'Active Irish sex trade' warning amid Ukrainian refugee influx

The Sexual Exploitation Research Programme  based at University College Dublin, warned that gender-specific safe accommodation and other specialist supports should be put in place, adding: 'Ireland continues to have an active sex trade, and as such is already a destination country for victims of trafficking and sexual exploitation.'

Experts on commercial sexual exploitation have warned Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney that not all offers of help to Ukrainian refugees are genuine.

More measures are needed to guard against women and children being abused, including through so-called "sex for rent", they have said.

The Sexual Exploitation Research Programme (Serp), based at University College Dublin, warned Mr Coveney that gender-specific safe accommodation and other specialist supports should be put in place, adding: "Ireland continues to have an active sex trade, and as such is already a destination country for victims of trafficking and sexual exploitation."

It comes after a string of stories in the Irish Examiner highlighted various examples of attempted exploitation here, including seeking sex in exchange for accommodation.

In the letter, signed by Ruth Breslin, Dr Monica O’Connor and the chair of Serp Dr Marie Keenan, the researchers said: "Over the last few weeks, Serp has received numerous reports directly from the Ukrainian borders, and from our European partners, of women and girls being trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation. 

"While there has been an amazing groundswell of support from Ukraine’s neighbours, it is becoming clear that not all offers of help being made by civilians at the borders are genuine.

"Ukrainian women and children in desperate circumstances are accepting offers of help from strangers — such as lifts and accommodation — and then disappearing from view."

The group said exploiters always prey on the vulnerabilities that conflict creates and while acknowledging that the issue has been raised in the Dáil, it said more needed to be done.

Vetting of volunteers

That includes that all volunteers offering assistance at the Ukrainian borders should be appropriately vetted by established aid agencies on the ground, and that accessible safety information in Ukrainian be distributed to all those arriving at the borders and circulated via social media, alerting women to the dangers posed by potential traffickers.

"It is vital that such warnings are disseminated as widely as possible so that they reach women before they arrive, exhausted, at the border,"  Serp said.

It said similar safety information in Ukrainian should be made available to all women and children arriving into Ireland, as women typically do not discover they are in danger of exploitation until after they have passed through our ports and airports.

it said another requirement should be "the provision of gender-specific safe accommodation and other specialist supports for vulnerable women and children where they will not become prey to pimps and traffickers, as has been reported in direct provision, or indeed to those seeking ‘sex for rent’, which is already occurring."

Urging the minister to act, the group said: " All steps must be taken to ensure Ukrainian women and girls fleeing the war do not end up drawn or trapped into the Irish sex trade, like so many of their Central and Eastern European counterparts before them."