New technology has helped the spread of prostitution into rural areas
with pimps and traffickers now in a position to monitor women working
in some of Ireland’s smallest communities, Ruhama said today.
The
agency, which helps women involved in prostitution, said mobile phones
and the internet were increasingly being used to advertise the
"thriving" sale of sex and that it could be bought from as many as 1,000
women at any given time in Ireland.
“Women are moved quickly and
sometimes frequently and the criminals involved remain at arms length
hiding behind a computer screen,” Ruhama said in its annual report.
It
said the sex industry had become “more high tech” with information on
women’s “movements, numbers of buyers, the amount of cash changing hands
immediately available to pimps and traffickers even if they are not on
site”.
Ruhama said it worked with 204 women involved in prostitution last year, a 4 per cent increase on 2009.
The
majority of new cases it was alerted to involved women working as
escorts or in brothels but there was also a 9 per cent increase in the
number of women working the streets and seeking help.
Ruhama said
it helped 140 women from 31 countries with matters such as
accommodation, health, addiction and negotiating the criminal justice
system in 2010.
It said that 61 per cent of those trafficked into
Ireland for sex came from Nigeria with clients also coming from
countries such as Romania, Cameroon, Albania, Moldova and Ghana.
Ruhama chief executive Sarah Benson said prostitution and trafficking in Ireland was now of a “truly global nature”.
“The
women Ruhama works with come from very diverse backgrounds and
experiences they also often have a great deal in common,” she said.
“Most are vulnerable migrant women or marginalised Irish nationals,
experience economic difficulties especially debt, some have addiction or
childhood abuse issues.”
Ruhama also helped a number of women who
provided testimony in trials against pimps and traffickers, including
the case of Thomas Joseph (TJ) Carroll, who was convicted and is now
serving seven years in a Welsh jail for a string of offences relating to
brothels he kept in both the Republic and the North.
Their trial
heard that Carroll recruited women who were economically vulnerable from
South America, Portugal and Nigeria. Six of the women were trafficked
and forced into prostitution.
Ms Benson said Irish vice laws
should be reformed and that the criminal burden should be placed on
those paying for sex and not those selling.
“The focus has rightly
turned in recent times, from the women and girls, and the small number
of men and boys who are in prostitution towards those who are
profiting,” she said.
“This includes of course the buyers. The sex
trade is a multi-million euro industry in Ireland fuelled by their
demand. A positive step in overcoming this growth in the sex trade would
be to stem demand by criminalising the buyers through legislative
change.”