Profile of women exploited in the Irish sex trade

From The Implementation of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017, Part IV – An Interim Review:

From Report:
  1. 1,000 women in indoor prostitution with over 800 women advertised on the internet with sexually explicit pictures and detailed lists of the sexual acts which can be bought; 102 women identified as trafficked for sexual exploitation; 11% were girls at the time.
  2. 87% – 97% of those involved are migrant women aged between 18-58, with some evidence that girls as young as 16 years are involved; 51 different nationalities of women advertised; women are targeted by traffickers, pimps and prostitution (‘escort’) agencies from impoverished regions in Africa, Latin America and Central European countries.
  3. While some women may operate independently, the Irish sex trade is for the most part highly organised with women being constantly moved from place to place. Prostitution agencies and pimps exercise different levels of payment, penalty, debt bondage, control and violence.
  4. Apartments and hotels are the main locations (19 of the 26 counties were named); ‘call outs’ to the home of the buyers are in frequent demand.    

Query:
This section makes some sweeping claims but does not seem to have any sources at all, and, as a result, cannot possibly be considered credible.

This report from 31 October 2014 produced by a team from QUB at the request of the Department of Justice NI shows a very different, and even contradictory, evidence based profile. Despite significant cultural changes in the intervening years a report produced by Ruhama and the Women’s Health Project in 1996 is remarkably similar in many areas. There is no justification for ignoring these findings, particularly, as here, in the absence of any corroborative evidence at all.

On page 83-84 of Report on Human Trafficking and Exploitation on the Island of Ireland Michael J. Breen, Amy Erbe Healy, Michael G. Healy (2021) “The Women’s Health Project estimates the number of sex workers in Ireland as 3000” – the Women’s Health Project are strongly affiliated with Ruhama et al and it is very hard to understand the disparity between the two figures

One of the biggest changes since the 2017 Sexual Offences Act is that sex workers are no longer too afraid to challenge legislation and organisations that have negative impact on their lives in significant numbers.
I do not believe any profile that has not been produced in direct open consultation with sex workers makes any valid contribution to this review


Comment:
There is quite a substantial body of academic research and evidence in this area that has been completely ignored, including, but not limited to:

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