Buying sex illegal for 15 months ...NO ONE has been arrested
Ex-prostitute calls for crackdown Historic day but just not effective 1,000 180
Rachel Ireland.” Rachel managed to escape the sex trade in 1998 at the age of 22 and recounts her ordeal in her book Paid For: My Journey Through Prostitution.
A report by survivor group SPACE International, of which she is a founding member, noted gardai do not seem to be targeting pimps or buyers of sex in known locations.
Rachel said: “In this digital age, vast sums of money are being made by pimps who’ve reinvented themselves simply as website operators.
“In this way, they get to step back from the ugly business of pimping women directly yet profit enormously from facilitating men who are breaking the law.
“Most people do not understand how much money’s involved – these people are making millions of euros from facilitating criminal activity. I cannot think of another area of illegality in Ireland that is openly and publicly accommodated unchallenged.”
Research suggests there are 1,000 women involved in the indoor commercial sex trade controlled by organised crime and worth around €180million a year.
Ruhama – the frontline service for those affected by prostitution – last month published its annual report and singled out lack of enforcement as a priority issue. Its chief Sarah Benson WHEN the law was enacted last year, supporters hailed it was “a historic day, ushering in a new dawn of protection”. But it was met largely by concerns and last month Prostitute forced to work on street
The fact of having your body reduced to commodity is violence RACHEL MORAN CAMPAIGNER Women involved in sex trade by organised crime trade How many million euro it is thought to be worth
Amnesty International Ireland said “criminalising the purchase of sex does not fulfil its intended purpose of reducing prostitution and, more importantly, is not an effective way to protect sex workers”. said: “We are deeply disappointed no convictions against sex buyers have been secured under this legislation to date.
“The trade continues to have a customer base operating with impunity, and therefore continues to thrive, as do the organised criminal gangs profiting from the sexual exploitation of women.”
Rachel said the myth of the “happy hooker” needs to be dispelled and those who are marginalised and vulnerable are most at risk of being coerced into the sex trade.
She said: “Prostitution is violence in and of itself. The fact of having your body reduced to a commodity is violence.
“In other areas of life we recognise the complexity of psychological violence, emotional battery, degradation, humiliation and bullying etc, but only in prostitution must a woman present with bruises before she’ll be considered to have been treated violently.”
news@irishmirror.ie