December 2007
Dear Editor,
As you are aware, trafficking people for sexual exploitation involves the movement of people, mainly women and children, who are sold for the purposes of prostitution. This is slavery and is illegal, as well as a global abuse of power that knows no borders.
I am writing to ask your newspaper ( insert name of local paper) to support us in the fight to stop the trafficking of women used in the sex industry, by banning all advertisements for ‘Adult Services’ where adverts such as ‘New Models Always Available’ and ‘Indian Ladies Most Days’ and ‘New Oriental Massage’ that are thrust upon their readers each week.
At any one time we are now aware from Home Office research, that at least 4,000 women are in the state of being trafficked for sexual exploitation and worked in brothels, sex parlours and enclosed community brothels.
Are you aware that once in the UK they can be sold from as little as £300 to £8,000 for ‘fresh’ women who are young and virginal?. Most of the women who have been referred to CHASTE over the last three years had no idea that they were going to be sold as slaves into prostitution when they were recruited. Most expected to be offered a genuine place of work as they moved across Europe. Women who are placed in trafficking situations are frequently then forced into a debt bondage relationship to pay back their ‘fare’ to the UK and indeed their food and accommodation whilst working in prostitution in this country. They are intimidated, frequently raped by their traffickers and lose hope of being able to break free.
The trafficking of people for the purposes of prostitution or for the making of pornographic film or images for the web is socially reprehensible. Without the demand for pay as you go or commercialised leisure sex there would not be the rising number of trafficked women exploited for their sexual labour in our towns and cities across the UK. Any organisation including the media, which enables the advertising – however inadvertently of women and occasionally children who have been trafficked into the UK for this arcane and abusive market, need to look afresh at their accountability to the wider community, let alone to the victims of this trade. Of particular concern is the ‘Adult Services’ or ‘personal services’ section of local newspapers. I note that the Minister for Women and our Attorney General Ms Harriet Harman has engaged with members of the Newspaper Society to look at how the newspaper industry can work towards eradicating inadvertent advertising. Ms Harman has called these ‘ugly adverts’ which are published in some local newspapers alongside those for skip hire and lost pets. You see 'girls for sale - girls from Europe, from Africa, from Thailand, fresh girls every week, 18 to 25 What sort of message does this send in the 21st century? ‘
Can I urge you to stop all advertising for ‘Adult Services’ services in the NAME OF LOCAL PAPER which only serves to support the demand for pay-as-you-go sex, which promotes sexual activity without responsibility or accountability and contributes at whatever level to the growth in the market for sex trafficked young women. I would also like to suggest that you encourage your readership to think about the consequences of pay-as-you-go sex and to encourage them to support NGOs such as CHASTE (Churches alert to Sex Trafficking across Europe www.chaste.org.uk) as one of the organisations committed to the eradication of this appalling crime and to the welfare of those who have been victims and are now making their way into the future as survivors.
Yours sincerely
Please do let us know when you have sent a copy of a letter like this to your local paper and please do inform us of any response which you are sent. Many thanks for your participation in addressing demand in this practical action this Christmas period.