Sex trafficking will only increase while buying sex is legal

Sex trafficking is an inevitable by-product of the so-called “sex industry”, just as lung cancer is an inevitable by-product of the tobacco industry. As long as it remains legal for men to purchase sex in affluent countries, a large number of women and girls will continue to be victims of traffickers around the world and especially in contexts where conflict, extreme poverty and other crises exacerbate existing vulnerabilities.

Of course, those who profit from prostitution and their supporters argue otherwise, accusing feminist abolitionists like myself of exaggerating the number of victims of trafficking in the industry or the extent of the abuse and violence they endure. They claim that prostitution is no different than any other kind of work, saying that we are trying to criminalize or make “sex workers” less safe. They argue that the crime of sex trafficking is not necessarily related to “legal” sex trafficking and so should be addressed as a separate issue.

They’re wrong.

Through my decades of feminist activism and investigative journalism, I have seen time and time again how prostitution and human trafficking are two sides of the same coin. We cannot end human trafficking while supporting an industry built on the enslavement and abuse of women and girls.

I first came face to face with the heinous crime of sex trafficking in Albania in 1998. While trying to recover from a bloody civil war while in a perpetual state of economic crisis, the Balkan country was a trafficker’s paradise. Large numbers of women and girls were transported to Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom to ‘work’ in the sex industry. Criminal gangs and ‘entrepreneurs’ treated vulnerable girls and women as ‘commodities’ and sold them to pimps and brothel owners. These women, often mistakenly seen as willing participants in the trade, had no choice or easy way out of their violent reality.

In the two decades since then, little has changed. Despite international organizations and governments spending hundreds of millions of dollars on the problem, sex trafficking remains as widespread today as it was in 1998. Countless women and girls in war-torn Ukraine and other centers of conflict and crisis around the world are forced or forced into the sex trade by traffickers who take advantage of their extreme vulnerability.

So why are the huge funds allocated by governments and NGOs proving insufficient to put an end to this shameful practice?

One likely reason, as is often the case with crimes that predominantly target women, such as domestic violence or rape, is police incompetence.

Take the case of Nuruzzaman Shahin in the UK.

In January this year, 40-year-old Shahin was sentenced to 31 years in prison for multiple counts of rape, assault and “controlling prostitution for profit”.

The court heard he searched online employment websites for migrant women seeking work in the UK and contacted them in an attempt to recruit them for so-called “escort work”, promising up to £500 ($613) a day. He then raped and assaulted them, stole their identity documents and pressured them to sell sex for his profit.

Police said Shahin was first arrested in 2018, but it was decided not to take any further action due to “insufficient evidence”. This was despite several women bravely coming forward to say that he had been smuggling them into prostitution and authorities admitted that he had been under their radar for suspected human trafficking for at least a decade. Only a review of his case by specialist anti-trafficking agents in 2020 led to his being arrested, charged and convicted again.

Two of the women abused by Shahin, Audrey and Sam (not their real names), told me they had to fight for more than two years to convince the police to take their allegations seriously and investigate the case properly. They are now considering taking legal action against the criminal justice authorities that failed them with the help of legal charity Center for Women’s Justice.

However, the incompetence of the police and other agencies is just one of many reasons for the continued prevalence of sex trafficking in the UK and beyond.

Another, and perhaps the most important reason why traffickers and abusers like Shahin can avoid accountability is the widespread belief – shared even by some leading UN agencies – that while sex trafficking is a horrific violation of human rights, prostitution is a form of abuse . work like any other.

Sex trafficking is defined as the transportation of people from one country or territory to another for the purpose of sexual exploitation. Under international law, it is not necessary for national borders to be crossed for an act to be considered sex trafficking. Any “pimp” – or control of prostitution – that involves moving “merchandise” from one place to another is sex trafficking under the law and should be treated as such.

Nevertheless, cases of sex trafficking within a country’s borders are often ignored these days because they are seen as “just prostitution”. People believe that domestic prostitution and “sex trafficking” are completely different concepts and practices, despite the fact that many brothels across Europe are full of trafficked women from countries such as Romania and Thailand. In addition, in countries like Germany, where sex trafficking has been fully legalized, much of the trafficking is sanitized as “migration for sex work,” making it even more difficult for trafficked women and girls to be heard and find help.

So what’s the solution?

Like many other feminists who want to see an end to the buying and selling of women’s bodies, I support what is known as the “Scandinavian model“. Under this approach to prostitution, buying or attempting sex is criminalized while selling sex is decriminalized. In addition, support is available for people who want to get out of prostitution.

The Scandinavian model has existed in Sweden since 1999 and has subsequently been implemented with considerable success in Norway, France, Northern Ireland, Ireland, Canada and Israel. It has proven effective in reducing trafficking in women and child sexual exploitation in different countries and social contexts. In contrast, a 2013 study by the London School of Economics, which looked at data from 150 countries, found that legalization and general decriminalization of the sex trade serves to expand the prostitution market and increase demand for trafficked women.

Only by tackling the root causes of prostitution can we reduce human trafficking. If prostitution remains a thriving business in many countries around the world, and especially in affluent countries where trafficking in women has traditionally been transported, the number of victims of human trafficking will only increase.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial view of Al Jazeera.