Suzanne Gilbert 29 May 2006Conference ProducerCapita ConferencesTel: 02078 085 316Fax: 08701 658 989 Dear Suzanne Gilbert,We have had to withdraw from participating in your conference: “Tackling Prostitution: What works? Reducing the impact on communities and lives”.As an independent sex workers organisation which protects and defends the rights of sex workers, we cannot give credibility to an event which […]
ON May 15 The Voice (‘Sex Slaves Freed’) reported on the joint police/immigration Operation Pentameter which claims to have freed 19 victims of sex trafficking. But police are reportedly arranging with charities to return some of the women to Malaysia. Deportation is the reality behind the headlines.The Poppy Project, set up to deal with victims […]
Summary The consultation paper says it will consider prevention and investigation of trafficking, and provisions for protection and assistance to victims of trafficking, including increased police powers and immigration legislation. In our experience, far from protecting women from violence, anti-trafficking legislation is being used for immigration control, as an excuse to increase deportations and to prevent women crossing international borders. […]
In 2005, a Brazilian mother was convicted of trafficking and imprisoned for three years for running a working flat where other immigrant women worked. In court the judge said “none of these women were, in fact, coerced by you into acting as a prostitute . . . you treated them in a kindly and hospitable […]
Despite acknowledgement that at least 60 prostitute women have been murdered in the last 10 years, the government is today announcing that it is abandoning its consultation and proposed review of the prostitution laws in favour of increased enforcement. This goes against all the evidence which shows that criminalization and crackdowns make sex workers more […]
On 6 October 2005, over 40 police and immigration officers raided 55 flats in the Baker Street area of central London. 70 sex workers were held and questioned, some for up to five hours. Women working as ‘maids’ for the working girls were forced to sign cautions under threat that otherwise the flat would be […]
In February 2001, we organized an emergency picket to protest against police and immigration raids against 60 immigrant women in Soho, London. The protest got widespread sympathetic media coverage and as a result the raids were publicly condemned and their legality challenged by women’s groups, prominent lawyers, MPs and church people. Many deportations were stopped […]
Anti-social behaviour orders are increasingly being used against prostitutes as a “quick fix” way of clearing women off the streets, campaigners warn.Probation officers and those who work with prostitutes say the orders have effectively brought back jail sentences for offences such as loitering and soliciting, which have been non-imprisonable for more than 10 years. Breaching […]
Translation Feminist Review 73 2003, anti-trafficking legislation: protection or deportation Revista Feminista N° 73 LEGISLACIÓN CONTRA EL TRÁFICO DE MUJERES: ¿PROTECCIÓN O DEPORTACIÓN? En noviembre de 2002, bajo el pretexto de proteger a las mujeres de la violencia y la explotación, el gobierno británico introdujo una nueva legislación contra el tráfico de mujeres en el marco […]