Warning on abuse tolerance

Tolerance of the sexual exploitation and abuse of women had increased dramatically here in the the last five years, the Ruhama charity has said.

This "desensitisation" has fuelled the sex industry and has made Ireland more vulnerable to trafficking of women.

Ruhama, which offers support to women working in prostitution, was addressing the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Equality and Women's Rights yesterday.

Kathleen Fahy, Ruhama director, said there appeared to be "an increasing desensitisation within society in general to the abuses involved" in the proliferating sex industry. She said that while in the past the majority of women in prostitution were working on the streets and for themselves, the industry now was more organised.

Using mobile phones and the internet, those running the industry had become more professional. Prostitution had moved indoors and it was "easier for pimps and procurers to operate, rendering an already secretive trade even more invisible".

She said Ruhama knew of over 200 women who had been trafficked into Ireland over recent years, had come into direct contact with 101 and had assisted 48.

"The number may appear small but we believe these are only the tip of the iceberg. Almost without exception theirs is a story of abuse sexually, emotionally, psychologically from the time they were coerced or enticed from their homes. Most have experienced systematic violence."

Trafficking, she said, was a contemporary form of slavery.