MLAs: ‘Ban pimping websites’

Stormont’s parliamentary group on human trafficking has called for websites advertising prostitution to be shut down.

Following an inquiry into ‘pimping websites’ by the All Party Group (APG), Chairman Peter Martin MLA warned that the sites have “become the shop window for a trade that makes a profit from selling people here in Northern Ireland”.

Current legislation on trafficking and sexual exploitation in the Province follows the ‘Nordic model’ which criminalises those who buy sex or control the sex trade but legalises its sale.

‘Hidden in plain sight’

The APG received written and oral evidence, and collected and analysed data from four websites advertising prostitution in Northern Ireland.

The inquiry concluded such sites had “changed the way prostitution is organised and facilitate and conceal exploitation and human trafficking. These platforms are not neutral actors.”

Measures backed by the group included “an outright ban on websites advertising prostitution” across the UK, and “better support” for those seeking to leave prostitution. It also called for the introduction of criminal offences “targeting those who profit from and operate websites advertising prostitution”.

However, more controversially, MLAs recommended that the Department of Justice to consider provisions “to repeal or disregard historic convictions” for those  “convicted of the offence of loitering and soliciting for the purposes of prostitution is needed for Northern Ireland”

Exploitation

One of the websites advertised women from up to 29 different nationalities in any given week.

Advertisements on another website used expressions such as “new Asian”, “First time here” and “new escort party girl”.

Witness A told the inquiry that pimps behind the trafficking “dictate whether you wash, whether you eat, whether you sleep or are on the streets that night” or “if you’ll get to stay in one of the houses or the barn that he ran us from”.

Deputy Chair Connie Egan observed: “Hidden in plain sight across our country is the reality of sexual exploitation and all its associated harms and websites advertising prostitution are undeniably driving this.”

Ruth Breslin, Director of The Sexual Exploitation Research and Policy Institute, told the BBC: “We know that women who have been exploited and trafficked are being advertised on these sites. Banning these sites is the right way to go.”