Guardian Ariticle

[Curvaceous Kate]

Another Article > Source

Sex workers in Northern Ireland are overwhelmingly opposed to the introduction of a law that could criminalise those who pay for prostitutes.

A Department of Justice commissioned survey has found that only 2% of women and men working in the local sex industry are in favour of the so-called “Swedish model”, which targets consumers rather than workers in the sex trade.


Democratic Unionist peer and Stormont assembly member Lord Morrow has been attempting to introduce a “Swedish model” law into Northern Ireland – a move some feminist groups and Catholic nuns are trying to force politicians in the Irish Republic to bring in on the other side of the border.


In the Queen’s University Belfast report researchers found that 61% of local sex workers thought a “Swedish” or “Scandavian” style law directed at those who buy sex would make them less safe.


And 85% of those working in the trade locally said such legislation would not reduce sex trafficking, the survey released on Friday revealed.


Only 16% of prostitutes’ clients interviewed by the Queen’s University team said such a law would make them stop seeking to pay for sex in Northern Ireland.


Next week the Stormont assembly will debate Lord Morrow’s ‘Human Trafficking and Exploitation Bill’.

David Ford, Northern Ireland justice minister said he did not believe “the complexities of prostitution can be adequately addressed in a single clause in a bill”. Ford said the issue of trafficking people and human slavery should be separated from the issue of prostitution.

“The research has established that the framework of prostitution in Northern Ireland is more complex and diverse than the picture generally painted. I have, however, seen no evidence to suggest that the change proposed by Lord Morrow would reduce the incidence of trafficking. Indeed the report contains evidence to suggest that criminalising the purchasing of sex, as a single clause in a bill, may create further risk and hardship for those individuals, particularly women involved in prostitution,” the justice minister said.

The report is based upon findings from an online survey with sex workers in which there were 171 respondents and an online survey of clients that produced 446 respondents. The report authors also undertook face-to-face interviews with 19 sex workers and 10 clients across Northern Ireland.

Earlier this year Ford told The Guardian that the “Swedish model” of anti-prostitution laws in Northern Ireland would also be unworkable because the devolved government at Stormont has no powers to use anti-terrorist telephone bugging operations. Ford said he was “far from convinced” over the efficacy of the “Nordic law” because the use of mobile intercepts are rarely used even in cases against republican and loyalist terror groups.


Police would have to intercept all calls from clients to sex workers in the province, David Ford warned.

Ford said only a UK cabinet minister such as the secretary of state or the home secretary had the power to sign off every single spying operation on prostitutes’ “punters”.

[John Thomas]

its always puzzled me how when a law is introduced to criminalize the purchase of sex it is still legal to sell it

whats to stop an escort or indeed any media such as a website being prosecuted for inciting to commit a criminal offence?

mmmmmmmmm

the use of mobile intercepts is interesting - if anything i would suggest that Northern Ireland has one of the most extensive surveillance capabilities of any nation state- it is after all a permanent security threat

its just a question of realigning the target.......................

[AmantAmant365]

This is the type of shit that allows politicians steer away and ignore the more important matters of trafficking and violence to make political gains for themselves with a soundbite rather than good legislation..
If this goes ahead the industry will just morph to suit the climate and most likely become a little more unsafe for all as it descends into the realms of criminality.
Are the police and garda such fools that they can't properly advise the politicians that the "Irish" scene is probably one of the best and most benign independent models around. Escorts seem to have good relations with the cops and are safer for it and the internal escort network is a good one. Plus I imagine that the police would prefer to use a trusted network as a resource and weed out the violent and dangerous pricks.

I am so sick of politicians telling me what I can and can't do..