SWAI is extremely concerned for the safety of sex workers in Ireland, as Ugly Mugs a widely used by sex workers has been rejected by Google to allows its app to screen calls and texts. This app screens calls and text for dangerous clients. Ugly Mugs applied for an exemption to new rules by Google to clamp down on apps, that require phone and sms permissions, but Google rejected its application.
This app is used by sex workers all over Ireland on a daily basis and they rely on it to keep them safe. It is extremely concerning that an app, which keeps sex workers safe from dangerous clients and has helped prevent many attacks on sex workers is having one of its keys means to keep sex workers safe being removed from the app.
Catriona, a sex worker “I use this app all the time and honestly without it I would probably be beaten or robbed. This is something I don’t say lightly, but my safety has been indispensable to the existent of this app. I am really worried for myself and my colleagues, that such an important part of the app is being removed.”
Kate McGrew, director of SWAI says “Sex workers, and trans workers in particular, are some of the most vulnerable people on the planet. Sex work is not illegal in Ireland, but working together with another worker is. What little safety nets we have are being eroded.
We all deserve to work in safety and removing this feature from Ugly Mugs will be put in danger because of this issue. Google need to step up and do the right thing so that we can continue to remain safe”
Kate McGrew, director of Sex Workers Alliance Ireland (SWAI) says “This man was caught procuring sex during a raid on a so-called brothel, when two or more workers work together. This case yet against highlights how the law is being used against workers who may want to work together for safety reasons. This man was collateral damage in an ill-fated war to end demand. He was not the intended target of the raid, the workers were.”
She continues “As a result of this prosecution workers will be forced to work alone, which increases their vulnerability. Working or living with another sex worker is illegal in Ireland. Penalties doubled for workers working in pairs or groups when the law change and this change in law happened quietly, but it is an extremely dangerous piece of legislation. The Nordic model purportedly is meant to target the client but by this law, but if we want to work legally here we are forced to work alone. Violent attacks specifically increased on us 77% in the first year of the law being introduced. This is not a coincidence.”
“This is the first prosecution of a client under the laws brought in in 2017, but from statistics we go from the Central Statistics office we know 55 people have been arrested. We can only conclude that the rest of those prosecuted under brothel keeping laws are the workers themselves. Is this really what this law was introduced for?”
“For sex workers the police are vectors of violence, not of safety or harm reduction. Many migrant sex workers, already on the margins of society, are offered the choice of leaving the country or face prosecution and possibly deportation. When anti-sex work organisations speak about all sex work being violence, including the consensual transactions, what recourse do we have when we are actually assaulted?”
“No one is asking about the sex workers who have been caught in this raid. We hope they are safe and getting the support they need and we would like to remind them and all other sex workers that we are here for peer-led, non judgemental support for all sex workers”
While new report shows that Sex Workers working even in partially criminalised settings face three times the amount of violence, it remains completely illegal for two workers to work together for safety in Ireland.
Today is International Day to Eliminate Violence Against Sex Workers. In a year of difficult conversations which challenged the status quo and led to real gains for women and people who can get pregnant in Ireland, we must continue to push further to ensure bodily autonomy and the safety of everyone, including sex workers.
Kate McGrew, director of Sex Workers Alliance Ireland (SWAI) says “Penalties for workers working in pairs or groups doubled was a change in law that happened quietly, but it is an extremely dangerous piece of legislation. The Nordic model purportedly is meant to target the client but by this law, but if we want to work legally here we are forced to work alone. Violent attacks specifically increased on us 77% in the first year of the law being introduced. This is not a coincidence.”
She continues “We talk to worker after worker whose safety and income has become increasingly precarious. Many are forced to seek assistance for housing by criminals who prey upon our vulnerability. In a time of housing crisis we are exploited by landlords who take advantage of our brothel keeping laws to extract enormous sums for use of their property.
Trans sex workers of colour are some of the most vulnerable people in the world. Sex work is one of the few avenues of income open to trans people. While we have quite progressive law on gender recognition in Ireland employment opportunities are rare. Until proper supports are put in place for everyone people will still continue to see sex work as their opportunity for independence and income.
The officers who arrest us are the ones we are to report to if we are assaulted. For sex workers the police are vectors of violence, not of safety or harm reduction. Many migrant sex workers, already on the margins of society, are offered the choice of leaving the country or face prosecution and possibly deportation. When anti-sex work organisations speak about all sex work being violence, including the consensual transactions, what recourse do we have when we are actually assaulted?
We see reports published that back up what we have known anecdotally for years; that when any aspect of sex work is criminalised, including the purchase of sex, violence against sex workers is normalised. We want sex work decriminalised so that we are no longer pushed to the margins. How long can some feminist organisations, the government and the health department ignore the growing body of evidence that shows that their policies are damaging our health?”
Since the laws have been introduced there have been 55 people arrested for prostitution offences, but only 2 of them are clients. Garda resources are already stretched without having to police consensual acts between a sex worker and their client.
Sex Workers Alliance Ireland (SWAI) supports the findings of the associations between sex work laws and sex workers’ health, that criminalisation of sex work including the purchase of sex normalises violence against sex workers. The report shows that when aspects of sex work are policed there are higher instances of HIV among sex workers, less safe sex, more instances of violence by their clients and others including the police, lack of access to support and that it leads to workers are taking more risks in order to work and survive. Whereas in places where sex work is tolerated workers have more access to justice and better bargaining power with their clients.
Kate McGrew, SWAI’s director says “This report backs up what we already knew; that sex workers lives and health, including mental health, are damaged by aspects of our work being criminalised. Criminalisation of clients, which is the law introduced here last year, means that workers are forced to take more risks. Fines were also increased for sex workers working together for safety, which fall under the crime of brothel-keeping. These laws were introduced to “rescue” sex workers from our work but this report shows that policing of sex work leads to poorer outcomes.”
She continued “As we predicted, violence against sex workers rose dramatically once these brothel-keeping and client criminalisation laws came in. When a serial rapist or attacker shows up in our community, often workers will only share this information amongst ourselves and not report because of the threat of prosecution.
The officers who arrest us are the ones we are to report to if we are assaulted. For sex workers the police are vectors of violence, not of safety or harm reduction. Many migrant sex workers, already on the margins of society, are offered the choice of leaving the country or face prosecution and possibly deportation. How is there oversight and care shown in these cases? How can that lead to improved interactions and trust with the state?
The laws put in place in 2017 are scheduled for a review in 2020 but until that time sex workers face increased violence and a reduction in safety. We are collateral damage in the ill-fated war against our means of survival.”
We got the following stats from the Central Statistics Office when we requested information on prostitution offenses
Recorded Crime Offences Under Reservation (Number) by Type of Offence and Quarter
134 ,Prostitution offences
2017Q1
2017Q2
2017Q3
2017Q4
2018Q1
2018Q2
9
6
12
12
11
5
Statistics Under Reservation.
For further information see our
(http://www.cso.ie/en/methods/crime/statisticsunderreservationfaqs/) Under Reservation FAQ page
(http://www.cso.ie/en/methods/crime/recordedcrime/) See Background Notes
134 Prostitution Offences is made up of 1341 Brothel keeping 1342 Organisation of prostitution 1343 Prostitution, including soliciting etc
Firstly, thank you for having SWAI here and asking us to speak. I honestly wish I wasn’t standing here talking, but my colleague and friend Laura Lee instead. These are big boots to fill and it is extremely difficult to do justice for someone who has done so much work for the sex worker movement and also acting as essentially SWAI’s Northern Ireland representative. Building bridges between allies such as Belfast Feminist Network to make sure sex worker voices were included in events like this and building a sex worker community here in the North.
This year has not been an easy year for sexual violence here on the island of Ireland between the Belfast rape trial and now the recent trial in Cork. How can sex workers have any hope under those circumstances, when the criminal justice system will blame our work for when we try to seek justice. And how can sex workers have hope, when organisations which seek to support victims of sexual violence debate against us and only recently tried to prevent us from having an event. Or use these events like Cork and Belfast to further criminalise our work.
Their demand for criminalising our clients and our workplace, when two or more sex workers share together, makes us easy targets for rapists. There are serial rapists out there at this moment, who only target sex workers because they know we won’t report to the police in fear our place of work will become a surveillance target by police to catch our clients. And even more so, as a migrant sex worker fearful they will be deported and all their earnings taken off them to pay for their deportation if they are discovered working together. Why would you want to report a rape, when the outcome could make you lose literally everything?
But yet our voices are silenced and ignored.
Client criminalisation also known as the Swedish Model, because it has its roots in Sweden. This was seen by anti-sex work feminists as a beacon of hope. But all it did was put sex worker further at risk of violence and exploitation, especially the most vulnerable.
Petite Jasmine was a sex worker in Sweden, who had her children taken away because she was a sex working mother. the father, with a history of violence was given custody. Shortly afterwards he killed her in front of the very social workers who took her children away.
Many anti-sex work feminists believe that the increase of violence, which will inevitably happen as a result of client criminalisation, is seen as a deterrent for anyone who may consider becoming a prostitute. Sex workers are seen as collateral damage to further this agenda. You don’t have to take my word for it – ask Frances Fitzgerald, the ex-Justice Minister, who introduced this law in the South.
Reclaim the Night started in response to the Yorkshire Ripper murders when police told women to stay inside after dark while the Ripper was on the lose. The Yorkshire Ripper first targeted sex workers and there was only a public outcry when non-sex working women were targets.
This is why sex workers need to be part of any movement against sexual violence as we are often the easy target and amongst the less likely to get justice.
Sex Workers Alliance Ireland Censored from Big Picture RTE program: “A Women’s World”
“A Woman’s World” is due to be aired tonight on RTE. SWAI contacted the program about having someone from their organisation or an individual specifically affected by these issues to take part as an audience member, but they were refused. Kate McGrew, director of SWAI was told by the researcher that someone who has experience in this area will be there. When SWAI asked if it was a current sex worker – as these are the people suffering a targeted increase of violence on a daily basis – SWAI was told by the program that they “did not have time for this”.
Kate McGrew said “This is unacceptable. This is a silencing of the voices of the very people whose physical and sexaul assault is being swept under the carpet in order to push forward with a law that only serves a moral agenda. Big Picture cannot claim to investigate the topic of violence against women and precarity whilst blocking and ignoring the people whose lives are most endangered in Ireland on a daily basis. There is no-one who can speak on their safety concerns and lived experience but these people themselves. With what other group of people would this be acceptable?”
She continues “In 2018 we have seen momentous change for women when we repealed the 8th Amendment, but we have also seen some devastating sexual assault cases come to light. One of the reasons we were able to repeal the 8th was that we encouraged people to have difficult conversations. We asked people to be brave and face those awkward conversations and asked people to listen to real stories. We all want the best for women and girls and we should be open to hearing the experiences of those affected, not just those that agree with us. Bodily autonomy extends further than abortion access.”
Aoife Bloom, sex worker and board member of SWAI, added “Sex Workers Alliance Ireland is comprised of and represents some of the most marginalised and vulnerable women in Ireland. Sex workers, particularly trans women and people of colour in sex work, disproportionately suffer sexual violence in their lives and work, exacerbated by laws which make our work more dangerous and precarious. Yet not only have we been excluded from the #metoo movement, but in many cases in Ireland have been subject to prominent women’s organisations and feminists claiming that sex workers in fact are the one group of women whose consent does not mean anything. Exchange of money for sex does not negate consent.
In the face of rising rates of violence against this specific group and their position of being the only people it is deemed acceptable to victim-blame, it is unacceptable that they have been refused a place in the audience on this very topic.”
Sex Workers Alliance Ireland welcomes the judgement today Friday September 23rd, in the Royal Courts of Justice, Belfast, to allow sex worker Laura Lee to proceed with her Judicial Review challenge of the Human Trafficking and Exploitation Act (Criminal Justice and Support for Victims) Act (Northern Ireland) 2015. Lee’s legal team argued that the recent law passed in Northern Ireland which criminalizes the purchase of sex is an infringement on her human rights, her labour rights and her ability to keep herself safe in her work. The case will also challenge pre-existing brothel keeping legislation. This judgement means the case is allowed to progress further to a full hearing of all arguments.
Speaking from a meeting of the International Committee on the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe, SWAI Coordinator Kate McGrew said. “SWAI fully supports and commends Laura Lee in her legal fight. The Government here in the South is set to pass similar criminal proposals in Part IV of the Sexual Offences Bill. These proposals do not decriminalise workers as supporters of the Bill will claim. The vast majority of workers, those working together for safety, and the most vulnerable workers, those working on the street, remain criminalised and actually will face steeper penalties. SWAI opposes these proposals entirely, as it forces sex workers underground. It gives clients more bargaining power, as the clients’ protection from arrest becomes the priority for both parties. Laws like this force the transaction to happen in unfamiliar environments further away from authorities and support services, therefore giving impunity to perpetrators posing as clients, whilst enforcing criminal sanctions that prevent workers from safely accessing the justice system. We urge Governments North and South to actually speak to, listen and learn from the experiences of current sex workers before introducing any new laws or policies. Evidence based policy developed with sex workers is the only way to ensure the rights, safety and health of sex workers are protected”.
Luca Stevenson Coordinator of ICRSE said, “ICRSE supports any sex worker who takes the brave step to challenge criminal laws which are detrimental to their safety and rights. Laura Lee’s case challenges the Northern Irish Government on the basis of her human rights protected by European Law. This case therefore could have a wider impact on the rights of sex workers in other European States and we will be monitoring it closely. Our members across Europe face criminal laws likes these everyday, forcing them to work in unsafe conditions and put them at risk of violence and abuse. Governments need to accept that criminalising sex work is not working. Its hurting people”.
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