One in 10 prostitutes seeking help assaulted

THE number of prostitutes attending the Women’s Health Centre increased last year, with 10% suffering sex assault by clients.

The figures were revealed yesterday as a conference debated how to address the issue of women being trafficked into Ireland for sexual exploitation.

At the conference in Dublin the findings of the Dignity Project — funded under the European Commission’s DAPHNE programme — were published, recommending the adoption of the Swedish system in which the buying of sex is made illegal.

The conference also heard that since 2008, when new laws were introduced here, just six women have been identified as having been trafficked into Ireland for sexual exploitation.

Yet it is understood that there have been about 66 referrals under that definition to the Garda National Immigration Bureau, while last year the Women’s Health Project (WHP), which helps women working in the sex trade, was contacted by 271 clients.

Of those, 255 were foreign nationals, and Linda Latham, project coordinator of the WHP, said almost half of those were Brazilian.

“We had 25 cases last year alone of sex assaults and acts of violence against women,” Ms Latham said.

The number of women attending the WHP increased last year, although she said not all the foreign women would necessarily have been trafficked here.

“For years the focus has been on how many [women] are trafficked,” she said. “A lot of them are migrant women and under the control of pimps, rather than trafficked, but they are definitely being exploited.”

She said there were also growing concerns for the safety of women working in the sex trade, as there appeared to be “increased sexual depravity” on the part of those buying sex.

Sarah Benson, CEO of Ruhama, said her organisation was seeing an increase in “return” cases, in which women who may have used its services years before are now returning for help.

Ms Benson said more resources were needed in many areas involving prostitution, including garda detection.

Addressing the conference, MEP Prionsias De Rossa said issues that should be considered at European level include each country having a national rapporteur, and establishing national databases so the numbers of women working in the sex trade could be properly compared.

Recommendations from the Dignity Project include that reasons be provided by authorities why someone has not been afforded Victim of Trafficking status, that trafficking issues take precedence over asylum issues or a victim’s legal status, and that early legal advice be provided to victims without they being required to cooperate with police.