UK P4P News

Thousands of men and women in Wales are ditching studies and careers to become sex workers, new research reveals.

Researchers at Swansea University tracked down 400 off-street sex workers in brothels, escort agencies and over the internet in Cardiff. They found:

• More than three-quarters of those questioned had qualifications including GCSEs, A-levels and even a law degree
• The majority had come into the sex trade from respectable careers, including one woman who had been a senior manager in a private sector business
• None had been trafficked or coerced with many quoting high wages, flexible working hours and job satisfaction as their reasons for going into the trade
• The majority were working independently by advertising on the internet, some of whom said they were doing it for fun

The results challenge the myths put about by anti-prostitution campaigners that men and women trapped in a dangerous trade by controlling pimps, financial insecurity and a downward spiral of drug and alcohol abuse.

Dr Tracey Sagar, a lecturer in Criminology and Social Policy at Swansea University and co-author of the report, told WalesOnline the results called into question the effectiveness of current Government strategies, which are attempting to wipe out the sex trade for good. She said:

We're not talking here about women on the streets, who are extremely vulnerable to crime, violence, who often have serious problems with drug abuse and who do need our help.

The women we spoke to for this research were articulate and knew exactly what they were doing -- no-one who we talked to had been pushed into it.

Many were giving up well-paid jobs to do it, quoting good money and flexible working hours. One even said, 'I'm my own business, I'd never go back to a normal job.'

These women definitely don't want to be saved -- they have made a choice and we have to respect that choice -- Government policy needs to recognise that the sex industry has been around for ever and it's not going to go anywhere.

Off-street sex workers are not the same as on-street and trafficked women and no-one policy will do for all.

Dr Sagar and her colleague Debbie Jones worked with HIV charity Terrence Higgins Trust Cymru to track down sex workers in Cardiff. Of the 395 men and women they found, an overwhelming 343 were working independently by advertising their services on adult websites, while another 18 had placed ads in a local advertiser, 14 were with an escort agency and 20 were working out of seven well-known massage parlours in Cardiff.

Dr Sagar said that these figures barely scrape the surface of the industry, with many more brothels and escort agencies existing that did not respond to the survey, as well as an invisible majority of prostitutes selling their services via dozens of specialist adult websites.

Slavery remains as much of a problem in the UK as when it was officially abolished 200 years ago, a 'think'-tank has ludicrously claimed.

The Centre for Social Justice will launch a review of slavery and human trafficking using estimates that supposedly show at least 6,000 women have been trafficked into the UK and forced into prostitution. Others are working as domestic servants or forced labour.

Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith, patron of the 'think'-tank, will help launch the inquiry, which will look at the role, impact and training of the police and other frontline organisations. It will also consider the effectiveness of the National Referral Mechanism, which aims to identify victims

Gavin Poole, the CSJ's executive director, spewed:

Every slavery victim represents a family torn apart and an individual's freedom and choice destroyed. They mark the continuation of an illegal trade which, since its official abolition in 1807, has grown to devastate many more people than it did 200 years ago.

The 15-month review, which will be led by Andrew Wallis, director of the anti-trafficking and victim support group Unseen UK, will also consider the UK's laws on prostitution, trafficking and domestic servitude.

The government is expected to publish a separate review of its anti-trafficking strategy later this month.

The Daily Star adds a fine contribution to the bollox about trafficked sex workers touring world sporting events:

Olympics chiefs face a new hurdle in the run-up to the 2012 Games as the Russian Mafia is set to swoop on London.

Gangsters from one of the world's most feared mobs have set up business around the site in Stratford, East London.

Ruthless Russians, who have links to several vice dens in London, plan to cash in when hundreds of thousands of tourists hit the capital.

Hookers will whore themselves to punters, cocaine will flood the streets and extortion rackets will hit small businesses, police fear.

Ms Sheila Farmer has been a diabetic since childhood and is seriously ill with a malignant brain tumour. Yet she has been charged with managing a brothel and is facing an onerous trial and criminal record.

Ms Farmer used to work on her own but after only six months she was viciously attacked by a man who raped her repeatedly, tried to strangle her and kept her tied up for hours. He was deported after an Old Bailey trial. Fearful of another attack, Ms Farmer vowed never to work alone. She has worked with friends for the past 17 years. Ill health has forced her to cut down so she has taken on co-ordinating clients for other women.

Ms Farmer says I believe strongly that women working as we were should be left alone. The laws are antiquated. I was earning money to pay for my cancer treatment. This moral crusade is making criminals out of women like me.

Ms Farmer's flat was raided by the police in August 2010. Following complaints by some neighbours, police officers visited and saw there was no force or coercion. To make things easier Ms Farmer agreed to move. Yet while she was in the process of moving she was arrested. Her insulin was taken from her and she was only released from police custody after a doctor said that her health would be in serious danger if she were to be held any longer.

Ms Farmer has never coerced anyone into work. On the contrary, she has taken great care to protect women from attack. At personal risk, despite threats and retribution, she appeared as a witness in court to ensure the conviction of an armed gang that had attacked hundreds of working women in the south of England.

Ms Farmer is a mother trying to survive in harsh economic times. She only went into sex work because diabetes caused her to lose too much of her vision to keep her job as an IT consultant. Ms Farmer is struggling to survive two serious health conditions. Her consultant has written to the court: I am afraid the future is uncertain and one can almost guarantee that the tumour will grow and progress in the relatively near future. If possible it would be medically justifiable to try and avoid any stress associated with any prolonged Court hearing.

Not only does Ms Farmer face a prolonged trial, she faces up to seven years in prison. Why is this prosecution being brought?

Please write to Kier Starmer, Director of Public Prosecutions and ask for the case to be dropped immediately. privateoffice@cps.gsi.gov.uk

Copy to Jo Johnson MP, House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA Tel: 020 7219 7125 jo.johnson.mp@parliament.uk

London Sex Worker Film Festival
Sunday 12th of June. From 1.15 to 5.30 pm
RIO Cinema, Hackney, London

Tickets are ?9 /?7 concessions, all funds raised to cover expenses of Sex worker Open University 2011 !

The film industry loves sex workers. Flooded with representations of sex workers as either (1) Vulnerable, fallen angels, without agency or power, controlled by dangerous criminals or (2) Shallow, materialistic, manipulative and without ethics. Callous and used up . That's if we are even alive to begin with - much of the time it doesn't get past the dead hooker, killed violently by pimps, drug dealers or crazed punters.

We want more: We want to see living, fighting, whole sex workers; representations abandoning flat one dimensional characters and stereotypes. We want complex portrayals of sex work - ones that take into account diversity of experience, gender, sexualities, class and racism.

We want film and stories from actual sex workers and ethically produced documentaries. And as much as they want us as subject, it's clear corporate media and the film industry isn't going to deliver on this any time soon.

That's why we decided to take the matter into our own hands, and proudly present:

The London Sex Worker Film Festival

Featuring discussion, documentaries and films from across the UK and internationally.

Programme Sex worker Film festival 2011 Sunday 12th of June at RIO Cinema, Hackney. From 1.15 til 5.30 pm

Tickets are £ 9 / £ 7 concessions, all funds raised to cover expenses of Sex worker Open University 2011 !

Blue Bar at the Robert Peel (UK)

Pub striptease is a time-honoured tradition in Britain but, in recent years, it has become an increasingly hard and less-pleasant way to make a living. Kingston's Robert Peel, which has hosted striptease for over 30 years, has set out to change all that, thanks to the new manager, Lee, for both dancers and audiences. As regular performer Solitaire says, The Peel makes me remember all the reasons I ever wanted to be a striptease artist and how much I still love it.... It's the one pub left where I feel valued and respected .

Robert Peel, Cambridge Road, Kingston, www.PeelBlueBar.co.uk

Luca Darkholme (France/UK)

A male sex worker who co-founded the London Sex Worker Open University. It began as a week of events by and for sex workers and allies to explore the richness and contradictions of their industry. Academics, sex workers, activists, feminists, psychologists from London, Denmark, New Zealand, U.S debated and networked. They even aimed to understand the abolitionist feminist argument.

The Sex worker Open University brought many new sex workers to the world of activism and community, building internationally.

www.sexworkeropenuniversity.com

David Miller and his Loving Links (UK)

David started Loving Links in 1995 as a printed newsletter for married people seeking extra-marital relationships. Its first on-line incarnation, in the early days of the internet, was as a forum then, as the web grew, it developed into a fully fledged dating site. David actively promotes the rights of people trapped in celibate and cold marriages both in the UK and overseas.

He collaborated with Desmond Wilcox to produce the ITV documentary Adultery or Therapy? which brought extra-marital relationships into the mainstream.

www.lovinglinks.co.uk

Immigration solicitor Catherine Robinson writes:

From my point of view, it is deeply disappointing that the Poppy Project's proven expertise in working with trafficked women has not been given proper recognition or weight by the Ministry of Justice. The project has extensive experience; it houses women in safe, women-only properties in London, Cardiff and Sheffield and provides intensive support addressing their myriad complex emotional, psychological and practical needs.

Between March 2003 and March 2011, it received 1,869 referrals, housed and supported 334 women, and provided outreach support to a further 449, all of whom were trafficked into, and exploited in the UK. The top five country of origin for referrals are Nigeria, China, Lithuania, Albania and Romania.

So on an average year the Poppy Project received 234 referrals, housed 42 women and provided outreach support to a further 56. Hardly evidence of massive scale trafficking

And from a previous £1.8m for 1 year  funding for housing 42 women works out at £117 per bed per night].

...Read the full article

Scotland Yard has been accused of endangering sex workers after it emerged that police were targeting brothels in London's Olympic boroughs as part of a coordinated clean-up operation ahead of the 2012 games.

The Yard's human exploitation unit (SCD9) incorporates a team dedicated to tackling vice-related crime in the five Olympic host boroughs: Waltham Forest, Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Newham and Greenwich.

Figures recently released to parliament by the Home Office show SCD9 carried out 80 brothel raids between January to August 2010 in the five boroughs. There were a further 20 raids in Westminster and 13 in Camden expected to host the majority of tourists who come to the capital for the games. In contrast, in the remaining 25 London boroughs, there were just 29 raids over the same period.

But the probation union, Napo, claimed the crackdown would have unintended consequences. Attempts to remove sex workers from the Olympic boroughs will be only a partial success, said Harry Fletcher, Napo's assistant general secretary: The strategy will drive the trade underground and prohibition merely distorts the laws of supply and demand. As a consequence, the trade will be more dangerous for women. Policy initiatives should address real problems, such as housing, health and safety, and not be based on flawed ideology which distorts the market and endangers the women.

Figures from the Open Door agency, a health clinic based in East London, appear to partially confirm Napo's claim. The agency reported that there has already been a significant displacement of sex workers throughout Newham, with a decline of 25% in referrals to health clinics since the previous year. Napo said it appeared the women had not stopped working, but were moving to other areas where they could be more at risk of rape, robbery and assault.

The London initiative comes amid the usual bollox claims that increased numbers of trafficked sex workers will try to work in the capital during the Olympics. 

Research shows no increase in trafficking of women during international sports events, said a spokeswoman for the English Collective of Prostitutes. Figures on the numbers of women trafficked into the UK have been exposed as false, yet they are still used as an excuse to hound sex workers. Prohibition has never done anything but drive sex workers underground and into more danger. Is the government prepared for further tragedies like Ipswich and Bradford?

The government supported anti-prostitution organisation, Eaves, will make 14 roles redundant after a government decision to transfer funding for its Poppy Project to the Salvation Army. The organisation currently has 70 staff and 15 volunteers.

The Poppy Project, run by Eaves since 2003, has received £ 1.8m from the government for each of the past two years under a contract to provide specialist accommodation for female victims of trafficking.

But the Ministry of Justice has decided that the funding for the service for the next three years, which could total as much as £ 6m, will be awarded to the Salvation Army.

Eaves' Poppy Project offers 54 bed spaces, 37 of which are in London, with the remainder divided between locations in Cardiff and Sheffield, for the victims of trafficking. This number will be reduced to 16 because of the withdrawal of funding.

[ £ 1.8m for 1 year  for 54 beds works out at £91 per bed per night].

A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Justice said bidders for the contract were required to demonstrate that they would ensure equality of access to support services for all victims, regardless of their religion, gender, sexuality or ethnicity .

Three people who ran a number of brothels across Surrey have been convicted of running brothels.

Ms Morris, together with her partner Michael Jones and their friend Valerie Coster, had all admitted to running the Cloud 9 brothel in Constitution Hill, Woking as well as sites in Guildford and Camberley

Morris was given a 12-month sentence suspended for 2 years and was also ordered to carry out 240 hours of unpaid work. Her partner, Michael Jones was also sentenced to 12 months in prison, suspended for two years and ordered to carry out 180 hours of unpaid work for four counts of using criminal property in connection with the keeping of a brothel.

Valerie Coster received a 16-week jail term, suspended for 12 months, after pleading guilty to assisting in the management of a brothel. She was made the subject of a 12-month supervision order, with the requirement of carrying out 120 hours of unpaid service.

All three entered guilty pleas after failing in an abuse of power case against Surrey Police.

Morris and Jones were arrested when Morris made a 999 call after two men burst into a Woking flat used by Cloud 9. The men were armed with what was thought to be shotguns, and poured petrol around the Park Heights apartment.

Police cordoned off the street as they investigated the matter, only later were Ms Morris and the other defendants arrested on suspicion of brothel keeping.

The court heard how Hanna told officers where her other brothels were as she believed the attackers were heading there and wanted to ensure the women working in them were safe.

All three had their sentences suspended after Judge Suzan Matthews QC described their circumstances as unique . Sentencing, Judge Matthews, said: You were a keeper of brothels and made substantial profits from it. This was a substantial brothel keeping.