Ads target men who use trafficked women

MEN who buy sex from women trafficked into Ireland for prostitution are being targeted for the first time in an advertising campaign that warns they could go to jail.

The ads, devised by Ruhama, a voluntary group that works with women trapped in the sex industry or escaping from it, will run on RTÉ television and Setanta Sports for a month starting this week.

Ruhama director Kathleen Fahy said the appeal was being made directly to the clients of the sex trade because new legislation makes it an offence to solicit sex from a trafficked woman for the first time, but also because the trade would not exist without its customers.