The hostile environment and exploitative capitalism fuels state violence against migrant sex workers, writes Rachel Trafford.“Police don’t ask us about trafficking – it is only about arrests.” Maria, a sex worker in the UK originally from Eastern Europe, knows the damage the current attitude of the state does for women working in the sex industry […]
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By Anna Freeman Brexit is not only screwing the Great British pound and the price of Tesco’s Finest Prosecco – it’s screwing sex workers, too. A huge number of women selling sexual services in the UK hail from the EU-28 (43 percent of non-British sex workers in 2009 were EU nationals, according to a TAMPEP study). […]
“Hello, my name is Maria and I am from the English Collective of Prostitutes”. That certainly stops police in their tracks. It’s a line I use a lot nowadays. I started working in the streets in Birmingham about a year ago. At first the police left us alone.I lived in a house with three other women. At […]
‘Convictions for sex work further limit people’s ability to exit the industry and find alternative means of employment,’ says sex workerMaya Oppenheim Women’s Correspondent @mayaoppenheimThe jailing of two migrant sex workers in Ireland has been condemned by others in the industry as “horrible” and “completely unjust”.Adrina Podaru, 25, and Ana Tomascu, 20, were living in Newbridge, Kildare, when the property […]
Lobbyists say making payment for sex illegal targets punters. But in fact it makes workers’ bodies into crime scenes@frankiemullinPaying for sex has been illegal in Ireland for two years. At the time of the law’s introduction, proponents insisted that the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017, a version of “end demand” or “Nordic model” legislation, would […]
Raids – or “welfare visits” – carried out by police are supposedly conducted for safety, but they’re harming sex workers and failing to identify genuine victims. Anti-trafficking raids are often framed as vital rescue missions undertaken to save victims of modern slavery. However, according to Niki Adams – an English Collective of Prostitutes [ECP] spokesperson with […]
PRI’s The WorldAfter the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union in 2016, large industries have struggled to handle the ramifications of the upcoming Brexit. One affected industry that does not get much coverage is prostitution.Laura Watson is the spokesperson for the English Collective of Prostitutes in London. She spoke with The World’s Carol Hills […]
Exclusive: ‘For migrant workers, everything is compounded – the sexism, the criminalisation and the racism and then the hostile immigration environment’Maya Oppenheim Women’s Correspondent @mayaoppenheimSex workers in the UK are being illegally targeted for deportations and subjected to harassment and attacks because of a Brexit-inspired culture of discrimination against foreigners, campaigners have claimed.A dossier compiled by the campaign group English Collective of Prostitutes (ECP) […]
A sex worker collective has compiled a dossier of cases that it has fought over the last few years showing how Brexit is affecting migrant sex workers from the EU. The English Collective of Prostitutes’ dossier, Sex workers are getting screwed by Brexit, includes examples of women being targeted by police for arrest and deportation despite […]