“Governments say that they’re tackling modern slavery, but they use that as a guise to raid and deport and terrorize migrant sex workers in the UK . . When sex workers actually go and report violence, including trafficking to the police, nothing is done about it. In some cases sex workers are actually arrested themselves […]
A murder carried out almost a decade before her birth, and which her family should have had no connection to, has long cast a shadow for Cassie Justice Parris. The 24-year-old only found out through anxious curiosity how her father, Tony Paris, had been dragged into what would become Britain’s longest running murder trial, unwilling to wait until she was older to be let in on what appeared to be a secret in her father’s past. “I googled […]
Following Brexit, sex workers say they face increased violence, xenophobia and threats of deportation.Sex workers in the UK have faced increased xenophobia, violence, and fears around deportation in the years since the Brexit referendum, according to a new report. Research from the University of Salford and the English Collective of Prostitutes (ECP) looks at Brexit and […]
Exclusive: ‘I have been threatened by men on the street who said they would attack me,’ says sex worker Maya Oppenheim Women’s Correspondent @mayaoppenheim Violence and threats of deportation against sex workers from the European Union who are living in the UK have surged since the Brexit vote, according to researchers. A first of its kind study, carried out by the […]
Sex workers in Mayfair have been part of the ECP’s network since 2009 when police raided flats without warrants, bullying and threatening prosecution. In the same year, Westminster Council threatened women with closure of the flats under planning law on the grounds that they were residential properties being used for a business. Then a few […]
Faima Bakar When you think about porn, racism probably isn’t the first thing on your mind. But racism worms its way into every corner of human life, and the world of sexual fantasies, fetishes and sex work is no different. A quick search reveals just how often porn sites use racist stereotypes, as mentions of […]
Article written by:Frankie Miren For 12 days in late 1982 the English Collective of Prostitutes occupied a church in King’s Cross to protest police brutality. Frankie Miren interviews women who were at the centre of the dispute, and explores explores the legacy of their action today. It’s November 1982 and you wake up on the […]
This extraordinary interview with Natalia, a trans woman from Brazil in the ECP network, starts with her life growing up in a working-class community of “strength and kindness” but where the police wage war against them. Ostracised from her family when she comes out as trans, she finds care and a community with other trans […]
Nicki and Leo speak to Nikki and Charlotte, campaigners from the English Collective of Prostitutes, a grassroots network of sex workers and supporters campaigning for decriminalisation and safety.
Sarah Walker Sarah Walker first came across the English Collective of Prostitutes at the North London Polytechnic, where she was studying English, in the early 1980s. In May 2018, Sarah and I sat down to record her memories of the ECP occupation of the Holy Cross Church in King’s Cross in 1982. Sarah talked about […]