Increase in Irishwomen engaged in street vice

THE NUMBER of Irish women engaging in on-street prostitution has “noticeably increased” in the past few months, according to the outreach organisation Ruhama.

Gerardine Rowley, spokeswoman for the organisation, which supports women working in prostitution, said the increase in on-street activity was probably attributable to the economic crisis.

“There has been an increase in this kind of prostitution, which is a new emerging issue, a factor of which may be increasing poverty.”

At the publication yesterday of Ruhama’s biennial report, which covers 2007 and 2008, there were also calls for the criminalisation of men who use prostitutes.

Ms Rowley said of the increase in street prostitution over past months: “We know from experience a significant factor leading women into prostitution can be poverty. Some women in dire financial trouble may see no other option.”

Outreach workers were seeing some women back on the streets who had left prostitution in the 1990s. “We do have women who come to us struggling and saying, ‘We don’t want to go back but we have debts and the bills have to be paid’.”

She also said the more desperate a woman was to make money, the more likely she was to engage in “high-risk behaviour”.

“We know men put pressure on women for unprotected sex.”

A significant proportion of the 341 women helped by Ruhama in the two years covered by the report had been trafficked here for prostitution. The greatest proportion are now coming from Africa, particularly Nigeria.

Some 67 of the trafficked women helped were new referrals, of whom 55 had been trafficked directly into the State, with seven brought in through Northern Ireland. “Six of the trafficked women were under 18, with some as young as 15 at the time they were trafficked,” according to the report.

Fine Gael TD Simon Coveney, who was the main speaker at yesterday’s publication, said prostitution was part of a multi-million dollar international criminal industry that needed an international response.

“Ireland is now part of that response. Last year’s passing of the Anti Human-Trafficking Act is to be welcomed, but it doesn’t go far enough . . . Until we criminalise the users, the abusers, we are not serious about the battle against this abuse.”

He said while it was a crime to purchase sex from a known minor or known victim of trafficking, the defence could always be that the man did not know the girl or woman was either a minor or trafficked. Supporting Ruhama’s call for the criminalisation of men who purchased sex, he said such legislation in Sweden had resulted in a large reduction in the purchase of sex there, and in trafficking to the country.

One speaker at the event who worked in the asylum process said she was seeing “about 50 young women a year” whom she suspected had been trafficked.

“A lot seem to say they have been brought here by an agent, and the agent is nowhere to be seen. There seems to be a blind spot somewhere at the ports.”

Ms Rowley said it could be “very difficult for those at the frontline, at airports, to tell when someone was being trafficked”, particularly because at that point the woman or girl may believe she is being brought to Ireland for a good life.

She called for the establishment of a national vice squad in An Garda Síochána. Currently the one such unit covers only Dublin.

Personal testimonies

"I was forced into prostitution at an early age and did not know what sex was until the clients showed me. It was terrifying but I knew I had to do sexual things or they would kill me.  When I got away from prostitution I thought there would be no more pain and no more sadness. But when one has worked as a prostitute one finds that it affects your mind and how one feels for the rest of one's life."

– Christine, who is Irish, was forced into prostitution when a teenager by a family member. Ten years after escaping prostitution she was still suffering its effects. She is now in her final year of university.

"I came to Ireland for a better life, trusting my helper. Few days later I became a prisoner, I was locked in a room. They were using me to make money. I was forced to have sex with different men which was organised by them. After sleeping with the men they paid money and my organisers would come and collect it from me. I became useless, meaningless, helpless and hopeless. No person to speak to, my world was turned upside down, no freedom. I have to do what they say. I was dying in silence."

– Obioma is from Nigeria. She was trafficked into Ireland as a young girl. She is now out of prostitution.