Sir, – Mia de Faoite's article "Law criminalising the purchase of sex is in women's best interests" (Opinion and Analysis, August 28th) provided us with a useful reminder as to why Ireland adopted a partial-decriminalisation approach in 2017 with passage of the Sexual Offences Act.
The only way to reduce the extent of the sex trade in this country is to impose criminal sanctions on all those who sexually exploit women for their own gain. Despite claims that the 2017 Act introduced laws against brothel-keeping, these have actually been in place since 1993. Neither is it true that brothel-keeping offences have increased since 2017, but the pro-prostitution lobby rarely lets the truth get in the way of a catchy soundbite.
There are traffickers and pimps across this country promising women a better life. Once they induct them into the sex trade, those dreams of a new life are shattered behind the closed doors of brothels where they are repeatedly sexually violated by men who convince themselves that she has chosen this. Pimps and traffickers don’t need to keep women chained to radiators; they control them with coercion, violence, threats against family and instilling a deep fear of authorities.
Working on the frontline with more than 300 women affected by prostitution and sex trafficking each year, Ruhama witnesses first-hand the extensive harms imposed upon women in the sex trade – whether they fit the definition of “trafficked” or not. Those who campaign for this abuse to be sanctioned by the State rarely mention the inconvenient truths exposed in extensive research illustrating the violence and trauma women go through in the sex trade, nor the fact that nine out of 10 women want to exit prostitution. – Yours, etc,
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BARBARA CONDON,
Chief Executive Officer,
Ruhama,
Dublin 2.