Sex trafficking crackdown may put women at risk

A LEADING sociologist yesterday urged caution in considering a total ban on prostitution as a means of stemming sex trafficking into this country.

Dr Eilis Ward, who lectures at NUI Galway, said: “Abolishing prostitution as a way to minimise sex trafficking is not fully proven yet. It needs to be considered very carefully because it might have the opposite effect in the long term.”

Dr Ward and Dr Gillian Wylie recently published a study into sex trafficking in this country.