Press coverage: Coronavirus and sex workers’ demands
The Guardian: UK sex workers in “dire and desperate” need amid coronavirus lockdown
“As the bills come in I stack them up on a shelf and try to forget about them. I spend my whole day anxious. There is no let-up. I have the worry of the children, the worry of my mother who is old and on her own, the worry of my sister who has mental problems. I feel like I am living by a thread – I am exhausted and scared for our future.”
The Independent: Sex Workers Left Penniless and Pushed into Homelessness Due to Coronavirus
“The only places I’ve heard of women working are parkland or wasteland ex-industrial areas which are very dangerous. Sex workers should not be forced into the shadows and made to choose between earning an income or protecting health. Women are in desperate circumstances – particularly those with kids.”
Pink News: Sex Work Must be Decriminalised to Help Women Thrown into ‘Hidden Crisis’ by Coronavirus
“Hundreds of thousands of families in the UK rely on the income from sex work to survive, but sex workers have been excluded from the government’s emergency financial measures because sex workers are denied status as workers.”
Daily Mirror: Sex Workers Demand Government Bailout as Coronavirus Pandemic Hits Their Takings
“Many of us, and the families who depend on our income, will face destitution if we can’t access whatever emergency money workers win from the government. If sex workers’ contribution to the survival and welfare of people was more visible, our status would rise, and our demands would be seen to be more valid. We need rent, mortgage, utility bill relief and emergency housing for homeless sex workers.”
Birmingham Live: Sex Workers Demand Bailout from Government after Income Plummets Amid Coronavirus Crisis
“Women working on the street, migrant and trans workers, who already have the highest rates of poverty, arrest and violence, are particularly suffering. Like other workers, we are being forced to choose between earning an income and risking ours and our loved ones’ health. Contact with health professionals and contact tracing measures are hindered by criminalisation because we can’t say what we do or who we know for fear of arrest and discrimination.”
Morning Star: Sex Workers Demand Emergency Funds to Get Through Covid-19 Crisis
“Sex workers are demanding emergency funds from the government, warning that the loss of income caused by the coronavirus crisis could reduce many of them to destitution.”
Novara Media: Out of Work and Unsupported, Sex Workers Struggle to Cope with the Coronavirus Crisis
“Niki Adams, from the English Collective of Prostitutes (ECP), says brothels closed late, “although there was hardly any work before that”. While they were still open, police continued to enter the premises to conduct raids – or, as they call them, ‘welfare checks’ – which Adams says was “frightening workers to death”, especially migrant women and women of colour, who are at increased risk of police violence and arrest.”
The Critic: Sex Workers and Covid-19
“The fact is, most of the women we have talked with are desperate with no money beyond the next few days, the next two weeks at best.” In particular migrant sex workers, many of whom are asylum seekers who can only claim £37.75 a week from the state in benefits are even more at risk, says Adams, who is concerned they will now offer services they’d had previously not entertained, for an even lower rate, just to survive.”
Ham & High: Sex Workers Won’t Survive “Hidden” Coronavirus Crisis Without Government Support
“Before businesses were forced to close, the ECP and the Crossroads Women’s Centre worked together to offer daily meals for struggling women and their families. Since shutting last week, their support has been focused on securing emergency hardship funds and helping with universal credit applications. Employment status would remove the need for these measures, granting sex workers access to the financial support offered by the government to other employees affected by the pandemic.”
I News: Stigma towards sex workers is growing because of the coronavirus pandemic
“Migrant sex workers, and migrants in general, will be hit hard by this crisis. ECP is in touch with an undocumented woman who has been forced to continue working. Should she get ill, she’ll be unable to visit a hospital because she can’t afford the fees and over her fear of deportation. The woman is in an abusive relationship she can’t leave and is “a fiver way from destitution.” Criminalisation compounds her problems from every side.”
Euronews: Sex workers struggle amid the coronavirus crisis
“We are demanding recognition that sex work is work so we can get the benefits,” says Mitchell. “We are demanding that now so we can get the money everyone is entitled to in this crisis in order to keep going, and not to have to go out and do any more sex work.”
The Lead: Sex work is work’: advocating for decriminalisation in France and the United Kingdom
“The fundamental reason that sex workers are particularly suffering is that we are not entitled to the same benefits as other workers – there are other workers that are facing difficult situations, but we’re not even entitled to get government support. When you look at what people are entitled to in New Zealand, sex workers are in a much better position.”
The London Economic: Sex workers at risk more than ever during pandemic
“We have heard of the police going after women on the streets, which is absolutely outrageous at this point in time. If they do see someone out there, they should be putting those women in touch with the nearest organisation that might be able to help them and put them in the direction of funds,”
The BMJ: Covid-19: Health needs of sex workers are being sidelined, warn agencies
“Sex workers already face barriers to accessing healthcare, particularly marginalised groups like migrant sex workers who are often not registered with a GP because of a fear of their data being passed to authorities.”
Sojourner Truth Radio: Sex workers, mutual aid and COVID-19
“We have been kept out of all the benefits and entitlements that other workers are getting – so we can’t get sick pay, we can’t get wage relief, we can’t be furloughed from our job … all those benefits we’ve been deprived of; we can’t get anything as self-employed people, even. So if we had decriminalisation, … when this virus hit, we would be much better off.”
BBC News: Sex workers ‘should have access to support fund’
“Sex workers are predominantly single mothers and they still have to work, they still have to earn . . If they’re not registered, they’re not applicable for the government funding. If they’ve got children, how are they supposed to feed their families?”
Wired: In the midst of a pandemic, sex workers have nowhere to turn
“Wholesale change is needed. You have to face the fact that prostitution isn’t fuelled by men’s desires for sex, but by women’s needs for money, You need to address women’s situations.”
JFA: COVID-10 and Sex Work – Inequality, Poverty and Criminalisation
“During this pandemic, sex workers are concerned about staying healthy and avoiding poverty just like every other insecure worker. As such, the added burden of criminality, stigma and lack of government support is not just unhelpful, but glaringly, undoubtedly harmful.”
BBC News: Coronavirus – Sex workers fear for their future
“Some sex workers have been forced to continue working, risking hefty fines or exposure to the virus. In developing countries, sex workers are often the main breadwinner for the whole family, for their siblings, their children and their grandparents. So this affects the whole extended family,”
The World: Sex workers in Europe struggle to survive as clubs slowly reopen
“Leaving women in a situation where they are hungry, homeless and desperate for cash, means they are more vulnerable to exploitation and less able to insist on decent working conditions, including implementing any protections against COVID-19.”
Daily Star: How Covid hit UK’s sex industry
“It’s hard to tell how many have actually gone back to work, but women need to put food on that able and pay their rent and make a living so under very difficult circumstances. But for the women who can’t work online they have had to go back to work. From my experience of our network, because of financial pressure.”
Newsweek: Sex workers say they risk starvation because of Covid-19 lockdown
“Women have been arrested and convicted of prostitution offenses, even during the pandemic. We’ve been calling for a moratorium on arrests of sex workers during this crisis, the priority is financial alternatives and not criminalization,”
Evening Standard: Sex work industry in crisis as punters socially distance
“In Soho “three flats in one house have closed down” while another, which “survived many police raids and many attempts to shut it” has been forced to close by Covid, Watson explained that some lower rental agreements made with landlords before the pandemic are now coming to an end, leading to eviction warnings.”