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NORTHERN IRELAND has today launched legislation which, if enacted, would make it illegal to pay for sex.
The bill, launched by the Democratic Unionist Party, would see Northern Ireland take the lead within the UK in tackling the sex trade as well as human trafficking.
While running a brothel or ‘kerb crawling’ – the actual solicitation of sex from a prostitute – is illegal across the UK, the actual act of buying or selling sex is still actually legal.
Though it is unusual for a draft bill to be published for consultation in August, when the Stormont Assembly is in recess, its author – DUP member Lord Maurice Morrow – said its timing was deliberate.
The publication of the Bill triggers a 90-day window for public consultation which closes on October 18, a day recognised as Anti-Slavery Day across the United Kingdom.
“My bill is designed to bring help and aid and assistance to those who find themselves trafficked,” Morrow told UTV News.
“Criminalising paying for sex is not explicitly in the European directive [on human trafficking], but Article 18 encourages member states to take appropriate steps to tackle demand.”
He added:
The majority of trafficking victims in Northern Ireland in recent years have been trafficked here for sexual exploitation.
Morrow said his legislation had been inspired by the Swedish model, where he argued that the introduction of a zero-tolerance culture on commercial sex had made “a clear impact on trafficking”.
BBC News reports that other provisions in the bill include an extension of the definition of ‘other exploitation’, hoping to clamp down on the trafficking of vulnerable people for the purposes of forced begging.
The proposals would also permit courts to take aggravating factors, such as the circumstances of the victims, into account when handing down a sentence for any offence.
The news has been welcomed by the Immigrant Council of Ireland. Its chief executive Denise Charlton said:
Laws are now being reviewed on both sides of the border, providing a truly unique opportunity to ensure that pimps, traffickers and other criminals associated with this trade will have no refuge on any part of the island.
We note the tight timeline which has been placed on the Northern Ireland consultation with a deadline of 18 October and hope it will give added urgency to the process in the Republic where lawmakers are currently accepting submissions.
She said that “by bringing the laws on both parts of Ireland into line we would be sending a powerful message that this industry and its exploitation is not welcome here”.
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Everyone pays for sex .(one way or another)
Love that comment Eileen….
True Eilish, and I’d imagine prostitutes are a far less expensive option in the long term!!
Make it Legal
Short and minimal effort with that comment – a hookers dream client.
Legalise it
Making sex work and keeping it legal is what groups of sex workers all over the globe are fighting for. If we actually care, we’d listen to them because they know what they’re talking about.
Oldest profession in history. Let’s get accountability in our banking and political sector before we start worrying about who is getting their leg over for money.
Maybe if those overpaid hookers paid tax on their enormous income
Toby this is about the north. Did they have a problem with the banks like the republic had?
That will stop it, making paying for a Natural Act illegal! Bloody Heck, wake up and smell the Roses! Make it Legal, regulate it and tax it! Let it pay for its own treatment and you.ll be putting criminals out of Business! The same with Drugs, legalise that too and allow people to do it in a controlled environment. How many criminals would it eliminate, save police time and money. But the ignorant, backward holy mary/joe won’t have it! Idiots!
Stephen Tog bog e
Stephen, do you think the criminals will go away if you legalise it? They won’t let you take away their business!
Sure they have completely disappeared out of Amsterdam and Frankfurt.
Erm. . . Declan, if it’s legal they’re not criminals!
Petr, I’m talking about the criminals now who are in control. You legalize it then you have to make them legit. So think about that! So you are making it easy for them people who are breaking the law.
Maybe that’s because the Dutch and Germans didn’t deal with the legalisation that well. I also don’t think they have an organisation like CAB that can make like really difficult for criminals even when they run legitimate businesses.
Sorry that comment was for John but I guess now it applies to everybody. Criminals can operate whatever business they want; quite a lot of criminals invested in prize stallions and gambling but I don’t hear anybody calling for the Galway races to be shut down. We have the capabilities, more so than other countries, to shut down criminals even when some of their business ventures are legal, so I don’t see how that’s an argument for the continued criminalisation of prostitution or drugs.
If you legalise it and legislate for it properly, stop the stigma and give sex workers rights, then you will see less criminals involved and you give women in sex work more power to report suspected cases of trafficking.
Brendan, you do make a good point there. My point though which Petr does not get is that you get some nasty people in the criminal under world who wont give up their turf that easy and I can’t see them turning around and becoming law abiding, tax paying good citizens. Will the state give them amnesty if they go legit?
Petr, you really like to defend the low life’s of this world don’t you?
Are you ever in good humour.
Declan, that is ture, they may not want to give up their turf and there was may be intimidation from legitimate business people or self employed entreprises trying to set up in an industry that was previously illegal, but with proper transparency and possibly Garda surveillance of the industry in its early stages a takeover by law abiding citizens should be possible. And they may continue in other illegal activities, but they will have to be tax compliant in any business venture they have that is legal. I’m sure a lot of pubs and other businesses were run by unscrupulous people in the North during the Troubles, but they were still tax paying businesses. As for amnesty, I don’t think you can be prosecuted for a crime that doesn’t exist anymore unless you are already serving time, but I might be wrong.
“Petr, you really like to defend the low lifeâs of this world donât you?”
This issue is pointless….he gets whats hes looking for….she gets paid…what harm…everyones a winner..
No girl will ever be bought a drink in a nightclub again so
Again it’s the vital question of adults making a choice and government being God. Who’s right?
Can i still bribe my wife with jewelry and flowers or does this specifically relate to cash transactions?
Every man pays for sex !!!
Whether they know it or not!!!!
Fair enough – it should be illegal and carry a 10 year minimum sentence I think.
Jesus Paddy Be Bop.
You are a little over the top but maybe if it is illegal to solicit sex for remuneration, maybe it can be free of charge.
Problem solved.
Everything above board.
wait till the first sex worker makes it into space , paddy will blow a gasket for sure
Paddy. Are you related to Holy Mary?
I think the concern is more about those who are not in the sex trade by choice.
This idea is flawed though – and given it was inspired by the Swedish model it doesn’t look like they’ve looked very hard at the Swedish model. Sweden put a LOT of money into enacting these new laws and that skews the statistics.
If the real issue is human trafficking they should tackle human trafficking….
Dunno what I’m suppose to spend my money now! Arrrgh
Well done NI push a problem underground and make it worse.
Slow slow clap
What a complete waste of time. Make it legal and make it safe.
LOL, the DUP aren’t known for their tolerance or open mindedness especially where Sex is concerned now are they?
My wife will be upset.
Can’t help but think that those men who say legalise it have paid for it. They obviously see no problem in paying for it. Maybe try get yourself a normal girl, like normal people do
Some people are unable to get a normal girl. Variety of physical or mental reasons. Why not legalise brothels like in Australia and make sex trade outside of such establishments illegal and enforce the law? Legal workers could undergo health checks, practise safe sex, be registered for trade.
Suzanne while Im not going to promote prostitution because I cant could please define normal in your view? I really dont know the meaning of this word in this context.
Where does one find a “normal” woman?
I knew someone would go for the shaming argument. Most arguments for legalising it above actually seem to centre around the theory (which may or may not be a good theory) that it will lead to lower levels of trafficking, better welfare for sex workers, reduced revenue for criminals and increased revenue for the exchequer. Even if I was an incredibly selfish person, at least 2 of those would directly affect me (the last 2).
But you are close to being right on one part on what you are saying. A lot of people want this legalised not because they have paid for it, but because they have sold it, and want to continue to do so: http://www.turnoffthebluelight.ie/
Suzanne, that’s so insulting. I’m a woman and I don’t see a problem with people buying sex. I care that people respect each other whether they’re selling sex or not.
Suzanne, i am in total favour of making it legal, never visited one. As you said i went out and found a “normal girl” which is insulting to woman too by the way but i still feel its should be legal. Makes girls safer and stops with this who catholic guilt thing ireland has going on. But sure your welcome to disagree but the shaming thing does not work i would not think less of a man that visited an escort nor would i think less of the woman as a person who does it but she deserves to be protected.
and i might also add that im straight but in favor of gay marriage sooooo you see you can support a cause without being involved in the activity
Legalizing sex/prostitution will increase trafficking. Where sex is legalized in Amsterdam, Germany & Australia, they have received top marks from the Bush Administration in the most recent Trafficking in Persons Report. So you can dress it up as much as you like with legal workers undergoing health checks etc. Paying for it legally you are basically encouraging this vile trafficking that is increasing across Europe to this day. 100% agree Suzanne, unless you’re a mass murderer I’m sure you are capable of finding a girl to have sex with under “normal” circumstances.
You do realise that the whole notion of “widespread trafficking” is a pervasive myth literally invented, initially by the religious right (not the George W Bush and his administration would have any time for loonies like that now, would he? ;o) ). Since then a few other aspects of the (genuinely widespread in the US) lunatic fringe like extreme feminists (the kind who think all little boys should be raised as girls) and pseudo psychiatry have leaped on the bandwagon and got a huge snowball rolling.
The NGOs love it, it gives them a great sounding excuse to DEMAND that the state crush the lives of desperate, vulnerable people with families and STILL convince the gullible that they are nice people who only want to do good works out of the kindness of their hearts (and the salaries that the Department of Health is planning to drastically cap overall at €150k are a bit of an embarassment they don’t know how to refuse without hurting anybody’s feelings).
Why would they want to do this?
Because they have finally woken up to the fact that sex workers do not want, or need *rescue* in the form of useless, irrelevant, pottery, jewellry and remedial education classes all wrapped up with indoctrination with some of the most whacked out ideology I have ever heard.
Sex workers don’t want pseudo-rescue because they are intelligent people who have already found out that the NGOs are a cruel, self serving waste of time and resources, with nothing to offer them, and been driven to use sex work to RESCUE THEMSELVES, and that is working for them.
The “relevant NGOs” are now in a position where they use the bulk of their funding to lobby against the wishes and needs of their own, supposed, user group, which for the most part, wants nothing to do with them.
This means they might lose their government funding at any time, because there is not enough money to go round essential services, let alone blatantly self serving travesties like this.
If they can crush the lives of enough sex workers at least some of them will be forced to engage with them out of sheer desperation, and if not they will have a shot at funding from the religious orders that effectively control them anyway, or various wealthy “Anti-trafficking” orgs in the international lunatic fringe…
…and that is the truth behind it all.
Sex is a huge industry, it should be regulated and not driven further underground where the exploitation would get even worse.
i agree joe. Not long ago remember when people could only get a blue movie in an seedy adult shop and they were all weird old men ??
Now pretty much every young couple views adult movies together. Guys view them alone as do girls online. So what im saying is attitudes change. Not to say i want to see Dublin as the new amsterdam but i would favor a German model same as OZ and NZ its legal the girls pay tax but its also not in your face and because its legal the girls have the full protection of the law
Stewie if you really believe they have the full force of the law behind them I think you so go abroad more often. Here in Plymouth they made the purchase of sex illegal and the place has never been better. All the prostitutes are gone because the demand is gone.
I think what you meant to say John was that it has went underground. Swept away from public view, but probably resulting in more tragic circumstances for the girls involved.
Maybe so but there is without a doubt a lot less of it going on. And with they money they save from chasing around street walkers plus revenue from the big fines for punters they can put that into getting the traffickers that won’t go away even if it were legal. There are still pimps and traffickers in Oz so I wish people would stop glorifying it.
actually john its there you just dont see it. Same as drugs mate its underground and its there. you dont see the abuse these girls suffer either by pimps again cos its underground and they are locked away. when i think of Oz or germany i dont think of window girls i dont think of crack heads out on the game just to get a hit. But where you live i promise you thats whats happening you just dont see it
Have you ever been to these places? I have and can tell you what you think is crap.
http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/Time-legalise-prostitution-Plymouth/story-15215138-detail/story.html
http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/Plymouth-police-arrest-lifestyle-prostitutes-send/story-15213680-detail/story.html
acually i have john. I have twice in the last few years been walking home and got asked twice by girls that i can best describe as junkies asking me do i want some business, that is how it is on the street. Its seedy its wrong. My opinion is my opinion and i form it from what i see.
I once heard it say that in a mans world he is not paying for the sex, but paying the woman to go away afterwards.
I think I will ask the girlfriend for my money back haha
This headline is wrong “Northern Ireland to make it illegal to pay for sex”.
You write as if this has already been decided. It’s not been.
There is an argument for legalization and regulation but an issue that would have to be addressed is that many women in that industry are from outside the EU and not here legally. They would not be eligible for employment in a legitimate business and would probably work illegally for cheaper.
To say it didn’t work in countries where it has been tried though is a bit lazy as maybe policy makers could do their jobs and look at how to tweak policies for success rather than copying and pasting solutions from other countries who at least had the nerve to try something new.
The fact is that our current system isn’t working. If criminalizing these men is the answer then great, lets try it. I am concerned though that if the Gardai are in a position to catch a man buying sex they are also in a position to check on the welfare and situation of the woman selling the sex. I somehow doubt this will happen and many trafficked women will have many encounters with those who should be protecting and removing them from their nightmare so they can get a tick in the box and an easy boost on the stats without tackling real hardened organised criminals. I know a few people who have left law enforcement here and in the UK over the sickening reality that they are under the current system powerless to target traffickers who in my opinion should be sentenced with the multiple rapes they have enabled or perpetrated taken into account.
Just one trafficking victim is one too many, but the issue of trafficking has been hijacked to further both feminist and catholic church agendas. The vast majority of sex workers and their clients are as appalled by human trafficking as anyone else, but these people have been demonised by TORL in order to silence them. Trafficking and child prostitution are already illegal in this country and the consultation document makes it clear that they are NOT directly related to the issue of voluntary commercial sex between consenting adults.
Thus far the debate has been very much one-sided and the media in this country have accepted without question whatever they are told by TORL. Has anyone at the Journal.ie ever sought the opinion of the sex workers themselves? It cannot be called a debate if one side is excluded from it.
Prostitution is illegal in almost all of the United States except for certain areas of Nevada and yet it is as prevalent there today as ever it was. God only knows how many countless thousands of police man hours that country has wasted on a policy that has had no more success than the country’s war on drugs.
If the purchase of sex is criminalised here in Ireland Garda resources will be diverted from other areas to harass and arrest consenting adults whilst real criminals remain free to steal and murder.
Great news,! I will be able to tell the ex-wife that i can no longer pay her alimony for the sex we had in the 90′s as its been outlawed !
sure who would want to pay tax on it anyway
For all those who think prostitution should be all legal and the women are are freely selling there body, please look at this site.
Even better, look at who are part of this: http://www.turnofftheredlight.ie
There is a term for this – GroupThink
Mark, making prostitution illegal would do nothing to help the women involved – if that’s what your aim is. Every sex worker I’ve talked to are against the Turn Off The Red Light campaign. Dunno about you, but I’d rather take their word since they probably know what they’re talking about.
Or they want to keep earning money.
And is there a problem with people making a living for themselves all of a sudden?
Would they not try it like most people? What about the families that do without things because a husband is off spending a couple of hundred euros at a time? This mentality that no one gets hurt is a joke, the people in the industry rot from the inside out and the people that use them get messed up in the head.n
Where you live, in Plymouth, there is definately no work, at present, for young women.
Jobseeker’s allowance is £56.25 PW if you are under 25, £71 if over 25. You get an accomodation allowance, but that is not enough to pay for reasonable, safe accomodation any more, so you usually have to supplement from your allowance.
In case you haven’t noticed that is not enough money for a person to live on. Jobcentre staff are under instruction to find excuses to meet a quota of arbitrarily withdrawn benefits every week. So that, any time you could be left with NO MONEY AT ALL to live. Have you any idea what that is like? Or how terrifying it is to live, knowing it could happen at any time?
On top of that the UK has coerced work schemes for jobseekers where you have to work for an ordinary, commercial business for free for weeks.
No human being should be forced to live like that AT ALL, but especially not if they are willing to grit their teeth and work hard at decent, honest sex work instead.
Because that is what sex work is, decent, honest work everyone should have a *right* to do if they can face it.
For some sex workers (particularly in the UK, where things are so harsh and hopeless) it is the only difference between life and death.
All the talk about trafficking and underage girls is so much b*llshit from overpaid NGOs who want sex workers forced to engage with them against their will, not because they have any real, appropriate help or alternative to offer them, they don’t, but just for show, so they don’t lose their funding or their inflated sense of their own importance.
Now thank god you are not in that position and leave the women in peace to get on with it.
Mark, people do things that are bad for them and those they love. I’d never condone that. But there’s more to sex work than that. There are millions of reasons why people go to sex workers, not all of them are cheating or lying to their wives/husbands or partners.
Blaming sex workers for the men who do wrong by their loved ones is stupid. Making sex work illegal won’t stop it either.
And neither of us is qualified to say whether sex work rots people from the inside out and messes up with the customer’s heads.
I live near Arbour Hill where there is a regular presence of street walking prostitutes. They work from early evening are ignored by the Guards whom, I have seen on occasion drive past them. Many of these women look very young and very unhealthy. From time to time you will see a car stop and the driver chat to one of the women. The cars tend to be very fancy Mercs and BMWs driven by middle aged men. These women are not entrepreneurs or some kind of business people. They are abused women and many are obviously drug addicts. They are been abused further by men who use their services. It is only right that these men who pay to have sex with women in this situation should be prosecuted. The situation as it stands is not been policed to the extent it should under existing law. I don’t know if additional legislation would have an effect as it might not be implemented as well as it is in Sweden where legislation seemed to have helped.
But the message that people are not a commodity to be bought and sold would at least give a signal in the right direction. I don’t know if the situation applies to male prostitutes to the same extent as I don’t know if male prostitution is as prevalent ,but I believe that that situation should be treated the same. Personal liberties must take some countenance of how these freedoms effect others. I can never see a situation where someone who has the money to pay for sex, to someone else who for whatever reason are selling themselves been an equitable or acceptable scenario.
Used to live on temple street west and I totally agree with you. I really do despair and the amount of idiot we have in this country hell bent on dragging it into the gutter.
No James, you are right, if we stop those women being able to make a living they won’t have any money to eat, or keep a roof over their heads and they will die quicker and go away. That should solve the problem.
The most of prostitutes in Europe are consentient, otherwise even the western girl would be reduced in sex slavery.
Swedish law has got failed, becasue prostitution in the relative Country has not stopped.
It is better to legalize and tax prostitution, seeing this kind of profession as a normal job as Germany.
I hope this one would be carried out as soon as possible all over European Union, even to save our money from bankrupt.
James, that sounds good until you read this:
“Norway should rip up a law that criminalizes sex buyers, Oslo’s social affairs chief believes, as a new report shows a marked rise in violence against prostitutes working in the city.”
(http://www.thelocal.no/page/view/rip-up-prostitution-law-says-top-oslo-politician)
It’s the same story with the Swedish ban. It’s not working.
And banning it would indeed take away these women’s sources of income. They’re not going to stop selling it just because it’s illegal. We should pour our money and resources into actually giving these women viable alternatives and helping them if they want to get out of it. And whether you believe it or not, there will be women who will choose to keep working as sex workers. They actually exist and should have workers rights just like everyone else.
Prohibiton is the water of “Mafia” fish and it is better to avoid it where it is possible to avoid it as the paying sex among adult and consentient people.
Moreover the customers of prostitutes are in a large number. So it is better that politics pay attention to the votes!
It is also better to legalize and tax prostitution.
its still legal to pay for sex in Northern Ireland!! That is a shocking state of affairs. Had I known that I wud have moved up there ages ago
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