Prostitution is increasing because of austerity. A 60% increase in street prostitution recorded in Doncaster is primarily attributed to destitution caused by benefit sanctions,.with charities saying: “Women are being forced to sell sex for £5 because of benefit sanctions.” Sheffield reports a 166% increase (2014) while charity workers in Hull report: “ . . . women who are literally starving and they are out there to feed themselves.”
In our new normal, staying at least a metre away from other people is mandatory pretty much everywhere you go. But for the UK’s 70,000 sex workers, following these rules could mean going hungry or homeless. Sex workers in the UK have largely been shut out from government schemes to protect those unable to work due […]
The second national lockdown is going to push sex workers “even deeper into crisis”, according to a campaign group.The English Collective of Prostitutes (ECP) has called for state support for workers in the coronavirus pandemic.It said people were having to choose between risking their health by working or seeing their family go hungry.Cari – not […]
Police have arrested more than 400 people for allegedly keeping brothels since 2017, according to figures obtained by Sky News. By Alexa Phillips, news reporter Hundreds of people have been arrested for alleged brothel-keeping offences in the last four years under laws that sex workers claim put them at risk. Police forces have detained at […]
Red-light districts in Soho and Mayfair’s Shepherd Market are facing financial crises following the pandemic, an action group for sex workers has told The Londoner.Laura Watson of the English Collective of Prostitutes said: “Some places have had to shut because they can’t make enough money. Clients just weren’t coming in.”In Soho “three flats in one […]
Transcript from an online event Q&A with Natalia, a trans woman from Brazil in the ECP network.
The sex industry has suffered job losses like every other industry as a result of COVID-19 but it specifically has led to some of the most vulnerable women in society losing their incomes overnight. They have “fallen through the cracks”, according to one spokeswoman, leading to some sex workers taking increased risks with violent clients […]
The sex industry is still ‘far from normal’ according to campaigners who claim the trade should be legalised. The demand for sex workers is not what it was before Covid-19 Britain’s sex industry is still “far from normal” as prostitutes slowly start to work the streets again and brothels begin reopening in the wake of […]
As sex clubs reopen across Europe, sex workers worry about their earnings and also whether they can stay safe. Niki Adams, a spokesperson with English Collective of Prostitutes, says the pandemic and lack of state support shows how far the industry still has to go to gain legal recognition. Lotte Alberg, who owns two sex […]
It was Tuesday 2nd June, ironically, International Sex Workers’ Day. But there were no sex workers there. For nearly three months, the streets of Patpong, Bangkok’s oldest red-light district, were silent and deserted. Two men sporting Covid-masks sit distanced at a streetside board game as a single hunched figure walks past briskly, clutching an umbrella. […]