where they work etc. We’re there to support each other and chat about anything that takes our fancy. It does not have to be work related. However, on this occasion we were all concerned about the pending law change and how it may impact our safety and change the way we work. It was also good to see how we all worked differently and give each other tips and ideas in general.

For me it was lovely to meet other local girls working in the area and to know that I was not alone. One of the problems with being an Independent sex worker, is that you are not encouraged to work together and often there is a feeling that it is better to keep yourself to yourself and keep your nose to the ground, but in doing that you are also isolating yourself and not always doing things the best way, as you have to work it out as you go along. Just listening to these other ladies confirmed where I was going right and gave me food for thought on areas of my work that I had been looking at changing. It gave me confidence to make those changes and see how they worked. It also reminded me that sometimes what works for one, doesn’t work for another, so not to get worried if things need changing again.

Another thing that I liked and felt reassured by was the sheer variety amongst us. We all came from totally different backgrounds and were all working in different ways. For some reason people seem to think that all sex workers come from the same mould and that is so not the case. It even seemed that we often had very different clients too. This can be for many reasons, but even the time of day we work can make a profound difference. It really makes you wonder about this stereo type given to sex workers and just how very out of touch the media are and not due to ignorance, but because they desperately want to hold on to this stereo type. From my knowledge the BBC have interviewed at least three of us present at this coffee morning and none of us conform to that image and yet they still use it, nay they manipulate in order to use it, as I recall one interview Laura Lee gave had a picture of her by the City Hall with a claim that she was ‘looking for business’, which she evidently wasn’t, as she is not an outdoor worker and was posing for the picture for the interview. Isn’t it about time they showed the reality and stopped flogging a dead horse?

I believe our next meeting will be in the autumn and I’m really looking forward to it. This is a unique opportunity to meet people that know and understand how isolating this job can be and a chance to share our experiences, or just talk about the price of fish. If anyone reading this is thinking of attending, please do get in touch and details of the next meeting will be given to you closer to the time.

 

Kate

ICRSE Conference

June 7, 2015

Between the 4th and 6th of June 2015 SWAI took part in a conference involving sex workers and supports from 8 European countries. The event organised by the ICRSE was held to mark the 40th anniversary of the Lyon protests where sex workers occupied the Église Saint Nizier in order to demand their rights and to end police harassment. The event, seen as the start of the modern European sex worker movement is now marked every year by International Sex Workers Day celebrated on the 2nd of June.

This year once again sex workers gathered on the streets of France to demand rights and fairness

* We want full decriminalisation

* No criminalisation of our clients

* Labour rights as given to other workers

* The right to work in a safe environment

* End to police harassment

* To be given full agency and allowed to speak for ourselves

In the 40 years since the Lyon protests Sex Workers have become more organised, forming groups, collectives and trade unions. Despite this however we still face much in the way of discrimination, stigma and lack of support.

In Ireland and France sex workers face laws criminalising their clients – laws which have been shown to cause stigma and increase violence.

In the Netherlands and Germany sex workers face repressive legislation and over-regulation. In Amsterdam 100s of sex workers and their supporters have taken to the streets to protest the closing down of windows in the red light district against the workers wishes and depriving them of safe places to work.

Also in Germany new laws plan to introduce mandatory health checks, something which goes against UN AIDS recommendations.

In Norway sex workers are kicked out of their homes by the police under the aptly titled “Operation Homeless”. They have also faced increased violence and immigrant sex workers including from the EEA face forced deportations.

 

SWAI was proud to stand with our fellow workers in Paris and to speak with one voice:

We want an end to stigma and an end to criminalisation and for our human and labour rights to be respected.

May Day

June 3, 2015

May Day is celebrated around Europe as International Workers Day.

A day were we traditionally celebrate workers and demand fair treatment and rights from our employers and governments.

This year for the first time SWAI took part in the May Day march in Dublin.

We walked shoulder to shoulder with other workers, celebrating our profession and asking for our rights.

The May day celebrations in Ireland and else where are generally lead by politically left leaning groups and trade unions. These groups have traditionally fought for labour rights for workers and particularly vulnerable workers who are at risk of exploitation.

However there is one group of workers that trade unions particularly have let down in Ireland – sex workers.

The trade union movement in Ireland was an early member of TORL. Various unions from electricians to nurses have all spoken out against the rights of sex workers.

Indeed the ICTU (Irish Congress of Trade Unions) submitted a paper to the Justices department consultation on Prostitution saying that

“prostitution could not be considered work”

With this one line The ICTU is denying the rights of 100’s of sex workers, to organise and have the same rights and benefits as won and enjoyed by other workers.

This position by the ICTU and Irish unions also goes against the position of other national and international unions policy on sex work.

In fact the International Labour Organisation of which the ICTU is a member issued a report in 1998 called “The Sex Sector: The Economic and Social Bases of Prostitution in Southeast Asia”

In which it states:

“For those adult individuals who freely choose sex work, the policy concerns should focus on improving their working conditions and social protection, and ensuring that they are entitled to the same labour rights and benefits as other workers.”

In various countries sex worker organisations have organised into or joined unions.

In 2002 Red Thread a prostitutes’ rights group in the Netherlands formed a union and became a member of the FNV union confederation,

In New Zealand the Unite Union began to organise sex workers in 2004 in order for them to demand rights like all other workers.

Today in New Zealand sex workers have full employment rights and are protected against discrimination and work place harassment.

We in Ireland ask Unions and supporters of the left to stand up for the rights of sex workers, for their protection dignity and respect.

The same rights the movement has fought for and won for other workers.

Realising Sex Workers Rights

June 3, 2015

On February 4 SWAI launched it’s long awaited paper “Realising Sex Workers Rights” to a packed out room in Buswells Hotel. The document is a collaborate project involving SWAI. sex workers, academics, legal experts and health care providers. It aims to bring forward the debate on sex work in Ireland and to address human rights, the protection of sex workers and to seek an approach based on harm reduction and social justice instead of criminalisation.

For too long the debate on sex work in Ireland has been one sided. Sex workers are often presented as victims who lack choice or real understanding of their own lives, however Sex Workers are a diverse group of individuals with different life experiences and should not be seen as a homogeneous group. Policy relating to Sex Work has to be focused on the needs of the worker, to assess what services they desire or what help they may or may not need.

Whatever the background or issues Sex Workers face most are agreed that further criminalisation of themselves or their clients is not the answer.

A survey done in 2014 by Queens University Belfast showed that 98% of Northern Ireland based Sex Workers were against criminalising the purchase of sexual services, a similar survey done in France that same year showed an equal number of Sex Workers there were also against such laws.

Sex Workers here and else where are concerned about further criminalisation and feel it will only make their situation worse.

Catriona O’Brien, sex worker and co-author of the paper said,

“The proposed laws do not reflect the reality of my life and will only serve to reinforce our exclusion and stigmatisation. “

Some who provide out reach support for Sex Workers also feel the law will have negative implications, as Sex Workers disengage with such services.

Billie who works with GOSHH said

“Given the high level of shame and fear surrounding the buying and selling of sex in Ireland anything that causes further criminalisation or stigmatisation will result in both sex workers and buyers been less willing to speak up when they need support or sexual health screening ”

When deciding on policy relating to sex work it is important that Sex Workers themselves are included in the debate. They know their lives and their needs better than anyone else. However more often than not their opinions are dismissed by people who do not understand the facts, not open to dialogue or who feel they know what is best.

By presenting this paper we hope to open up the discussion and have the voices of sex workers heard and more importantly listened to by policy makers and the public.

You may download “Realising Sex Workers Rights” here