Report shows rise in violence towards women working in prostitution

The report from the support group Ruhama said it helped 284 victims of human trafficking for sexual exploitation last year — up 31% from the previous year. File picture

The level of violence against women working in prostitution in Ireland is on the rise, according to a report from an organisation working with trafficking victims.

The report from the support group Ruhama said it helped 284 victims of human trafficking for sexual exploitation last year — up 31% from the previous year.

The victims were from 62 different nationalities, mainly from the global south, said the report.

Some 177 Nigerian victims came forward for support, with the next highest proportion of victims being 27 from Zimbabwe.

A total of 1,242 individuals engaged with Ruhama last year, of whom 1,170 were women, three were trans women, 65 were men, and four were non-cisgender.

Ruhama CEO Barbara Condon said: “Without demand, we would not have a sex trade in the first place and it is a really lucrative business for organised crime. There is a lot of money to be made when you sell a woman over and over again.”

She said the main issue arising among service users is the lack of accommodation for victims trying to escape.

“There is no gender-specific specialist accommodation unit for trafficked women. So the vast majority are in direct provision, congregated settings, which are very inappropriate. It is almost impossible to recover if you don’t have a stable base, a stable environment.”

One of the main areas of concern for Ruhama is the level of violence used against women working in prostitution. “We had some very complicated cases that involved a high level of violence by both punters and pimps”, said Ms Condon.

'Horrific' violence

“There were cases where women were ending up being hospitalised after aggravated physical or inhumane sexual acts of depravity. Some cases were just horrific in terms of what women endured.”

Former minister for justice Frances Fitzgerald is currently an ambassador for Ruhama. She said: “This is an area where you have the most vulnerable women being degraded every day of the week, and you have enough men around who think they can buy women.

“We do have to look at masculinity and we do need to get male leaders talking about this. I would appeal for men to take on more of the work on violence against women and exploitation and continue to raise awareness.

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“The women would not be here if there was not a demand for men to buy sex off them and we need men to understand that most of these women are trafficked.

“This is not glamour: This is about poverty, this is about exploitation, this is about countries that are not doing well and where women do not have access to income or jobs and they end up being vulnerable to these gangs, and they are taken away – they are effectively kidnapped.”