Pentameter Two, the new initiative against traffickers, far from protecting victims of trafficking is likely to make immigrant sex workers more vulnerable to violence and exploitation. Evidence from how anti-trafficking legislation has been implemented until now show that the police, courts and government are using this legislation primarily as an excuse to step up deportations of […]
Suzanne Gilbert 29 May 2006Conference ProducerCapita ConferencesTel: 02078 085 316Fax: 08701 658 989 Dear Suzanne Gilbert,We have had to withdraw from participating in your conference: “Tackling Prostitution: What works? Reducing the impact on communities and lives”.As an independent sex workers organisation which protects and defends the rights of sex workers, we cannot give credibility to an event which […]
ON May 15 The Voice (‘Sex Slaves Freed’) reported on the joint police/immigration Operation Pentameter which claims to have freed 19 victims of sex trafficking. But police are reportedly arranging with charities to return some of the women to Malaysia. Deportation is the reality behind the headlines.The Poppy Project, set up to deal with victims […]
Summary The consultation paper says it will consider prevention and investigation of trafficking, and provisions for protection and assistance to victims of trafficking, including increased police powers and immigration legislation. In our experience, far from protecting women from violence, anti-trafficking legislation is being used for immigration control, as an excuse to increase deportations and to prevent women crossing international borders. […]
A tod@s l@s adherentes a la Sexta Declaración y a la Otra Campaña:A tod@s l@as Trabajador@s Sexuales que luchan por sus derechos:Compañeras y Compañeros:Les mandamos a todas y todos nuestro saludos. Les queremos decir que el dia 22 de febrero nos reunimos trabajadoras sexuales de Apizaco (Tlaxcala), agrupadas en el Colectivo Red de Mujeres en Pro de […]
To all followers of the Sixth Declaration and of the Other Campaign To all Sex Workers fighting for their rights: Compañeras and Compañeros, We send our greetings to you all. We wish to inform you that on 22 February we sex workers of Apizaco (Tlaxcala), who have come together as the Colectivo Red de Mujeres en […]
Dear Sir or Madam,Ninety-five per cent of sex workers are not drug users — not even the Home Office claims that (Guardian 18 Jan 2006) women who don’t use drugs don’t use the Home office funded projects on which these figures depend. These figures dominate while the major factors that force women into prostitution – poverty, domestic violence, homelessness […]
The law could be changed to allow two prostitutes and a receptionist or maid to work together legally in brothels, the government has confirmed.Currently only lone prostitutes can offer sex from flats or other premises without breaking the law.Launching the new prostitution strategy for England and Wales, minister Fiona Mactaggart said that working in groups […]
For an end to the discrimination of prostitute women everywhere. Our workshops at the Beijing forum in 1995 were attended by sex workers from many countries, South and North. They made clear how much we have in common — all supported decriminalization and viable economic alternatives to prostitution. Founded in 1975, the English Collective of […]
In 2005, a Brazilian mother was convicted of trafficking and imprisoned for three years for running a working flat where other immigrant women worked. In court the judge said “none of these women were, in fact, coerced by you into acting as a prostitute . . . you treated them in a kindly and hospitable […]
