Irish Examiner view: Sex work is hardly ever about choice

Scourge of prostitution

The chilling reality of the life of a female sex worker is revealed in a new study that exposes the harsh and dangerous world of prostitution in Ireland. Picture: Lewis Whyld/PA

Anyone who still harbours the illusion that sex work is a relatively harmless lifestyle choice should note the words of Mia de Faoite, a former prostitute, activist, and the Beyond Exploitation campaign coordinator with the National Women’s Council of Ireland.

“For six years, I was sexually exploited by strangers. In six years, I was bought approximately 4,000 times.”

That chilling reality of the life of a female sex worker is revealed in a new study that exposes the harsh and dangerous world of prostitution in Ireland.

Research carried out by UCD’s Sexual Exploitation Research Programme (SERP) and the HSE’s Women’s Health Service (WHS) reveals that 94% of the women they engaged with were migrants. Many of them were under huge pressure to financially support their families back home and some were fearful of retribution by traffickers on their families.

Little wonder that, far from being a lifestyle choice, women in the sex trade suffer similar or higher levels of PTSD to veterans returning from wars.

The report — ‘Confronting the Harm’ — says many of the migrant women speak limited English and are undocumented. It also says women experience frequent, serious, physical, and sexual violence at the hands of perpetrators such as buyers, pimps, and traffickers, while those profiting from prostitution reap the financial rewards.

The two-year study of 144 service users of the WHS says that for most, prostitution is “all-consuming”, dominating every aspect of their lives.

The study shows that grinding poverty and precarious migrant status are among the main reasons that these women engage in prostitution. It also reveals that many of them are exploited not just by those who buy their services. In some cases, women are being charged exorbitant rents — up to €700 per apartment room per week — by landlords who know the premises is being used for prostitution.

This report is a welcome addition to our knowledge of the sex industry in Ireland. It shows that, despite the 2017 Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act which criminalises the purchase of sex, women are still subject to sexual exploitation.

A report published almost exactly a year ago by SERP that analysed the sex industry within the context of that law found while it had made a “very promising” start in interrupting the demand for sex-for-sale in Ireland, women still experienced endemic violence and abusive demands made by buyers.

That is hardly surprising because the criminal justice system that can only do so much is very much a one-sided instrument designed to make would-be purchasers think twice. A much more comprehensive approach is needed — one that recognises the reality of selling sex and the dangers those women face and the state of fear in which many of them are trapped. The large majority of the women accessing WHS are seeking to exit prostitution. In order to help them do so, they need social, welfare, and community support. Free and accessible healthcare would be a good start.