Conflating sex work and sex trafficking is harmful and needs to stop, Labour told

Emma had just turned 18 and thought having sheets on the window was ‘normal’ in a first flat. But she started questioning her situation when her boyfriend dumped her in London to work at a massage parlour.

At the end of the shift, she was told she would miss her train home, so asked a sex worker covering the desk in the parlour if she could sleep on one of the massage beds for the night.

“To me, that was normal,” she said. “But the sex worker that was overseeing the reception was horrified that I would even consider it. Even though she did not know my name, where I was from, and had just met me for the first time, she insisted I stay the night at hers.”

Sitting in the sex worker’s house Emma then understood that the way she was living, hidden away in a small room, wasn’t right.

“She had a proper home, with carpets, kitchen appliances, curtains, a full fridge – stuff everywhere,” Emma said. “Had it not been for those kinds of interactions with sex workers, I may never have come to the realisation that it was not normal to give away all your earnings or be under the complete control of someone else.”

• I didn’t know I was a human trafficking victim till I was in my 50s – why did nobody rescue me?
• Food bank says people are turning to sex work and taking out dangerous loans due to cost of living
• I was forced to work unpaid and never let out of the house. Modern slavery is all around us in the UK

Prior to being taken to London to work in the massage parlour, Emma had been forced to work on the streets. She had been arrested and convicted for “soliciting for the purpose of prostitution”, receiving so many fines that no matter how much money she earned, she could no longer keep on top of them, so any subsequent arrests would result in her being sent to prison. Under current UK law, while sex work is technically legal, sex workers are often criminalised for associated offences.

Activists and charities are already concerned that violence against sex workers is high yet little is done about it when they report to the police. But with further criminalisation of sex work imminent, they worry things could more dangerous for both sex workers and survivors of sexual exploitation.

‘The more sex work is pushed underground, the more sex workers are at risk of exploitation’

At the end of January, Labour minister Lord Hanson of Flint was asked about the impact of ‘prostitute’s cautions‘, which is a type of police caution issue to people considered to be “loitering and soliciting”. One of the key differences is a prostitute’s caution can show up on a person’s criminal record until they are 100, whereas a simple police caution is filtered out from someone’s record after six years and therefore does not need to be disclosed to potential employers. It is argued that this traps sex workers in prostitution.

He answered: “For too long, people have been trapped within commercial sexual exploitation under the guise of prostitution. This government will use every lever available to stop this. We are currently considering policy options on how we can best support those impacted by prostitution and sexual exploitation as part of work towards a new strategy on tackling violence against women and girls.”

The answer, activists and charities say, effectively conflated commercial sexual exploitation and prostitution, ie sex work.

And it’s nothing new from the Labour Party. Prior to the election, an amendment to a criminal justice bill was put forward to redefine all prostitution as sexual exploitation in the Sexual Offences Act 2003 – later falling apart when the election was called. Jess Phillips said she wanted to pursue this as part of the government’s aim to halve violence against women if Labour were voted in. Back in 2020, Dame Diana Johnson suggested a bill that would “bust the model of sex trafficking” by further criminalising sex work. The Home Affairs Select Committee report on human trafficking labels all prostitution as sexual exploitation, recommending that the Home Office no longer use the term “sex work.”

However, those supporting both sex workers and sexually exploited victims and survivors say that this kind of legislative shift won’t protect, but harm.

“Redefining prostitution as sexual exploitation would be disastrous for sex workers and seriously undermine safety and health,” argued Laura Watson of the English Collective of Prostitutes. “All sex workers would be categorised as victims of exploitation regardless of how we name our own experience and anyone that associates with us would be criminalised as an exploiter.”

Currently in the UK, it is legal to exchange sex for money, but loitering, soliciting, keeping a brothel, or controlling prostitution for gain are all criminalised – all which Watson says put sex workers at further risk. But if sex work is classed as exploitation, Watson fears more criminalisation is ahead, saying that Labour is leaning towards elements of the Nordic model, a framework that criminalises the purchase of sex, but not the sale of sex.

“They [those saying that all sex work is exploitation] have an ideological approach to prostitution – saying it is violence against women – and therefore should be stopped via criminal law,” Watson said. “But what we know from the countries that the Nordic model has been implemented in is that it forces sex workers into more dangerous and desperate situations.”

In a report published by the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), 96% of 210 of interviews with former sex workers, police, social workers and policy makers in Sweden, Norway and Finland believe that the Nordic model of sex trade legislation has made sex workers more unsafe and vulnerable to exploitation.

Watson said that by criminalizing the purchase of sex, sex workers take on clients that they might not have otherwise, just to get work.

“Also, violent men take advantage of women’s vulnerability and violence happens as a result,” she said.

Maya Esslemont of After Exploitation said that the change would also make it “much harder for consenting sex workers to report concerns or support genuinely exploited people in the industry, as they have to weigh up their risk of being criminalised if they join survivors in making a police report or even disclosing their experiences to certain charities.”

“The more sex work is pushed underground, the more likely consenting sex workers are to end up dependent on third parties and at risk of sexual exploitation,” they said. “Conflating the experiences of survivors of modern slavery with sex workers operating with complete agency, also creates confusion around the ways in which the needs of both groups differ.”

Conflating sex work and sex exploitation does nothing to address poverty

Many women who make up the English Collective of Prostitutes do sex work because of poverty, and this kind of legislation doesn’t begin to address this “root”, according to Laura Watson.

“Measures like this do nothing to address the poverty, homelessness and the cost of living crisis that have pushed so many more women, particularly mothers, into prostitution,” she said.

What about those who actually are being exploited within the sex trade?

In a recent fact sheet released with the backing of six organisations including Anti-Slavery International and After Exploitation, there was a concern raised that further criminalisation makes it harder to identify and support victims. If victims are harder to reach because they have been pushed ‘underground’ to work, they become harder to reach, with fewer opportunities to access support.

Instead of criminalisation, Esslemont says it is improved reporting and support mechanisms that will lead to survivors feeling confident coming forward.

“We need secure reporting so that all victims of crime can engage with support – or the criminal justice system – regardless of their immigration status,” they said. “We also need to make sure sex workers and survivors themselves are not being punished through the criminal justice system if they share details of abuse or exploitation. We need to make sure that support is actually in place for genuine victims of sexual exploitation, which should be the case under the Modern Slavery Act but in reality is not a legal guarantee.”

Esslemont thinks that proposals to tackle the ‘demand’ for sex work is not based on evidence, but says, “Research shows that where sex work has been criminalised, this has not improved outcomes for survivors of sexual exploitation and has instead lead to poorer access to healthcare for sex workers and survivors.”

Had Emma not been placed in a parlour with sex workers, then she wouldn’t have known or had support to recognise that she did not have freedom of choice, or was being subjected to sexual exploitation. She said more often than not it is other sex workers who identify victims.

“The first person to come into contact with a victim being exploited is often a sex worker, the first person to offer any support is often a sex worker, and in many instances the first person to help the victim to escape is often a sex worker,” she concluded. “By pushing sex work underground and out of sight, the consequence is that victims of sexual exploitation are pushed even further into the dark. It is important that both sex workers and victims of sexual exploitation are able to engage with authorities without fear of consequence or judgement.”

Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this? Get in touch and tell us more. Big Issue exists to give homeless and marginalised people the opportunity to earn an income. To support our work buy a copy of the magazine or get the app from the App Store or Google Play