Sex workers 'named and shamed '
Shocking :
Six street-based sex workers in Newham, east London, were named on the Metropolitan police website. Police posted their photos, full names and dates of birth.
In a second case, two Polish women who were selling sex from their home in Aldgate, east London, were raided by City of London police as part of Operation Monaco.
Operation Monaco was launched in May 2009 but police have admitted that just one charge of controlling a prostitute for gain has been made, as well as 52 charges for placing cards in phone boxes advertising sexual services.
Police took photographs of the Polish women, who were not charged. Last Sunday, photos appeared in News of the World. The women said they were distressed by the police raid and the lack of warning that their pictures would appear in a tabloid newspaper.
"Why have the police done this to me?" said Vicky, one of the two. "I work as a childminder and a cleaner and do some sex work to make ends meet. I pay tax and national insurance and am not doing anything illegal. A lot of people know me, and even though the News of the World blocked out my face I'm still identifiable by my hair, clothes and jewellery."
The women lodged a complaint with the newspaper, which removed their images from its website.
"The police were looking for money and found £50 from a customer," she added. "We never use drugs and are always sober when we're working. The police kept asking us over and over again if we'd been trafficked. We haven't been, and we signed a piece of paper to say that.
...
Georgina Perry, the manager of an NHS sex work project in east London called Open Doors, said: "I'm very disappointed with the police. They can't go around asking the community to police vulnerable women. It encourages vigilantism."
Harry Fletcher, assistant general secretary of the National Association of Probation Officers, said: "I suspect this is part of a pre-Olympics clean-up in east London."
A Met spokesman said the asbos against the Newham women had been used as a last resort because they were persistent offenders, and that decisions to publicise the identities of people issued with asbos were made on a case-by-case basis.
This isn't about 'protecting' trafficked women, or supporting women who want to leave sex work and find alternatives, this is a just about a 'clean up' ahead of the Olympics.
The police have treated them as a 'nuisance' and have no real concern for their welfare . If they really wanted to ensure women were not abused, being trafficked and controlled, they would not treat them in such a manner, putting them at further risk.
Will any of these woman come forward when they are abused, attacked or know of woman trying to escape trafficking when they are treated like this, like something to be swept of the streets so as not to spoil the shiny image being prepared for the Olympics ?
Six street-based sex workers in Newham, east London, were named on the Metropolitan police website. Police posted their photos, full names and dates of birth.
In a second case, two Polish women who were selling sex from their home in Aldgate, east London, were raided by City of London police as part of Operation Monaco.
Operation Monaco was launched in May 2009 but police have admitted that just one charge of controlling a prostitute for gain has been made, as well as 52 charges for placing cards in phone boxes advertising sexual services.
Police took photographs of the Polish women, who were not charged. Last Sunday, photos appeared in News of the World. The women said they were distressed by the police raid and the lack of warning that their pictures would appear in a tabloid newspaper.
"Why have the police done this to me?" said Vicky, one of the two. "I work as a childminder and a cleaner and do some sex work to make ends meet. I pay tax and national insurance and am not doing anything illegal. A lot of people know me, and even though the News of the World blocked out my face I'm still identifiable by my hair, clothes and jewellery."
The women lodged a complaint with the newspaper, which removed their images from its website.
"The police were looking for money and found £50 from a customer," she added. "We never use drugs and are always sober when we're working. The police kept asking us over and over again if we'd been trafficked. We haven't been, and we signed a piece of paper to say that.
...
Georgina Perry, the manager of an NHS sex work project in east London called Open Doors, said: "I'm very disappointed with the police. They can't go around asking the community to police vulnerable women. It encourages vigilantism."
Harry Fletcher, assistant general secretary of the National Association of Probation Officers, said: "I suspect this is part of a pre-Olympics clean-up in east London."
A Met spokesman said the asbos against the Newham women had been used as a last resort because they were persistent offenders, and that decisions to publicise the identities of people issued with asbos were made on a case-by-case basis.
This isn't about 'protecting' trafficked women, or supporting women who want to leave sex work and find alternatives, this is a just about a 'clean up' ahead of the Olympics.
The police have treated them as a 'nuisance' and have no real concern for their welfare . If they really wanted to ensure women were not abused, being trafficked and controlled, they would not treat them in such a manner, putting them at further risk.
Will any of these woman come forward when they are abused, attacked or know of woman trying to escape trafficking when they are treated like this, like something to be swept of the streets so as not to spoil the shiny image being prepared for the Olympics ?
Labels: sex work
posted by stroppybird at 8:46 am
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