Rights sheet vs deportation of migrant sex workers launched for #1DayWithoutUs. Police have stepped up threats against sex workers who are from EEA countries and, unless we protest, the situation is likely to get worse as immigrant people are further scapegoated post Brexit. Women are being given letters by police telling them that sex work […]
The English Collective of Prostitutes has compiled the information below on raids, arrests and prosecutions of sex workers. These continue despite recommendations from a prestigious parliamentary committee that sex workers should be decriminalised. In July 2016, the Home Affairs Committee published the findings of its inquiry[1] and recommended a change in the law “so that […]
We are writing to express our serious concerns about a number of joint UK Border Agency and police operations targeting migrant sex workers which took place during the week commencing 17th October, the week during which Anti-Slavery Day, 18th October 2016, is marked.On Thursday 20th October in Soho and Chinatown, London, six premises were raided […]
This bulletin listing the raids, arrests, closures and prosecutions of sex workers and people sex workers associate with, shows that hundreds of women are being criminalised each year, with little protest or investigation into the impact of such criminalisation. In practice police crackdowns mean sex workers are forced into isolated areas, and are unable to […]
By Harriet Agerholm London has seen a 191 percent increase in the number of 18 to 25-year-old women arrested for prostitution, according to exclusive police figures obtained by Broadly. Why are young sex workers getting apprehended by cops? Maria* was working as a prostitute on the street in east London when a pimp threatened to […]
By Frankie Mullin”When I first came to Open Doors I was picked up off the street by a drugs worker. I was wearing shoes without any soles,” says K, who suffers from a range of health problems but now describes her life as “harmonised”.”When I first met Open Doors, I was homeless, in prostitution and […]
Sophie Hemery Sex workers are increasingly subject to enforcement by police and local authorities in the form of dispersal orders, fines and prosecution. At a focus group on street sex workers’ health, Angelica is a natural orator. She is funny and passionate, and shares her life’s successes and struggles with hard-won conviction. At almost 60 […]
By Margaret Corvid. From the column ‘Europe: The Final Countdown’ Against the backdrop of the EU referendum campaign, London-based Romanian women sex workers are using EU law to challenge the police and fight for their rights. Under Operation Nexus, the Met are monitoring Romanian sex workers, rounding them up and ordering them to leave the […]
The prostitution laws are unjust and devious and lead to thousands of women a year being arrested, raided, prosecuted and even imprisoned.Police crackdowns break up safety networks. (i) Street workers are forced into isolated areas and are prevented from screening clients. Brothel-keeping law makes it illegal for two or more sex workers to work together. […]
Women targeted by Operation Nexus, which aims to deport foreign offenders, say they are legitimately self-employedAlthough freedom of movement is guaranteed within the EU, the right to stay after three months is dependent on new arrivals working or studying.A policy aimed at deporting “high-harm” EU-national criminals and those not entitled to remain in Britain is […]