Human rights group Pavee Point today joins an intensive campaign of action at Leinster House in Dublin calling for the introduction of laws targeting the sex trade and trafficking.
The organisation will join calls made by up to 70 organisations on TDs and Senators to back the Turn Off The Red Light Campaign and support measures to clamp down on prostitution.
A majority of those in prostitution or trafficked for sexual exploitation are members of marginalised and impoverished communities, like the Roma, which puts them at increased risk, Pavee Point said.
Laura Pohjolainen, co-ordinator of the Violence against Women programme at Pavee Point said: “As part of the Turn off the Red Light Campaign, Pavee Point believes that preventing the purchase of sex is a vital step toward protecting the minority communities we represent. The abuse and violence cannot go on and we want to know why there has been such a huge delay in the introduction of these laws.”
Roma and immigrant women and children are most vulnerable to this kind of abuse, she added.
“Our politicians need to know that every day they wait means one more day of abuse and exploitation which we refuse to accept. This law needs to change- and it needs to change now,” she said.
The day of action coincides with the release of an Immigrant Council of Ireland recording featuring a 15-year-old girl trafficked to Dublin for exploitation in the sex trade.
It tells the story of Hannah, not her real name, and details a life of betrayal, threats and abuse at brothels in Temple Bar and Rathmines. She was sold for €3,000 by her brother-in-law in her native Moldova and put to work as a prostitute.
She agreed to record her story as part of a project being undertaken by the Immigrant Council of Ireland. The recording is being released ahead of a political day of action at Leinster House.
Denise Charlton, chief executive of the Immigrant Council of Ireland said: “This recording makes for uncomfortable and disturbing listening. Yet, it is a reality which is happening in our communities which we cannot ignore. For the first time ever the public and our policy makers will hear the truth about sex-trafficking, and not the ‘Pretty Woman’ fiction being peddled by vested interests.”
Nusha Yonkova, Anti-Trafficking Co-ordinator with the Immigrant Council added: “It is impossible not to be moved by Hannah’s story. Yet for those of us involved in the frontline work of the Immigrant Council it is one we have heard 50 times over the years.
Reaching out to trafficking victims is particularly difficult because of the control of pimps, traffickers and thugs - we may never know how many other women and girls are out there trapped in similar situations. The time for action is now.”