Bulletin: Sex workers defending their rights
Sex workers fighting for their rights: against rape and other violence, sexism, racism and financial discrimination and for housing, benefits and access to justice
The English Collective of Prostitutes (ECP) is a sex workers’ collective campaigning to end criminalisation and for the rights and safety of sex workers. We provide practical help and assistance to sex workers and their families, including helping women defend their rights, challenge discrimination, and access housing, benefits and other essential resources.
Our approach is based on collective self-help. This means that sex workers are centrally involved in their own cases. We aren’t caseworkers, we are a collective of sex workers and supporters who draw on our own experience, knowledge and campaigning to help others fight injustice.
The cases below show some of the problems sex workers face because of discrimination, criminalisation and stigma. They also show why sex workers need to be able to organise and defend ourselves, and why access to justice, housing, banking and other services is so important.
Names and some identifying details have been changed to protect confidentiality.
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Migrant sex workers: police illegality and racism and housing insecurity
Migrant sex workers face police sexism and racism when reporting rape and other violence to the police. Police deter reports including by threatening victims that their name will be passed to the Home Office and their immigration status questioned. This can leave women having to choose between reporting violence and protecting themselves from deportation and detention.
Brazilian sex workers: Police fail to act on violent attacks
One example is the police refusal to act against a spate of serious attacks on Brazilian sex workers, including violent robberies at knifepoint by groups of men. The attacks happened in West London. Women reported sexual assaults and being forced to transfer money to the same bank account. They gave the police information that could have helped identify the attackers, including names, phone numbers, photographs, a vehicle registration number and other vehicle details. They also provided screenshots from WhatsApp groups where other women had reported similar attacks, as well as videos circulating online showing the same group and their car.
Despite this evidence, the women say the police failed to properly investigate.
The police also put some women at further risk. In one case, a letter containing a sex worker’s full name and details of an assault was sent to a former address. Police later went to her workplace without warning and disclosed that she was a victim of sexual assault.
The ECP met with outreach workers in the area, helped them put together an account of the attacks and the outrageous police response. But at the last minute the outreach workers came under pressure and decided they didn’t want to pursue it.
Facing eviction after her income dropped
Ms G is a migrant sex worker who is seeking asylum in the UK.
After her income dropped, she fell behind with her rent and faced eviction. With help from the All African Women’s Group we told her about applying for asylum support accommodation and her rights against eviction. But like many women asylum seekers she faced a hostile Home Office and her claim was closed. She was told she had no right of appeal so has been left destitute.
False online accusations threaten his housing
Mr C is a migrant male sex worker in our network. After refusing to pay, a client posted a false online review accusing him of fraud and theft and published identifying information about him. The client also contacted Mr C’s housing provider in an attempt to get him evicted.
Because Mr C has insecure immigration status and no right to work in the UK, he was afraid to approach the police. He was also struggling to get the online platform to remove the false review.
He came to ECP when the situation began to threaten his housing. He asked us to find out if there was any legal case that could be taken against the client and we got a lawyer’s advice. Unfortunately, libel law is difficult and expensive to use and therefore inaccessible for most people. The man is working on rebuilding his online presence and reputation to reinstate his income.
£8,500 seized at Gatwick
Ms D, a migrant sex worker in London, gave £8,500 to her mother to take home to Spain. The money was seized from her mother at Gatwick Airport.
Her mother did not speak English, so Ms D spoke to Customs by telephone. When she told them that the money had come from her work as an escort, the money was confiscated.
Ms D was left facing a legal challenge to recover the money. We worked closely with her over several weeks but in the end she decided that she couldn’t put her immigration status at risk by confirming to the authorities that she was a sex worker and decided to not challenge the confiscation of her money leaving her £8,500 out of pocket.
Victim of violence, then arrested
Ms Y is a trans sex worker from Panama who was attacked by a client. She reported the attack but outrageously, instead of treating her as the victim, she says the police believed the man who attacked her and arrested her instead.
The police seized her passport, documents, phone and money. She was left in the UK penniless and unable to travel. ECP helped her get the prosecution dropped and her documents returned.
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Violence and discrimination against sex workers
Attacked by a client, then deterred from reporting
Ms V was violently attacked by a client. The man hit her over the head, leaving her covered in blood. She bravely ran to escape into the bathroom and locked the door while he banged on it. She eventually managed to call 999.
The police arrived and stopped the man in the hotel foyer. Initially they believed his story that he hadn’t been into the flat until the woman produced his credit card that he had left behind. She was taken to hospital and wanted to formally report the attack but the doctor told her that social services would be informed. Ms V was so terrorised by this she went home, locked her door and didn’t go out or answer to anyone for a week. She then got in touch with ECP, and with Women Against Rape we lobbied the police to allow her to report in a way that she felt safe. But the trauma was deep and the fear of social services so severe that in the end she couldn’t face going through with it.
Ms V believes the man is a repeat predator and that other sex workers are at risk from him.
Raped and controlled by her former partner
Ms T was raped and abused by a former partner who also controlled her work. He took over her advertising, monitored her and decided who her clients would be.
She reported being raped by him on three occasions, but the police dropped the case, saying that a conviction was unlikely.
After she escaped the relationship, he continued to stalk and harass her online. As is typical with abusers, he lied and reported her for attacking him. The police took his report seriously despite all the evidence of his previous controlling and abusive treatment of her. She was then forced by police to accept mutual non-molestation orders. When these expired, she came to ECP for help. Relying on the expertise of Women Against Rape and with written assistane from the Centre for Women’s Justice, ECP helped her do a victims right to review of the CPS decision to drop the rape case. The attacker is now being prosecuted.
Client uses legal action to retaliate against her
Ms E was given money by a client who also allowed her to use his credit card. After she accused him of stalking her, he claimed that the money had actually been a loan.
He then made a legal claim demanding tens of thousands of pounds back from her.
Ms E was forced to find legal representation to defend herself. She found good dedicated lawyers and won an important hearing on anonymity. ECP’s support and input gave her more confidence to defend herself. But when the case came to court the judge was unbelievably biased against her, labelled her a gold digger, ruled that his coercive behaviour wasn’t relevant and found in favour of the abuser. Decrim Now helped fundraise to cover the initial legal fees and now the lawyers are acting pro bono for her in an appeal.
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Financial discrimination
Bank accounts closed after a client dispute
Ms J is a sex worker whose business and personal accounts with two high street banks were closed. A client tried to get money back from her retrospectively, and the bank then questioned her about payments she had received from OnlyFans.
She then struggled to find another bank. Her accountant contacted three banks on her behalf, but was told that they did not want to open accounts for sex workers.
Bank account closed after 20 years
Ms A had held her bank account for 20 years.
Ms A was left worrying about how to pay her mortgage and survive generally. ECP helped her complain but the financial institutions are unaccountable and a law unto themselves so eventually she was forced to open an account with an online bank.
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Discrimination in hotels and accommodation
Thrown out of a hotel
Ms H is a sex worker who was staying at a hotel when staff confronted her late at night and told her to leave.
The staff were aggressive and intimidating and were accompanied by several security personnel. They claimed she had breached “security protocol” because an unregistered guest had visited her. Staff threatened to call the police and local authorities but would not explain what if any information had been shared, or what legal basis they had for removing her.
Ms H was given only 15 minutes to leave.
ECP helped her make a formal complaint demanding compensation for upset and harm which is still being pursued.
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Online abuse, doxing and revenge porn
Doxed by a client
Ms F was doxed on an online review platform after a client posted false information about her alongside personal details. The platform refused to remove the review and did not respond properly to her complaints.
ECP helped Ms F to find a lawyer to challenge the platform – but the lawyer charged a fee to do this. Meanwhile, the false information threatened her work and income.
Revenge porn after advertising accounts were deleted
A sex worker who worked online had her advertising accounts deleted and then became the victim of revenge porn. Her former partner received illegally leaked videos of her from an anonymous Instagram account. ECP helped her contact the police as a victim, but she has been unable to get the videos removed from the internet because the platform is unreachable.
The abuse therefore continues.
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When the benefits system leaves women with no choice
Post-cancer patient: Forced back into sex work after benefits were stopped
A sex worker who is recovering from cancer had her benefits stopped by the DWP after she travelled for “medically approved” reasons. She was left without money for food for three months and without enough money to pay her rent.
Despite being legally entitled to a tribunal hearing, she has been left waiting while the DWP has failed to set a date. With no money to live on, she has been forced back into sex work to survive while seriously unwell.
ECP is working with WinVisible – women with visible and invisible disabilities — to get her benefits reinstated.
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When victims of crime are treated as if they are the problem
Raped, stalked and robbed – then chased for tax
Ms B is a sex worker who was the victim of several serious crimes while working. She was raped three times, stalked at home, robbed and dragged by a car. Money was also stolen from her. She later became ill and has been unable to work.
Despite this, HMRC contacted her about paying tax on her income. Ms B told them that the abuse she experienced as a sex worker was so severe that the activity shouldn’t be considered work that required her to pay tax. She says she was told to hire security to protect herself. She was outraged by this including because sex workers cannot legally employ security people as they would be at risk of being prosecuted for controlling prostitution.
Ms B was also denied compensation for when she applied for one of the assaults.
In another incident, the police refused to meet her or accompany her to the house where she had been raped. The case was subsequently dismissed.
Ms B is now seeking a face-to-face meeting with HMRC.
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Why collective self-help matters
These cases show how sex workers can be left without protection when police, landlords, banks, online platforms, benefit agency and other institutions persecute and discriminate against us or fail to take our complaints seriously.
At ECP, we bring together our experience, practical knowledge and campaigning strength to help women challenge discrimination, defend their rights and find solutions.