David Raleigh
Garda Headquarters has defended how officers interacts with sex workers, after a report published on Thursday claims some gardaí have sexually exploited, discriminated, and inflicted trauma on people working in the sex trade through “aggressive tactics”.
The findings in a report funded by the Department of Justice, and jointly conducted by the University of Limerick a GOSHH, Gender, Orientation, Sexual Health, HHIV, recommends a series of changes to the 2017 Criminal Law Act, including “the full decriminalisation of sex work”.
The report claims the Act, which criminalised the purchase of sexual services and doubled the penalties for two or more sex workers selling sexual services from the same premises, has “drastically affected the lives of street sex workers in urban areas”.
Entitled I Must Be Some Person: Accounts from Street Sex Workers in Ireland, the report, which is based on interviews with a sample of 25 street sex workers based in Limerick (10) and Dublin (15) found that “one in five” street sex workers interviewed “had experience of being sexually exploited by the gardaí”.
Participants said they had “a deep mistrust” of An Garda Síochána and said they felt “discouraged” to report crimes to Gardaí including “rape” and “violence” for a range of reasons.
Some of these reasons include; a history of trauma inflicted by aggressive Garda tactics from the past among sex workers, and the belief and experience of some officers sexually exploiting street sex workers and abusing their power.
Previous cases of sex workers reporting incidents of physical assault or rape, which were dismissed or mishandled, not leading to receiving help or justice, and a wide-spread stigma around sex work in the Irish society, and hence, sex workers being afraid of publicity
Recommendations
It provides recommendations for the Department of Justice, which is currently engaged in a review of the 2017 Act. These recommendations include; a clear distinction between sex work versus sexual exploitation and sex trafficking, strengthening of services for sex workers to ensure they have safe working conditions, an end to the policing of sex workers by An Garda Síochána.
It also includes recommendations to encourage the redirection of funding from An Garda Síochána to sex worker-led organisations, and that the discourse on sex work going forward is actively influenced towards destigmatisation of the occupation, humanisation of the workers and the overall concern of the well-being of sex workers.
Dr Anca Minescu, author of the report, and lecturer in psychology at University of Limerick, said the findings “show our current law on sex work negatively affects lives, safety, and wellbeing of sex workers”
“Portraying all sex workers in Ireland as ‘exploited victims’ and the way the gardaí are interacting with the street sex workers, contribute to violence and stigmatisation, this enables very serious incidents of Garda misconduct against sex workers, including sexual assault and verbal abuse, and false legal information surrounding sex work spread by others,” said Dr Minescu.
One participant told the researchers: “We’re actually good people, we’re people that are just living every day, and we’re alive. It’s not like working in a shop, but it is work, I’m not robbing people, I’m going out and making my own money”.
Welfare checks
When asked for comment, a Garda spokesman outlined a number of ways “An Garda Síochána proactively engages with individuals working in the Sex Trade via welfare checks, to ensure they are safe and to offer safety advice.”“During these welfare visits, the Sex Workers are offered available State Services, such as the Woman’s Health Service attached to the HSE and in some cases, sex workers are offered supports provided by Ruhama and other Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs). A further purpose of these welfare checks is to identify any persons who are being exploited or coerced in the sex trade,” said the spokesman.“The Garda Organised Prostitution Investigation Unit (OPIU) also send welfare texts/ SMS messages to persons advertising sexual services to check on their welfare and offer a confidential way of reporting exploitation or crimes. These welfare checks are carried out in sensitive manner due to the potential vulnerability of the individuals concerned.”The spokesman continued “Gardaí do not engage with 3rd parties in respect of these welfare checks, nor does An Garda Síochána assist or participate in evictions of Sex Workers, in any form.”
He added the Organised Prostitution Investigation Unit, regularly participates in European led initiatives through Europol “with a primary focus of identifying victims of sexual exploitation in the form of forced prostitution and human trafficking”.
He said the “Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017 criminalises the purchase of sexual services and the soliciting or purchasing of sex from a trafficked person” and that the Garda’s “focus in enforcing this legislation is to target persons involved in the purchase of sexual services” and to “protect individuals engaged in the sex trade”.
“For example, in November 2021, as part of co-ordinated days of action, An Garda Síochána conduced 45 safeguarding visits with individuals working in the sex trade. A female victim of sexual/labour exploitation was identified, in addition, 77 persons were questioned on suspicion of having purchased sexual activity, and a female victim of sexual/labour exploitation was identified.”
