Press Release

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

October 10, 2020

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.”

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

#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

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

“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.”

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

June 2, 2020

“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

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.

Press Release: Sex workers need supports too says Sex Workers Alliance Ireland

March 23, 2020

Kate McGrew current sex worker, director of The Sex Workers Alliance Ireland (SWAI) and co-convenor of the European Network for Sex Workers’ Rights (ICRSE) is calling for the Irish government to urgently act to ensure that sex workers, along with their families and communities, can access social protections during the COVID-19 pandemic. She says “As more countries impose lockdowns, self-isolation and travel restrictions many sex workers will lose most, or all, of their income and face financial hardship, increased vulnerability, destitution or homelessness. The clandestine nature of sex work also means that many will be unable to access the safeguards provided for other workers, such as sick pay.”

She continues “Many sex workers come from communities that already face high levels of marginalisation and social exclusion including women living in poverty, migrants and refugees, trans people and drug users. Sex workers who are the primary earners in their families, or who don’t have alternative means of support are at risk of being forced into more precarious and dangerous situations to survive.

Sex workers in Ireland are already reporting:

Drastic loss of income
Closure of workplaces
Lack of funds to pay for basic needs, support family members and dependents
Inability to access community health services which have shut down or decreased their activities
Increased pressure to take risks while working in order to secure income

This pandemic is revealing, with extreme urgency, the ways in which sex workers are forced to operate on the margins, in precarious circumstances, without the protections enjoyed by other workers.

SWAI and ICRSE support efforts by governments to control transmissions of the virus. However, public health measures that do not consider the circumstances of the most marginalized groups put their overall success at risk. In providing emergency measures and relief, governments must ensure that they reach workers who are excluded from the formal economy.

As minimum governments must urgently provide:

Immediate, appropriate and easy-to-access financial support for sex workers in crisis,
Emergency housing for homeless sex workers
A firewall between immigration authorities and health services
Access to health care for all sex workers, irrespective of their immigration status

All measures related to sex work must be based on public health and human rights principles and be developed in consultation with sex workers and their organisations to limit their negative impact. This unprecedented crisis calls for meaningful collaboration between all sectors of society, including those most marginalized. Only by involving sex workers do governments stand a chance to limit the pandemic and eventually end it.

To mitigate the harm of the pandemic on sex workers we have set up a hardship crowdfund. Sex work is work and sex workers like many precarious workers have been affected by Covid-19. This money will go directly into the hands of sex workers through individual emergency payments. Here is the link: https://swai-hardship-fund.causevox.com/.

Sex workers are not the problem, we are part of the solution”

#DecrimforSafety #SupportSafeSexWork

Press release: Sentence of rapist shows all-too-rare justice for sex workers possible

March 18, 2020

We want to work with Gardaí so that crimes like these can come to justice

On Monday Nolan Keown was sentenced to 14 years in prison after attacking, sexually assaulting and robbing two sex workers in 2016 and 2018.

Kate McGrew, director of SWAI and current sex worker sais “These attacks occurred before and after the sex purchase law, we need to reiterate that this law does not deter men who know their behaviour is already criminal. A sex purchase ban does nothing to deter people who were already willing to break the law with actual violence. The law only gives these egregious humans more cover and brazenness to do so, as they know that workers are unfortunately less likely to engage with Gardai under this law.”

She continues “However we are very grateful for the work of An Garda Schoicana. We know that we can work together to keep perpetrators not only out of our industry and community but off the streets.

The law was introduced with great fanfare but what it has resulted in is a 92% increase in violence against sex workers. In this instance, the change in the law did not deter Mr Keown from his violent acts as the occurred before and after the law.

We are willing to and encouraging of all sex workers to work with Gardai to make Ireland safer for everyone. But the evidence shows that many more sex workers working together for safety have been arrested under our so-called brothel-keeping laws than criminals who have attacked sex workers. Last year two migrant women were prosecuted for working together for safety, one of which was pregnant. Trust in Gardaí has dropped to less than 1% since the introduction of new penalties for working together for safety.

Sex workers are not legally allowed to work together for safety. Attackers know that if workers are working together it is considered a brothel. Sex workers who work together are very unlikely to report to the Gardaí because they fear arrest. If a sex worker works alone this can make her more vulnerable to attacks. Sex workers working alone are reluctant to report to the Gardai because they fear that Gardaí will surveil them looking for their clients, or they won’t be believed. Criminals know this and target both workers alone or together.

We ask the government to make this work between sex workers and Gardai more realistic and effective by abandoning the law that works against these important efforts. Currently, Gardai efforts are forced by law to focus on policing and raids when their role with us should only be one of protection. We call for full decriminalisation of sex work as it has proven in New Zealand and Australia to vastly improve relationships between sex workers and police. We all deserve to be safe.

#DecrimforSafety #SupportSafeSexWork

Press release: New liaison officers and dedicated email address show the PSNI are taking sex workers safety seriously

March 6, 2020

Kate McGrew, current sex worker and director of the Sex Workers Alliance Ireland said “Yesterday, Thursday 5 March, a private meeting was held between the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), the Sex Workers Alliance Ireland (SWAI), The Rainbow Project, UglyMugs.ie and sex workers. It was a constructive meeting and was well-attended by sex workers of many different backgrounds working in Northern Ireland.”

She continued “PSNI Sex Work Liaison Officers (SWLOs) were introduced in 2015, following the advocacy work of Laura Lee. At this meeting it was announced that the number of PSNI Sex Work Liaison Officers (SWLOs) has now been increased from two officers to six officers and there is also now a new dedicated contact email address for the SWLOs – [email protected].”

Detective Chief Superintendent Paula Hilman, Head of PSNI’s Public Protection Branch opened the meeting speaking directly to sex workers and saying: “It is not for us to judge, discriminate against anyone, from whatever background, whatever work they do. Our role is to keep everyone safe and that includes you in the room here with us this evening.”

At the meeting the PSNI, SWAI, UglyMugs.ie and the Rainbow Project all spoke about what each organisation is doing to improve the safety and well-being of people in sex work. A representative from The Rowan, Northern Ireland’s regional Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC), also spoke about their services and their sex worker friendly approach.

Kate also stated “This meeting provided an important opportunity for sex workers to provide feedback to the PSNI and for everyone present to recommit to working in partnership on an ongoing basis. For reasons of privacy, we will not be publicly detailing the discussions that took place. However, SWAI is very pleased that the PSNI want to listen to and support sex workers.

A more detailed update following the meeting will be circulated to sex workers only next week. The Rainbow Project are also now organising monthly sex worker only meetups, on the first Tuesday of every month. If you are doing sex work in Northern Ireland, please know that there is sex worker friendly support available to you, including the sex worker led work that SWAI does in Northern Ireland. We are here for you.

Prior to the event, SWAI and Reclaim the Night came together to temporarily re-name Queens Square ‘Laura Lee Square’ in honour of all our much loved and missed colleague, Laura Lee.”

#DecrimforSafety #SupportSafeSexWork