English Collective of Prostitutes- Written evidence

(MSA0074)

The English Collective of Prostitutes is a self-help organisation of sex

workers, working both on the street and in premises, with a national
network throughout the UK. Since 1975, we have campaigned for the
decriminalisation of prostitution, for sex workers’ rights and safety, and
for resources to enable people to get out of prostitution if they want to.

Modern slavery/anti-trafficking legislation is primarily being used to raid

sex workers premises.

A recent study has shown that police regularly conduct raids on brothels
on the premise that human trafficking or modern slavery is taking place
there, but 7/10 of all brothel raids linked to modern slavery have not
resulted in finding victims of trafficking.i A 2018 All-Party Parliamentary
Gtroup (APPG) reportii on “how to stop trafficking and sexual exploitation”
stated that it was happening on an “industrial scale”. This isn’t true and
this report was just the latest in a decades long misinformation campaign
which has involved exaggeration and fabricated statistics.iii A 2009 study
found that less than 6% of migrant sex workers had been trafficked, and
that many preferred working in the sex industry rather than the
“unrewarding and sometimes exploitative conditions they meet in non-
sexual jobs.”iv

Rather than ‘rescuing’ victims of trafficking from the sex industry,

evidence from within our network shows that this legislation is actually
being used to target sex workers - particularly those who are migrants
and women of colour - for arrest and deportation.v Sex workers are often
treated in a degrading and humiliating way by the police, and raids attract
intrusive media attention.

Examples

Two migrant women in our network who were working together for safety
were raided by the police, and given a questionnaire asking them if they
were trafficked. As soon as the police saw they had all answered ‘no’,
they left, and immediately returned with immigration officers to deport
one of the women.

Another migrant woman in our network was arrested during a brothel raid
whilst she was asleep in bed, and left handcuffed naked in a cell alone for
six hours. She was told she was under arrest for charges of modern
slavery, as well as the other offences of brothel-keeping and controlling
prostitution. These relate to the fact that she had been checking in on
other women that she worked with to make sure that they were safe after
they had visited clients. When she was released, the police left her on the
street late at night with no phone and no money. She has been under
investigation by the police for over two years now, and fears she may be
deported over the charges she is facing.vi

A group of women working together for safety were raided by the police
at the same premises three times in one month. On each occasion the flat
was closed so women had to find other places to work. This is effectively
the cause of ‘pop-up’ brothels as women working in established premises
are forced to move from place to place by the threat of prosecution.

The punitive use of modern slavery/trafficking laws by the police against

sex workers is made possible by the broad definition of ‘exploitation’
contained within the Modern Slavery Act 2015.

‘Exploitation’ is defined in reference to the commission of any offence

under Part 1 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003. This includes the offences
of “keeping a brothel used for prostitution” (s.33), “causing or inciting
prostitution for gain” (s.52) and “controlling prostitution for gain” (s.53).
These offences do not require force or coercion to be proven, and they
are often used against sex workers who are working together
consensually and for safety. This means that exploitation in the sex
industry is being defined more broadly in the sex industry than it is in
other labour markets.

Furthermore, the indicators that are used by the police in order to identify
victims of trafficking are inaccurate and demonstrate a prejudiced and
ignorant view of sex workers and the impact of criminalisation on how
women work.

For example, a 2018 APPG on Prostitution and the Global Sex Trade
reportvii said trafficking and modern slavery identifiers included: women’s
appearance not matching the image on the online profile; the presence of
different women in the flat on different days; the advertised phone
number was being managed by someone external to the flat; the women
provided different or contradictory and changing information; and the
women declined help or assistance for the police. In reality, the person
answering the phone will be located elsewhere to reduce the chance of
arrest and sex workers often use multiple phone numbers or decline
police help because they are fearful of arrest and deportation.

The use of modern slavery/trafficking legislation to target sex workers,

and the criminalisation of sex work more generally, makes sex workers
less safe.
A 2014 survey found that when arrests of sex workers and clients were
high, only 5% of sex workers who were victims of crime felt able to report
it. This is compared to 46% of victims in areas where police adopted a
harm-reduction approach.viii The punitive use of modern
slavery/trafficking legislation can therefore be said to contribute to a legal
environment which actively makes sex workers less safe.

Examples

A woman recently came to the ECP for help about an aggressive client
and specifically told us that she couldn’t report it to the police because
she was “scared of going to prison.” She’d been ‘visited’ by the police
twice in the last few months. On the first occasion, officers told her that it
was a modern slavery raid, and they were aggressive and rude. On the
second occasion, the officers were more polite, but each time she was
terrified of being arrested, of being exposed as a sex worker to her
family, and of getting a criminal conviction.

One woman in our group was robbed at knifepoint in a flat in Essex where
she was working with others. When she reported it, the police didn’t treat
her as a victim - they seemed half-hearted in their investigation and
instead returned to the premises to deliver a letter saying, “any female at
this address now, who is found at this same address in the future, is very
likely to be arrested [for brothel-keeping.]”

Recent changes to immigration laws show that the government has no

regard for the safety and protection of modern slavery/trafficking victims.
These laws contradict and undermine any measures in the Modern
Slavery Act aimed at protecting victims.

For example, the Illegal Migration Act 2023 removes all protection from
those who arrive in the UK via illegal routes. Not only does this risk
placing the UK in in breach of its obligations under the UN Refugee
Convention and the ECHR, it puts many people arriving in the UK via
irregular routes, including women and girls who are trafficked for sexual
exploitation, at significant risk of harm.ix

Despite millions of pounds of funding, victims of trafficking get little or no

help from the authorities. Of the women in our network who fit the
description of a trafficked victim – that is someone who is brought to the
UK, held against their will and threatened or coerced to provide sexual
services for somebody else’s profit - none were “saved” by others, they
escaped through their own ingenuity, courage and organising skills.

The government will only be able to address modern slavery/trafficking if

they are willing to address poverty.
In our experience trafficking is enabled by poverty and women’s
determination to escape it. It is enabled by the hostile immigration
environment that make it impossible for women to cross international
borders unaided. Once in the UK, sex work can be the best or only option
to prevent destitution.

As explained by our sister organisation, EMPOWER Thailand:

“Sex work has become a way out of generational poverty for us and our
families that also boosts the country’s wealth. We don’t do sex work
because we are poor, we do sex work to end our poverty… anti-
trafficking law does not improve our working conditions, increase our
options, or end our poverty. It does not reduce armed conflict in our
homelands. It does not reduce corruption. It does not increase support for
children and minors. It does not demand governments or society respect
us or our basic human rights.”x

Traffickers escape prosecution not because of a lack of applicable laws

but, as with domestic violence and rape, because protecting women is not
the priority. Women Against Rape points to the appalling 6% and 5%
conviction rates for reported rape and domestic violence.xi More often
than not when sex workers report violence, the police refuse to act and
may even threaten to prosecute them instead for prostitution offences. An
effective anti-trafficking strategy has to improve women’s material living
conditions.

Decriminalisation of sex work is the only way to keep all workers in the
UK sex industry safe from exploitation and harm.

Decriminalising sex work would enable women who work in the sex
industry to insist
on the same labour rights as other workers and report violence without
fear of arrest.xii Research shows that after the decriminalisation of sex
work in New Zealand, 90% of sex workers said they had additional
employment, legal, health, and safety rights including the right to refuse
clients – a key marker of exploitation.xiii A Ministry of Justice review found
no increase in the numbers of sex workers or trafficking following
decriminalisation.xiv Ending the hostile immigration environment and
ensuring that women have access to money and resources so that they
can feed themselves and their families would make them less vulnerable
to those ready to exploit them.

27 March 2024

i See research by Emily Kenway, results found in: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/sex-work-

trafficking-victims-raids-police-b2244505.html.
ii All-Party Parliamentary Group on Commercial Sexual Exploitation. (2021). Bust the Business Model: How to

stop sex trafficking and sexual exploitation in the UK. https://www.appg-cse.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Bust-

the-Business-Model.pdf
iii As far back as 2009, a Guardian forensic analysis of arrest figures and research found: “the scale of and nature

of sex trafficking into the UK has been exaggerated by politicians and media”. The Guardian, 20 October 2009.
Prostitution and trafficking – the anatomy of a moral panic. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/oct/20/trafficking-
numbers-women-exaggerated
iv Mai, N. (2011). Migrant Sex Workers in the UK Sex Industry: Final Policy Relevant Report. London: ESRC.

https://prostitutescollective.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Migrant-Workers-in-the-UK-Sex-Industry-Project-
Final-Policy-Relevant-Report.pdf
v Connelly, L. and The English Collective of Prostitutes. (2021). EU Migrant Sex Work in the UK Post-

Referendum https://prostitutescollective.net/eu-migrant-sex-work-in-the-uk-post-referendum/; Platt et al. (2022).

The effect of Systemic Racism and Homophobia on Police Enforcement and Sexual And Emotional Resilience
among Sex Workers in East London: Findings from a Cohort Study.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11524-022-00673-z
vi See English Collective of Prostitutes. (2022). https://prostitutescollective.net/independent-sex-worker-beaten-

by-her-clients-shares-deportation-fears/
vii All-Party Parliamentary Group on Prostitution and the Global Sex Trade (2018). Behind Closed Doors: sexual

exploitation in England and Wales. https://www.appg-cse.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Behind-closed-doors-

APPG-on-Prostitution.pdf
viii Connelly, L. (2014). Violence against sex workers: analysis of National Ugly Mugs (NUM) reports.
ix Equality and Human Rights Commission (2024). UK implementation of the Istanbul Convention: Baseline

Evaluation. https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/uk-implementation-istanbul-convention-baseline-evaluation.
x Empower Foundation. (2016). https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/beyond-trafficking-and-slavery/we-don-t-do-

sex-work-because-we-are-poor-we-do-sex-work-to-end-our-poverty/.
xi See Women Against Rape https://womenagainstrape.net/
xii Evidence for the successes of decriminalisation in improving safety can be found in:

https://prostitutescollective.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/report-of-the-nz-prostitution-law-committee-2008.pdf
xiii Abel, G., Fitzgerald, L. & Brunton, C. (2007). The Impact of the Prostitution Reform Act on the Health and

Safety Practices of Sex Workers. https://www.otago.ac.nz/christchurch/otago018607.pdf.

xiv Ministry of Justice. (2008). Report of the Prostitution Law Review Committee on the Prostitution Reform Act

2003. https://prostitutescollective.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/report-of-the-nz-prostitution-law-committee-
2008.pdf