SWARM welcomes release of new Home Office-commissioned study on sex work that finds poverty and criminalisation are key drivers of harm

The message from Bristol University’s Home Office-commissioned report into sex work is loud and clear: austerity is pushing people into sex work at the same time as current laws make them less safe. This echoes SWARM’s demands for the full decriminalisation of sex work and for real measures to tackle poverty.

‘Less income made me more desperate’

Sex workers, most of whom were women, pointed to financial need as the driving force behind their entry into prostitution. As one sex worker said, “I just want to say that I know the industry is bad but I don’t think it’s ever going to not exist unless we solve all of the money problems people have. So I think the focus should be on what would make it safer rather than what would make it smaller.”

Another told researchers “I started in 2014. I was in a desperate financial situation, no parents to support me and about to become homeless. As I am disabled and was in full time education my opportunities for work were (and remain) limited. Due to my immigration status (not meeting the habitual residency test) I don’t qualify for benefits, so despite living in the UK since infancy, having had all of my education here, and never having lived elsewhere, I wasn’t eligible for support from the state.”

The researchers write, “NGOs and sex worker collectives reported changes in social security benefits to be a driver for many, either in returning to sex work after leaving it, or entering it for the first time.” SWARM and other sex worker groups have long argued that cuts to benefits, the roll-out of universal credit, and sanctions are key factors in pushing people into sex work.

Acknowledging that it is financial need that pushes people into sex work helps to make it obvious why ‘end demand’ or client criminalisation measures are so harmful to sex workers. Criminalisation cannot address the reasons why people turn to sex work – it can only make the conditions in which they need to wok more dangerous. As one respondent told researchers, “Eventually I paid off the debt and felt less poor and therefore able to extricate myself. […] being poorer made it much easier to abuse me. More money = more freedom of choice. So when people say they’re ‘cracking down’ on demand that strikes me as stupid because less income made me more desperate.”

Police raids a ‘constant threat’

The report acknowledges that the criminalisation of prostitution is a huge factor in producing sex worker vulnerability to violence and exploitation. The researchers write that ‘the combination of financial need and the legal and regulatory environment were identified as a “perfect cocktail of conditions” for undermining safety’.

Many women included in the research mentioned the fear of, and experience of, physical or sexual violence. The majority linked this to the legal environment and in particular to the law against two or more people working together from the same premises. Police raids on indoor premises were described as a “constant threat” and many sex workers said they felt unable to report crimes against them to the police.

The way in which criminalisation enables the police to steal money from sex workers was also highlighted. One respondent told the researchers, “In the brothel - because reception held my money - I would have lost it all had there been a raid. Also, if there was trouble then we were told not to contact police and draw attention to the place.”

SWARM welcomes these findings, which back up our longstanding message that people need resources not criminalisation. Many sex workers would leave the industry if they had access to adequate welfare benefits, housing, healthcare (in particular, trans healthcare), and free education. In the meantime, criminalisation makes us less safe. SWARM calls for the full decriminalisation of sex work.

SWARM MEMBERS RESPOND TO THE REPORT:

“Sex workers are frequently asked to share our time and experiences for research so it’s a relief to see our voices become part of something common sense-driven and useful. I’ve worked in prostitution since I was a teenager and, while I have no great love for the industry, the very obvious need for decriminalisation seems never to get through to law-makers. I hope the results of this survey will change that.” Katie, SWARM member and respondent to the Bristol survey.

“The Home Office has been unleashing its hostile environment on migrant sex workers over the last few years with full, brutal force. Raiding workplaces and homes, dragging migrant women into detention centres and deporting them. The treatment of migrant sex workers should be a national scandal - and the Home Office is directly responsible. Migrant rights are sex worker rights – if campaigners want to reduce harm and exploitation, they should start by pushing the Home Office to leave migrants alone” Hel, SWARM member.

“Every time sex work is in the media, we see more whipped up panic and more police crackdowns which just make our lives even harder. If the government really cares about us, they would prioritise our needs and safety. Stop treating us like criminals – sex workers need rights”. Jane, SWARM member.

Nordic Model in Northern Ireland a total failure: no decrease in sex work, but increases in violence and stigma

Joint statement from SWARM, Decrim Now and x-talk 

New research, commissioned by the Northern Irish Ministry of Justice and released on 18th September 2019, shows that four years of the “Nordic Model” in Northern Ireland have had no impact on the prevalence of prostitution. The evidence shows the clear failures of the model in achieving its stated aims.

Key findings of the review:

  • No decrease in the number of sex workers in Northern Ireland following the law change

  • 56.7% of sex workers surveyed felt that the law had made sex work more dangerous, while 29.1% felt that it had made no difference to their safety

  • Sex workers reported “higher levels of anxiety and unease, and increased stigmatisation”

  • The legislation provided no new “exit” services for people wishing to leave sex work and no new funding for existing support services

Despite the rhetoric of “abolishing prostitution” which supporters of the Nordic Model espouse, data from Northern Ireland shows there was no decrease in the number of sex workers in the country following the introduction of the law. In fact, the number of sex workers advertising online in Northern Ireland increased by 18.5% following the passing of the law.

Because of the focus in the Nordic Model on strict laws on “brothel keeping”, indoor sex workers are criminalised if they work together with another person for safety. In the first brothel raid following the law change in which a man was arrested for purchasing sex, three women at the property were also arrested on suspicion of “brothel keeping”. These laws are used overwhelmingly to target migrant women: recent research from the Republic of Ireland found that that 85% of those convicted in Ireland for ‘brothel keeping’ in recent years were migrant women.

The research found a significant increase in abusive behaviour targeted at sex workers, such as harassing phone calls, which some sex workers who were interviewed attributed to the climate of increased media attention and stigma following the public debate around the law.

Despite claims that the Nordic Model shifts the burden of criminality to the buyer and away from the sex worker, the data shows that “increased police and media attention impacts most harshly on those who sell sex without significantly deterring those who might buy, leaving the heaviest burden of the law to be felt by sex workers themselves.”

Research commissioned by the Northern Ireland Department of Justice before the legal change in 2014 found that 98% of Northern Irish sex workers opposed the criminalisation of clients. Their concerns were completely ignored. The same research also found that there was no evidence that the Nordic Model would either improve conditions for sex workers or reduce trafficking. 

We urge policy makers in Northern Ireland to engage with the overwhelming amount of evidence in support of the full decriminalisation of sex work, and to consult with sex worker led organisations to implement laws that will really improve our lives. 

Westminster also needs to pay attention to this damning evidence from Northern Ireland before imposing similar “End Demand” legislation of the rest of the UK. The Women and Equalities Select Committee is currently holding an inquiry into potential legal reforms to prostitution law. Labour MPs Sarah Champion and Jess Phillips, who sit on the committee, are vocal campaigners for the Nordic Model and have praised Northern Ireland’s approach.

The evidence from Northern Ireland bears many similarities to previous studies undertaken in other countries which have introduced “Nordic Model” prostitution laws. In France, which introduced criminalisation of clients in 2016, 63% of sex workers interviewed about the impact of the law by human rights organisation Medecins du Monde stated that they have experienced deterioration of their living conditions, more isolation and greater stress.

Quotes:

“The so-called Nordic Model is not only a harmful approach which increases violence against sex workers, it’s a dangerous distraction from the real changes we urgently need to help improve sex workers’ lives. We need full decriminalisation and access to labour rights - we also need an end to benefits cuts, low-wage precarious work and the hostile environment which sees migrant sex workers arrested and locked up in detention centres.” Lydia Caradonna, SWARM spokesperson

“The Nordic Model, which aims to end demand, is often called the ‘feminist’ model for legislating the sex industry when in fact it is the complete opposite. There is nothing feminist about laws which empower the state to exert control over women’s bodies. There is no feminist victory in the number of sex working women who have been arrested and charged with brothel-keeping for working together for safety. We need to call these laws what they are: another moral crusade orchestrated by the same politicians that fight against reproductive rights.” Maria, London-based sex worker

“As evidenced, criminalisation of sex work - regardless of whether the focus of the law is on the purchase or sale of sex - harms primarily the sex workers themselves. This is why sex workers advocate for the decriminalisation of the sex industry; when workers are able to operate in full view of the law, they find themselves more able to assert boundaries, access justice and resources and are even able to organise in their workplaces to improve conditions. We call on Northern Ireland to recognise the harm caused by the Nordic Model and decriminalise the sex industry for the safety of those working within it.” Molly Gerlach-Arthurs, Decrim Now spokesperson

“The disastrous implementation of the Nordic Model in Northern Ireland is a shining example of why sex worker voices need to be heard. Sex workers warned that the Nordic Model would increase violence. Sex workers warned that these laws would not decrease the size of the sex industry. If there is a lesson to be learned here, it is that legislators should ask sex workers what we need and listen when we say that we need decriminalisation. We are experts on our own lives and safety.” Jeni P, sex worker, member of x-talk

NOTES: 

  1. The full research is available at: https://www.justice-ni.gov.uk/publications/assessment-impact-criminalisation-purchasing-sexual-services

  2. Northern Ireland is the only region of the UK which criminalises the act of paying for sex. The ban was introduced as part of the Human Trafficking and Exploitation Act (2015). Outdoor soliciting was decriminalised, but brothel-keeping laws were retained under which two or more people selling sex from an indoor premises is illegal.

  3. In the rest of the UK, paying for sex without coercion is legal, as is the act of selling sex itself. However, various laws criminalise activities associated with sex work: soliciting, working indoors with another person (‘brothel keeping’), and third party involvement.

Solidarity with incarcerated sex workers

On Friday June 7th, Ana and Adrina were sentenced to nine months in prison. Their ‘crime’ was working together for safety. The Nordic model criminalises sex workers for doing this, and such criminalisation is disproportionately targeted at migrant sex workers. Ana and Adrina were just trying to stay safe, but the Irish state chose to arrest them, prosecute them, and hand them a jail sentence. Adrina is pregnant and faces the possibility of having to give birth in jail.

What has happened to Ana and Adrina is completely unjust. It painfully illustrates what sex workers have been saying for years: the Nordic model does not decriminalise people who sell sex. Raids, arrests, prosecution and jail are violence against sex workers.

SWARM and SWAI (the Sex Worker Advocacy and Resistance Movement and the Sex Workers’ Alliance Ireland) are calling on our supporters to raise money for Ana and Adrina and we have set up a fundraiser. We have been in touch with their solicitor, so we can get the money to them. We want to do something to help these two women – and to tell the world that sex workers need decriminalisation and resources, not the Nordic model.

Christina, a sex worker with SWARM, said, “Imprisoning these young women for something which should not be a crime is horrible and absurd – and it is made worse because advocates for the Nordic model are constantly telling us that this law is about ‘protecting’ women who sell sex. How does it protect us to put us in jail?”

Lily, a sex worker with SWARM, said “Criminalisation of sex work, including the Nordic model, disproprotionately targets migrant workers – as we see in this case. We want feminist advocates of the Nordic model to engage with the reality that this legislation harms people who sell sex.

“When women are arrested, prosecuted and jailed, they are at risk of becoming destitute. We want to highlight the injustice that the women are experiencing as a result of Ireland’s Nordic model, and to try to support them as best we can. Sex workers need to support other sex workers, as the Irish state is just interested in persecuting them.”

If you are a sex worker and have been prosecuted for brothel-keeping because you were sharing a space with another worker in England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland or Northern Ireland, please get in touch. We are two small grassroots organisations with very little money, but we would be keen to offer you solidarity if we can.

Please share this fundraiser with your networks, using the hashtag #NordicModelJailsWomen. Here are some tweets you could use:

  • Two sex working women were handed jail sentences in Ireland last friday, because they were working together for safety. Please donate to @SexWorkHive & @SWAIIreland’s fundraiser for them if you can #NordicModelJailsWomen https://www.gofundme.com/fcjna

  • Jailing sex workers for working together is violence against women. Sex workers need decriminalisation and resources, not prison. Donate here to support Ana and Adrina, jailed last week in Ireland https://www.gofundme.com/fcjna #NordicModelJailsWomen

  • The Nordic model doesn’t decriminalise sex workers – Ana and Adrina have just been handed 9 month jail sentences. @SexWorkHive and @SWAIIreland are raising money for them – please share & donate if you can! https://www.gofundme.com/fcjna #NordicModelJailsWomen

Call for Submissions: Mine to Define zine, issue two!

We’re putting together a second issue of ‘Mine to Define: Survivors and Sex Workers Speak Out’. If you haven’t already read it, the first issue is here.


We got a lot of positive feedback and a lot of people wanting to contribute after the first one so we’re doing a general call out for the second.


We’re looking for contributions from sw’ers from any part of the industry who have been through something they define as abusive, whether they define or identify with the term ‘survivor’ or not.


These experiences can have happened in childhood, before starting work, within a session, interpersonally once a worker, or at any other time.


Submissions can be poetry, personal stories and experiences, art, theory, narrative, anything you like. The motivation for the zine is to break the silence that we often have to feel in the industry to not perpetuate any stigmas that often circle about ‘you’re only a worker because you were abused’ or ‘if you were abused at work, that means the industry should be criminalised’. These things end up silencing us around a topic where remaining silent spreads toxicity.


The due date for submissions is the 22nd April. If you have any questions feel free to get in touch.

All submissions and questions can be sent to swspeakout@gmail.com

December 17th: International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers 2018

This December 17th, sex workers across the UK will be chalking messages and statistics on pavements and walls, drawing attention to the violence we face. Today is International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers (IDEVASW). Each person it took to make up the numbers in these statistics of murder and abuse was or is a sex worker. We want you to see us; because these statistics reflect our lives, reflect the marginalisation and criminalisation we experience and the lethal violence to which this has led.

Produced by SWARM in collaboration with Ada Jusic and Woven Ink, ‘To Survive; To Live’ weaves together candid interviews from five people selling sex in austerity Britain. Setting aside the polarising rhetoric that often surrounds discussions of sex work, the film gives an intimate insight into the hopes, fears and needs of a group whose voices are routinely silenced.

As you read this, a trial is underway for the murder of UK sex worker Christina Abbotts in a flat in Crawley, West Sussex. This summer, we held a vigil for a trans, migrant sex worker, Vanesa Campos, who was murdered in Paris. Another trial is currently underway at Bournemouth Crown Court for the rape of an escort in Boscombe, Dorset.

In Odessa, Texas, a 78-year-old prisoner is claiming he killed 90 people over nearly four decades and has just pleaded guilty to the 1994 murder of a Texas woman. Many of his victims were sex workers. The murders bear a horrible resemblance to those of serial killer Gary Ridgway plead guilty in 2003 to killing at least 48 women, mostly sex workers and teen runaways in Washington State. It was these murders which prompted SWOP-USA (Sex Workers Outreach Project, United States) and Dr. Annie Sprinkle to begin IDEVASW.

Today is also the day on which Tumblr fully enacts its ban on explicit adult content. This follows a year in which the online platforms that sex workers rely on have been shuttered and purged. Since the passing of the FOSTA/SESTA bill in the US in February this year, the ability for sex workers to create communities, advertise independently, screen clients and avoid danger has been dramatically reduced.

2018 has been a brutal year for sex workers and we are calling for your support. We are fighting for access to better resources. We need money, secure housing, healthcare, childcare; we need a drastic overhaul of the immigration system. Until these fundamental needs are met, people will continue to sell sex.

Like every sex worker-led organisation around the world, SWARM is calling for decriminalisation. Criminalisation of our work and our bodies only makes life more precarious, more stigmatised and more dangerous.

Solid evidence backs up our claims. In a review of data from 33 countries, published last week, researchers found that sex workers three times more likely to experience violence from clients where their work is criminalised. Organisations including Amnesty International are likewise calling for full decriminalisation as the first step toward protecting sex workers.

Here in the UK, in England, Scotland and Wales selling sex is legal but almost all activities around it are not. It’s illegal to work with a friend for safety, as this is classed as a brothel and brothels are illegal. Soliciting on the street is illegal. In Leeds, there is talk of closing down the UK’s only ‘legalised sex work zone’ in Holbeck.

In Northern Ireland and in the Republic of Ireland, paying for sex is criminalised. Contrary to claims, sex workers themselves have not been decriminalised and prosecutions for brothel-keeping continue. In the ROI, since the law was introduced, 55 people have been arrested for prostitution offences, only two of them are clients. Violence against sex workers – including a spate of knife attacks in Dublin – has increased since paying for sex was criminalised.

It is poverty which lies behind the continued reliance of marginalised people on the sex industry. Since 2010, 86% of the burden of austerity has fallen on women. Some groups are particularly vulnerable. Migrant sex workers face the added danger of deportation, often carried out in the name of ‘recusing trafficking victims’. Research by Transgender Europe (TGEU) found that of the over 1,700 trans and gender diverse people murdered between 2008-2014, 65% were sex workers.

We are calling for decriminalisation as the first step toward making life safer for sex workers. Allowing us to work and advertise openly, build networks and maintain safeguards. And we are calling on

The single best tool for ending stigma against sex workers is this: listen to us.

Possible closure of Leeds 'managed zone'

SWARM and ECP submitted the following statement to Leeds Council regarding the possible closure of the Leeds ‘managed zone’, in which sex workers are able to solicit for business in a designated area without fear of arrest. A meeting will be held on Weds 14th November to evaluate.

 We send greetings and solidarity to sex workers earning their living in the Holbeck managed area. We are outraged at the way these workers have been disrespected and disparaged in a hate campaign fuelled by the media.

 The zone is situated in an area that has been deprived of resources and where many people are suffering from benefit cuts and other austerity measures. We hear the concerns of local residents but this is a time for solidarity; sex workers in the managed zone are also part of the community and have been working in Holbeck for at least 15 years, long before the zone was implemented.

 Regulation via zoning is not ideal but any solution which increases safety for sex workers, allows them to report crimes and brings down the number of arrests is important.

 Working without fear of arrest means sex workers aren’t running from the police are more able to use basic safety measures like working in close proximity to each other and sharing information about clients. This should considered as a priority by Leeds Council.

 According to sex worker outreach charity Basis Yorkshire - which has worked tirelessly to support workers in the area - 97% of sex workers are now willing to report crimes to the police, compared with just 7% before the scheme launched. There has been a dramatic uptake in engagement with health and support services, vital for members of the community who sell sex.

 Poverty is the driving factor behind prostitution. In an interview with Buzzfeed, a woman called Sarah described how she started working in the area to support her three children after being made redundant.

 "Kids shouldn’t have to be worrying about where your next meal is coming from, about bills, or if you’ve got clean clothes,” she said. 

 Sarah said media reports of the area were inaccurate. “People think it’s 90% drug users of crack or heroin and 10% clean, but it’s the opposite. It's the other way around with everyone I know.”

 Another woman, Laura, had escaped from a violent relationship and was now supporting four children.

 If the zone is closed down, can Leeds Council promise sex workers like Sarah and Laura a viable alternate source of income? It is the council’s responsibility to help with problems related to poverty, violence and drug use.

 The council must also hold the government to account. Since 2010, 86% of the burden of austerity has fallen on women. Reports from Doncaster suggest a 60% increase in prostitution with charities saying: “Women are being forced to sell sex for £5 because of benefit sanctions.”

 Sheffield reports a 166% increase, while charity workers in Hull report: “women who are literally starving and they are out there to feed themselves.”

 If the managed zone is closed down women won’t be able to stop working. They will be forced to work in even more isolated areas to avoid detection by the police and will be less able to screen clients who fear arrest. This undermines women’s safety. Sex workers will once again face arrest.  Migrant and transwomen our often particularly targeted by police crackdowns. Having a criminal record bars access to other jobs and prevents women leaving prostitution. Is this what Leeds Council wants?

 The group calling for the zone’s closure - ‘Save Our Eyes’, a name which is, in itself, telling of a particular set of priorities - has laid out the reasons for its anger but has made no mention of how it envisages the protection of community members who sell sex. What concrete proposals does it have for women like Sarah who work in the zone to feed their children?

 The concerns of residents are valid and we stand with any working class community which calls for better living conditions. However, sex workers are human beings. If the zone is closed down, Leeds council must vouch for the safety and survival of the sex workers who will be displaced.

 QUESTIONS FOR COUNCIL:

If the zone is closed down, can Leeds Council promise those working in the area a viable, alternate source of income?

If the zone is closed down, can Leeds Council promise that outdoor sex workers won’t face arrest?

How is Leeds Council planning to support sex workers in the area?

How is Leeds council facilitating dialogue between workers/services and residents to deal with any issues?

A lot of conflict seems to be around residents and workers not knowing where the boundaries of the zone are. Have the police and council done enough to educate and inform people of this?

Can the council reassure local people and the public generally that moves to close down the zone or not driven by a desire to gentrify the area which would result in working-class people, including sex workers, being driven out?

Can the council publicly clarify whether Save Our Eyes has links with property development in Leeds and, specifically, in Holbeck?

 

 

 

 

Student Sex Workers of SWARM - Statement On SWOP at Brighton University Freshers Fair

As student sex workers we know all too well the gap between what we are expected to live on and the actual cost of living. For many of us trying to navigate student life, sex work becomes the best and often only option for us to fund our time at university. This is due to a variety of issues such as disability, mental health, or being a single parent without time to work, study and raise a child. For many, taxing course requirements simply don’t leave enough time to commit to employment at a traditional workplace, particularly if we’re stuck in the weekly uncertainty of a zero hour contract. International students are also limited to working 10 or 20 hours a week, meaning they face even greater pressure around finances.

We were disgusted and disappointed to see that yesterday The Sunday Times ran a piece titled “How to be a sex worker — advice for freshers”, slamming the University of Brighton Student Union for inviting a sex worker outreach project in to the student fresher fair. The piece, written by Andrew Gilligan, brands Brighton University as “encouraging its students into prostitution” for allowing a stall which provides information on safety services, sexual health screening, clean needles, safer sex work advice, support for reporting incidents. It should not be necessary to argue in favour of basic healthcare information and harm reduction strategies, recognition of their value and importance should be commonplace.

We fully support the actions of SWOP Sussex in their efforts to share knowledge around keeping safe in sex work. We do not believe that trying to stop students doing sex work by not talking about it is a suitable approach to the topic, just as we think abstinence based sex education is useless. We wish to highlight that it is only the full decriminalisation of sex work which approaches the issue from a view of harm reduction. No methods of criminalisation of our work, including sex buyer laws, approach this issue from this same harm reduction approach, forcing sex workers to fend for themselves without access to the information required to keep us safe. The literature framed as encouraging students in to sex work is in fact information on how to reduce risk when selling sex, and what to do in the event of an emergency. To see supposed feminists rallying against this information and branding it as “pitching prostitution as a manageable and desirable lifestyle” is very disheartening, since this information can and does literally save lives.

The majority of student sex workers entering higher education are already sex workers, and the suggestion that a stall at a freshers fair is going to be a greater encouragement to enter into sex work than the significant pressures of austerity, rising tuition fees and the astronomical cost of renting, is absurd. That MPs like Sarah Champion are more vocally disgusted about a stall at a freshers fair than they are about cuts to education and the fact that students are simply not given enough money to live, is a revealing example of moralistic policy over practical safety measures. Once again we see our elected representatives attempting to conceal the sex industry from view to avoid taking responsibility for the systemic problems that have created it.

Other stalls at the same freshers fair included information on the LGBT student society, domestic violence, living with HIV, sexual health services, and drug use. Like SWOP, all of these stalls provide information and support on issues that impact students. As with any of these services, it’s important all students know they exist if and when they need them. If a student has a friend who is working in the sex industry and they’re worried about them, they can direct them to that support. Also present were social clubs stalls - rowing, polo, and free pizza. The suggestion that the SWOP stall presenting legal information on sex work is comparable to a social club signing up members shows just how far from the realities of poverty within student populations these commentators are.

One student sex worker in our network stated, “As a student from a low income background I get one of the highest amounts of maintenance loan available, and yet this amount still doesn’t even cover my rent. My disabilities make it hard enough for me to do my degree itself never mind balancing a job with long hours for little pay. Sex work felt like a way out of this, but when university staff found out I was met with threats of expulsion from my course and no offer of support. A fresher’s stall dedicated to supporting sex workers is a breath of fresh air that I wish I’d had in the early days of my undergraduate degree.”

Another student sex worker in our network who is doing a PHD at Sussex Uni said “as a student at Sussex uni and a sex worker, it’s essential that we are offered health and well-being services that deal with the specific issues we face. That’s what the SWOP stall was about, attempts to portray it as ‘career advice’ on getting into sex work are sensationalist misrepresentation.”