SEX trafficking is big business and is third only to drugs and arms dealing, guest speaker Pauline Monk told us at a supper meeting.
“And it’s not just at the organised crime level, smaller businesses are springing up providing parts of the trade, such as recruitment agencies abroad offering jobs in the glamorous, prosperous West, and then there are the handlers and brothel-keepers in the UK.”
And it’s not only men that ply this trade – some of the agencies are run by women.
Pauline, a member of Poole Soroptimists, explained that they had started their Purple Teardrop campaign to end trafficking and to raise awareness about the issue in 2008.
The campaign slogan is ‘stop the trafficking – stop the tears’. It has its own website at: http://www.purpleteardrop.org.uk/
During her presentation she showed a hard-hitting video from the Canadian author Victor Malarek about the ‘demand’ that is fuelling this trade.
He was concerned at the ease with which young girls were made available in poorer areas, such as Costa Rica, to tourist men. Also that the internet was providing far too much exposure of young boys to pornography, which added to the culture that prostitution was acceptable.
There was then a general discussion about what to do about the problem.
It is legal to sell sex, but not to make a profit from a third party doing so. What about prosecuting the men? Unfortunately it is very difficult for the police to gather enough evidence for prosecution.
This led neatly on to some actions that we all could take: to look out for the signs of private houses being used for the sex trade, and reporting any suspicions to the Crimestoppers phoneline (0800 555 111). Purple teardrop pins raise money towards the safe houses (via the Poppy Project, Salvation Army and Medaille Trust) but too few places.
The new part of the campaign is to lobby government to introduce a Bill against sex-for-sale adverts, and anyone connected with them (printers, distributors etc.). They have been working with the Met to get the bill passed, which will give the police the power to disrupt this part of the sex trafficking trade.