Press Release

Press Release: Threats of murder to sex workers have been normalised

October 27, 2023

This week a phishing scam from someone pretending to be a major advertising site contacted non-national sex workers who are currently advertising. Later in the week, these texts escalated into extreme threats of violence, including threats of murder.

Separately a man with an Irish accent has been calling sex workers, harassing them with threats of violence. All of this is part of an ongoing, sustained campaign of harassment with serious time and resources being put into it.

Mardi Kennedy, coordinator of the Sex Workers Alliance Ireland (SWAI) says “We are highlighting these events to warn sex workers about the phishing calls but also to highlight the type of violence against sex workers, who are mostly women, that goes unnoticed, unreported and not talked about.”

She continued “We also wanted to bring attention to the campaign of harassment that has been levelled against Ugly Mugs, the app sex workers use to keep themselves safe.

Due to online harassment, the person running the Ugly Mugs social media has been forced to take down their social media accounts. Ugly Mugs does not have an advertising budget and relies on word of mouth and social media to direct sex workers to this essential service. The police are powerless to address the violent threats that have been made to the person running the account and social media companies are indifferent.”

Linda Kavanagh, spokesperson for SWAI said “There have been countless complaints to 3rd parties about Ugly Mugs from somebody or some people over the past several months. This app is one of the few safety nets sex workers have. If this app disappears, sex workers will die. It is as simple as that.

Less than 1% of sex workers report crimes against them to the Gardaí, compared to 81% of the general population who have trust in Gardaí. How does this statistic not concern the Minister for Justice? How does it not concern those who campaign against gender-based violence?”

Linda continued “Sex workers are real people, who are forced to work alone to work legally. They are rejected from rape and sexual assault services because of their job. They are refused treatment by mental health professionals because the economic activity they perform is framed as acts of self-harm. Gardaí pose as clients and lied to sex workers to get access to them, under the guise of so-called welfare checks.

Threats and harassment are inevitable in the current environment of criminalisation and stigma. This violence is not from clients but from men who feel empowered by the law and the dehumanising language around sex workers. During the 16 Days to End Gender-Based Violence next month will we see a focus on the reality of harassment, stalking and threats to sex workers, or will we see more misguided support for laws and stigma that creates the environment for this violence?”

Minister’s refusal to meet is a slap in the face of a community already hurt

September 20, 2023

The Sex Workers Alliance of Ireland (SWAI) is deeply disappointed and frustrated with the Minister for Justice’s refusal to meet with them to discuss Part 4 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) 2017 report.

Linda Kavanagh, spokesperson for SWAI says “Sex workers are the primary stakeholders in this review. SWAI’s role in Irish society is to ensure sex workers’ voices get heard in the policies that affect their lives. No one wants to see laws and policies that keep sex workers safe more than sex workers themselves.

Despite repeated requests, SWAI has never received any response regarding the review process. The review has been delayed several times, and the independent reviewer in charge of the report has recently stepped back. SWAI demands that the review be scrapped and redone as they believe that the sex workers’ voices have not been heard.

The email from the Minister’s office stated “Unfortunately, due to heavy work schedules, it is not possible to facilitate a meeting.” We too have busy schedules dealing with the fallout of this extremely damaging law, such as evictions, homelessness and suicidality, to name a few.

There were many media opportunities recently involving the Minister regarding the issue of crime in Dublin city, despite evidence that crime is actually down this year. We’re asking for engagement on the myriad of evidence that shows that the Nordic model of client criminalisation is actively harming sex workers. What kind of trust can we have in the Department of Justice when ideology is prioritised over lived experience, evidence and research? We have to ask whether the Minister thinks she is above meeting us.

SWAI is appalled to learn through the media that the Department of Justice plans to include the sex-for-rent law in this review. This is not the purpose of the review process, and it should not be rushed to accommodate the Department of Justice’s timeline. The review process was built into the law when it passed.

SWAI does not support sex-for-rent laws and firmly believes that the best way to tackle exploitation in both the housing crisis and sex work is to address the lack of affordable housing, alleviate poverty, and end inequality. The current government has failed to make significant changes by addressing pertinent issues. Instead, they have opted to pass superficial laws that do not address the root cause of the problem.

This year has been a devastating one for sex workers in Ireland. In April we learned of a sex worker being murdering Limerick, trust in Gardaí remains incredibly low and we are steeling ourselves for the inevitable raids dressed up as welfare checks that come every November.

SWAI warned the government that violence would increase under the Nordic Model of client criminalisation. Sex workers in Ireland already feel ignored and outcast due to stigma and shame, refusing to meet with SWAI compounds this stigmatisation. When we are being murdered, attacked, robbed and lied to by Gardaí, what does it take for us to be listened to?

Review of law needs to be scrapped and started again

July 13, 2023

Today the Sex Workers Alliance Ireland (SWAI) learned that the long overdue review of the sex work laws in Ireland has hit another stumbling block, as the independent reviewer heading up the report has stepped back.

Linda Kavanagh, comms manager of SWAI said “ As usual, there was no contact made with SWAI and other stakeholders to let us know of yet another issue with this independent review. We are grateful to have learned this through a question asked by Catherine Connolly, who has been persistent in her enquiries as the timeframe for this report became longer and longer.”

She continued “A mandatory review of the law was built into the change in Part 4 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017 to occur 3 years after the law was passed. Despite numerous requests for information on the process, the report’s mechanisms remained opaque. We note that the abortion law review was called for later than this review (2019) and was conducted and published earlier this year. We have now been waiting 3.5 years to be heard.”

Mardi Kennedy, coordinator of SWAI said “We have been troubled by the lack of transparency about this review since it began. We worry that the time elapsed since we participated in the review means the data is out of date. We are concerned that the independent reviewer, the person who talked with sex workers directly, is now no longer involved and any person who steps into the role now will lack that meaningful engagement.”

Linda said of the review “We have become increasingly frustrated with the statements made by the various Ministers for Justice during this time. If there was an issue with the time taken for the femicide report, as described in 2020, why has that issue persisted into mid-2023? We have reached out to the Minister for Justice to request a meeting.

While the review has taken up considerable time and resources for our organisation, and the mental capacity of the sex workers who engaged in the process, we would rather see this process started again and done properly. This review is vitally important, lives are at stake. We have already seen a young woman, Geila Ibram murdered under these laws, sex workers jailed for so-called brothel keeping, and increased and violent attacks. How can sex workers have faith in this process with so many delays and changes?”

Amber*, a sex worker based in Ireland said “The Government failed us when the laws were introduced. They are again failing us by denying us an opportunity to inform them on how these laws are impacting our lives!”.

Leea Berry, Chair of SWAI and current sex worker, stated “The lack of importance shown toward the review of this law is concerning. The current law has already murdered one sex worker and continues to harm us. How many more must suffer or die before we can have the review we were promised?”

ENDS

We told you this would happen says Sex Workers Alliance Ireland, about the murder of a sex worker in Limerick

April 5, 2023

The murder of a sex worker is the grim but obvious result of a law that disregards the voices and safety of sex workers.

Linda Kavanagh, communications manager of the Sex Workers Alliance Ireland says “When this law was being debated in 2015 and 2016 sex workers and allies warned that the law would increase violence against sex workers. Since that time mountains of research, as well as the lived experiences of sex workers, have shown us to be correct.”

She continues “Everywhere the so-called Nordic Model has been passed, sex workers have been murdered. It has happened in France, it has happened in Sweden in the country of its origin, and now it has happened here.

Client criminalisation laws reduce the number of clients while doing nothing to address the economic need which drives people to do sex work in the first place. Despite the misguided promises of those who support the law, the client now has the upper hand in negotiation – he is the one at risk of criminal prosecution. To get the client’s money, a sex worker needs to make him feel safe and deprioritise their own safety. This may result in risk-taking behaviour like not using a condom, or taking on clients that a worker would normally turn down. The industry is pushed underground, away from services that can help a worker in an exploitative situation.

In 2017 the law also increased fines and added a jail sentence for so-called brothel keeping, where two or more sex workers share accommodation. Almost all sex workers we speak to want to work with another worker. Sex work is a cash business and working alone makes sex workers targets for criminals. Working safely and working legally are now incompatible.

The laws surrounding sex work have made criminals of consenting adults and have done nothing to stem the rising tide of violence against women in Ireland. Those at the forefront of the fight against violence against women vocally support our misguided laws. They refuse to listen to sex workers when they say they want sex work to be decriminalised.

When we hear of sex workers being murdered our immediate concern is the safety of the sex work community. What systems are in place for when something of this magnitude happens? It became clear to those of us in direct contact with sex workers day in and day out that there was not a Garda system in place. It was Ugly Mugs, advertiser sites and the community ourselves who spread the information about the attack and warned sex workers. A description of the possible perpetrator was given to the media before it was given to the community. Without organisations that constantly get called “the Pimp Lobby”, get refused funding, get shut out of policy decisions, and have our data and research ridiculed and laughed at (genuinely) the community would not know what was going on.

Another migrant woman has been killed in our country, because of our laws. It is time for people in Ireland to demand the end to laws that put women, migrants, gender-diverse and marginalised people in harm’s way. We deserve better than a country that pushes people into sex work through the continuing housing crisis, lack of drug reform, lack of legal migration paths, the cost of living crisis etc and then puts people in danger when they chose to do sex work. People are desperate because of these concurrent crises. Violence like this is not inevitable, but the dehumanising language used around sex work contributes to it. We need to fully decriminalise sex work as a first step towards the safety of sex workers.

Our thoughts are with her and her family.

#DecrimforSafety #SupportSafeSexWork

Sex workers failed by law AGAIN

March 14, 2023

When will the state own up to the fact that the law has failed and decriminalise sex work in Ireland?

Mardi Kennedy, coordinator of the Sex Workers Alliance Ireland (SWAI) commented on today’s guilty verdict of a man who assaulted two migrant sex workers in 2020 “The case today shows that the current sex work law in Ireland is failing on its own terms. The law did nothing to prevent the violent behaviour of this client.

We commend these brave workers who came forward and ensured the prosecution of a predator. However we note that this is unusual. Less than 1% of sex workers report crimes against them to the Gardaí, compared to 81% of the general population who have trust in Gardaí. How does this statistic not concern the Minister for Justice?”

Linda Kavanagh, communications manager of SWAI continues “In the wake of the change in the law in 2017, SWAI was the first point of contact for workers who were assaulted. As this case today proves, this spate of violence against sex workers has not abated.

Everyone deserves to be safe in their job, and sex work is an economic activity. The sex workers in this case noted that they worked for themselves, they were not being exploited or coerced.

The criminalisation of the purchase of sex does nothing to address the economic needs of sex workers. In fact, what it has done is made sex workers less safe and pushed sex work underground and away from services that can support them.

The strategy of so-called End Demand has created a climate of hostility and scarcity which means that sex workers may feel the need to take on clients who they would normally refuse or engage in riskier behaviour. It empowers clients to demand sex with no condom, for example.”

We MUST decriminalise sex work so that workers can work together for safety. We demand the Gardaí, the Department of Justice and supporters of the law listen to sex workers about what they need. They have the power to right these wrongs.”

* An earlier version of the blog post stated incorrectly that the sex workers were trans.

Press release: Irish government is complicit in violence against sex workers

December 17, 2022

“Today is International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers, and since we marked this day last year there has been a notable shift in attitudes against sex workers in Ireland,” says Mardi Kennedy, coordinator of the Sex Workers Alliance Ireland (SWAI).

“The tide is turning against sex workers, and it is alarming to see”, Mardi continues. “This year the Department of Justice funded‘ I Must Be Some Person’ research highlighted that 1 in 5 street sex workers in Ireland has been sexually assaulted by Gardaí. This research was unique in giving voice to street sex workers who have been silenced in the dominant narrative around sex work in Ireland.”

Linda Kavanagh, comms manager for SWAI added “We have also recently learned of a sex worker who had their earnings seized at Belfast airport. Selling sex is supposed to be legal on the island of Ireland and yet this worker had her name published online and her earnings stolen by the police. Under what law have her earnings been seized?”

“All-island brothel raids were conducted in November with no mention of the well-being of the sex workers involved. Gardaí have posed as clients and lied to sex workers to get access to them to conduct so-called welfare checks. The Gardaí have then taken the names of the landlords of these premises. These checks, accompanied by mass texts, have terrorised sex workers and we have been contacted by many sex workers who are concerned by these actions. This is not how to go about combatting trafficking and exploitation in the sex industry.”

“Violence against sex workers comes in many forms, not just from clients. Police, the government, healthcare professionals, landlords, and society at large are all vectors of violence against sex workers. We know this because SWAI listens to sex workers themselves. Trust in the Gardaí amongst the rest of the population is at 90% according to the Gardaí’s own research. If we compare that to the Ugly Mugs stats, the only stats of crimes against sex workers that are collected, we see that less than 1% of sex workers report crimes against them to Gardaí.”

“In the past year we have learned that victims of trafficking who were prosecuted for brothel-keeping will not have their convictions wiped. There is a huge problem in Ireland with trafficked people getting recognised as such, while it suits many to conflate all sex work with trafficking. Just look at the number of traffickers prosecuted and how Ireland has been admonished numerous times for our lack of convictions” says Leah Butler.

She continues “On a more positive note, this year the review of the law continued and we eagerly await the outcome of this report. This review MUST centre on the experiences of current sex workers and how the Nordic model of client criminalisation has made sex workers more vulnerable to violence, including violence from the state.”

Here at SWAI we have hired a new coordinator and have a new board, made up of sex workers and allies. We have resumed our monthly coffee meet-ups, and online meet-ups to bolster the diverse community of sex workers in Ireland. We have sent vouchers to sex workers who are struggling with the cost of living crisis because we know that sex workers need more than rhetoric to survive.

This International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers we demand that sex workers are listened to when we call for the decriminalisation of sex work. The cost of living crisis, on top of the years-long housing crisis, means more people turn to sex work to make ends meet. The Irish government is pushing people into sex work but simultaneously ensures they are less safe once they are.

Ominous texts from Gardaí scare sex workers during Days of activism against gender-based violence

December 1, 2022

Risk of eviction, mass surveillance and threats to our livelihood are just some of the issues that sex workers have faced just days into the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence.

“We have been inundated with calls and messages from sex workers who have received texts from the Gardaí. These texts have terrorised a population that is already fearful of interaction with the Gardaí” says Linda Kavanagh from the Sex Workers Alliance Ireland (SWAI).

“This week there have been reports of so-called welfare checks by Gardaí on sex workers, where Gardaí have posed as clients and lied to sex workers to get access to them. The Gardaí have then taken the names of the landlords of these premises. Brothel raids have been conducted both north and south of the border and there have been trafficking arrests. However, there is no mention of the welfare of the sex workers who worked there. This is not how to go about combatting trafficking and exploitation in the sex industry.”

“Ireland must recognise that, for sex workers, Gardaí can be a vector of violence. The “I Must Be Some Person” research, published in August of this year highlighted that one in five street sex workers interviewed had experienced being sexually exploited by the Gardaí. Trust in the Garda amongst the rest of the population is at 90% according to the Gardaí’s own research. If we compare that to the Ugly Mugs stats, the only stats of crimes against sex workers that are collected, we see that less than 1% of sex workers report crimes against them to Gardaí.”

“The 2017 law is failing on its own terms. It has pushed sex work underground, away from Gardaí and services that can help. The law does nothing to improve the situation of a population who are already on the margins of society. In order to improve relationships with Gardaí, we must decriminalise sex work so that sex workers can feel safe reporting crimes against them. Sex workers deserve to be safe and they deserve laws that uphold their safety.”

Press release: Ireland is failing trafficking victims by persisting with a failed law

July 20, 2022

Linda Kavanagh, communications manager for the Sex Workers Alliance Ireland (SWAI) says “The Trafficking in Persons Report released yesterday highlights that there has been no successful labour trafficking prosecutions in Ireland in the past year. Two prosecutions in Ireland show that the Irish government is still falling short of any meaningful reduction in sex trafficking. SWAI demands that sex work is decriminalised to help identify victims.”

She continued “It is no surprise to us that victims of labour trafficking were deported even though they self-identified. In a meeting with SWAI in 2020 senior Gardaí told us they did not believe self-identified trafficking victims existed and those claiming this status were doing so solely to avoid deportation.”

“Year after year the Trafficking in Persons report, and experts, acknowledge that Direct Provision is unsuitable accommodation for trafficking victims, which is a tacit acknowledgement that Direct Provision can compound trauma and is not fit for purpose. We support calls to End Direct Provision.”

“Since 2017 when the law introduced client criminalisation and increased fines and jail time for so-called brothel keeping, Ireland has struggled to identify trafficking victims. Gardaí themselves have admitted to us that intelligence has fallen since the law was introduced. This is because Gardaí are antagonising their best resource to combat sex trafficking, sex workers themselves.

The sex work law was introduced with great fanfare, with wild claims that it would eradicate sex trafficking, despite it failing to do so in any country that it has been introduced into, including Northern Ireland. 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.

SWAI condemns trafficking and any form of exploitation in the sex industry. However, the law is failing on its own terms. Sex workers won’t report crimes against them to Gardaí and Gardaí are indifferent to this. In fact, our laws have caused a 92% increase in crime against sex workers. What use are these laws, if not to protect people?

Prevention and resilience to trafficking are better than prosecution after the fact. Central to anti-trafficking strategies in other sectors are workers’ ability to organise, unionise and report. Sex workers are not allowed to organise in this way because they must work alone to work legally. 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.

The war in Ukraine is cynically being used by sex work prohibitionists to push their agenda, despite there being no evidence that Ukrainian women are being trafficked here for sex. This is a waste of precious resources that could be used to help vulnerable people such as those in poverty, domestic violence situations, homelessness or addiction.

If the Gardaí and the state want to combat trafficking and organised crime they should use laws for those specific purposes, not arresting consensual adults. There is no evidence that client criminalisation reduces either sex work or trafficking. How long will Ireland continue to stubbornly refuse to listen to sex workers when they say they want to help, but they can’t?

US State Dept TIP Report

Press release: Decriminalisation of sex work has finally happened in Europe

March 19, 2022

The Sex Workers Alliance Ireland (SWAI) welcomes the news that the first country in Europe has decriminalised sex work. “Belgium has shown us that decriminalisation of sex work in Europe is possible and Ireland must sit up and pay attention to the mounting evidence that criminalisation of sex work creates vulnerability and increases violence.”

“Belgium has taken the historic step to ensure that sex workers’ safety is prioritised. By listening to sex workers and allies they removed sex work from criminal laws which allows it to be regulated like any other profession.”

These laws were brought in while increasing sentences for rape and centring consent within the law. Sex workers have been actively excluded from discussion on consent in Ireland which is extremely dangerous and short-sighted. The decriminalisation of sex work recognises in law that sex work and sex trafficking are separate. Laws that aim to reduce trafficking by “ending demand” for sex work, such as we have in Ireland, have led to sex workers becoming more vulnerable.

Belgium’s new laws state ensures that minors selling sex remains illegal as does pimping. The law now allows for sex workers to be legitimate employees, with all the rights granted to any other person in the labour force.

Allowing sex workers to legally hire 3rd parties such as accountants means that they are less open to exploitation. Sex work tends to be a cash business as banks in Belgium were prohibited from allowing sex workers to open an account. This law ensures sex workers can use banks and reduced the precarity that sex workers face. This also means that landlords are no longer prohibited from renting to sex workers. In Ireland, so-called Garda welfare checks have led to the eviction of a number of sex workers this winter.

Some aspects of the law remain a concern such as advertising remaining illegal. Bans on advertising lead to stigmatisation and sex workers being kicked off social media platforms. Without advertising some workers will be forced to return to outdoor working which is markedly less safe because sex workers have little time to screen their clients on the street.

We await the full details of this law but this news has given us hope while we await the overdue review of our own laws which has seen violence against sex workers increase by 92%. Sex workers deserve to be heard in Irish Society and Ireland must emulate Belgium by listening to active sex workers about what they need.

State pushing people into sex work then ensuring they are not safe

December 17, 2021

Today is International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers and we want to highlight how, through government policies, the state pushes people into sex work.Years of austerity, the housing crisis, lack of supports for people using drugs, Direct Provision, limits to how many hours international students can work, lack of decent employment, lack of affordable childcare and precarious work are all contributing factors as to why people enter sex work.

Aoife Bloom, board member of SWAI said “Once people have entered sex work the current law in place ensures they are not safe. Client criminalisation was introduced in 2017 along with increases in the penalties and a potential jail sentence for working together for safety. This means that to work legally sex workers must work alone. Almost all sex workers we speak to would like the option of sharing a premises for safety. Most of the people who have been arrested for so-called brothel-keeping have been young, migrant sex workers.”

She continues “Client criminalisation was introduced with great fanfare with the supposed aim of ending the demand for sex work and thereby ending trafficking in Ireland. It has utterly failed to achieve that goal. Focusing on the criminalisation of the clients of sex workers has done nothing to address the real root causes of human trafficking. Since we marked this day last year Ireland has languished at almost the bottom of the Trafficking in Persons report. Since last year trans people, especially trans sex workers of colour, are being murdered in record numbers globally. Since last year the violence which increased by 92% after the introduction of the law has not abated. Trans sex workers were the targets for the initial spate of violence that occurred here.

Client criminalisation has not ended sex work in Ireland but it has given the client the upper hand in the negotiating process. A sex worker has to ensure the client feels safe as the client is the one taking the risk. The legal pressure that clients face is absorbed by sex workers. This means shorter negotiation times, more risk-taking such as not using a condom, less screening and taking on clients you would normally refuse to make up for lost income. The reality is sex work is still partially if not fully criminalised in Ireland. When you decriminalise the act of selling sex yet make all the conditions for selling sex illegal, it is just ideology.

Recently a spate of so-called welfare checks by Gardaí have terrorised sex workers and even resulted in evictions. In the middle of winter, during an increase in the numbers of people contracting COVID, at the height of the housing crisis sex workers are being forced out of their homes by their landlords who cannot rent to them for fear of prosecution. This is the direct result of the law passed in 2017 which was supposed to end exploitation. Both the Gardaí and landlords are obliged to follow the law. The reality is that the Gardaí can’t help people that they are criminalising.”

“We are already degraded, objectified and mistreated by so many abusers and sometimes by the general public, we do not need to be treated in the same manner by the government or by officers of the law.”
– Naomi, active sex worker in Ireland

Aoife says “Criminalising the purchase of sex has done nothing to remove the reasons why women sell sex in the first place, and neither did lockdown. No supports were put in place when this law was introduced. Sex work is an economic activity and sex workers need rights like all other workers. The first step is to decriminalise sex work so that the health and safety of sex workers can be prioritised.”

“I want it to be safe for everyone. It’s all about our safety.”
– Beth, current outdoor worker

#DecrimforSafety #SupportSafeSexWork