Today marks the 200th Anniversary of the abolition of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade but in modern Ireland, there is still slavery among workers in the sex trade who are illegally trafficked to the island.According to Geraldine Rowley of Ruhama, an organisation that works with and for women involved in prostitution, there are over 200 women in Ireland who were “enslaved in this horrible crime within the last decade.”
This is part a common and increasing trend whereby women are conned into leaving their homeland to make a better life for themselves, but on arriving here, find themselves exploited and abused through prostitution, she said.
Ms Rowley said that the abolition of slavery, was a massive breakthrough, but it is important to now highlight the existence of a contemporary form of slavery in Ireland today – the trafficking of women into the sex industry.
Ireland is the only country in Europe with no legislation for adult women being trafficked into the sex trade.
“There is no evidence that the trade is decreasing here,” she told ciNews. “While we are a country with no legislation for a very lucrative crime, there is nothing to discourage criminals.”
Drawing a parallel with the old slave trade, she said modern sex trade slaves were dehumanised, their freedom was curtailed and they were treated violently or with threats of violence.
She is extremely disappointed that the government has not signed the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking which was adopted by the Council of Europe on 16 May 2005.
So far, 29 of the 46 member states in the Council of Europe have signed the convention, which seeks to strengthen border measures and protect, assist and repatriate victims through international cooperation.
The convention requires ratification by 10 member countries to come into force. It has been ratified so far by Albania, Austria, Georgia, Moldova and Romania.
On Friday, the Convention was signed by the British government.
Ruhama has called on the Irish Government to sign the Council of Europe Convention on Human Trafficking as a matter of urgency and enact legislation that will prosecute the perpetrators and protect the victims of trafficking.
“If you give protection to the victims, it helps them to get over the awful trauma, and they are more likely to give intelligence and testify against the perpetrators,” she said.
According to Ms Rowley, the government views the trafficking issue with the lens of illegal immigration and therefore they are becoming “paranoid about the abuse of open boundaries.”
But trafficking is not just about illegal immigration. Irish people can be trafficked too. “Are they exploited? Have people fooled them with false descriptions of employment? Is there an abuse of authority? – If the answer to these questions is yes, it means they too can be falling victim to the traffickers,” she said.
“On this anniversary, let us as a society say NO, to the acceptability that a woman’s body can be bought and sold for sexual purposes. By not supporting any aspect of the sex industry, we are reducing the demand in the market, - a demand which is supplied by modern day slave traders, namely ‘traffickers’,” she said.
Ruhama recommends the film ‘Amazing Grace’ to the public, which goes on general release this weekend. The film tells the story of William Wilberforce who campaigned tirelessly for the abolition of the slave trade.
Two orders of nuns, with a long history of working with women on the street, the Good Shepherd Sisters and the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity began the charity Ruhama.
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