This question, long a source of bitter infighting among feminists, is now being debated in Parliament.
A new Private Member s Bill, introduced by Labour MP Dame Diana Johnson, aims to reduce sex-trafficking and make the law less cruel to exploited women.
Sounds sensible, you might think. And, indeed, major charities and lobby organisations are lining up to take a stand – but not on the side of trafficked women.
On the contrary, these groups – which include Labour s hard-Left caucus Momentum, Amnesty International, the GMB trade union and feminist group Sisters Uncut – are sticking up for the punters who pay to rape trafficked women.
Likewise, FOSTA/SESTA laws introduced in the US in 2018 pushed many workers into unsafe or exploitative working conditions, as online advertising platforms were shut down. Research published in the
Anti-Trafficking Review last year suggests that online sex workers have faced “detrimental effects on their financial stability, safety, access to community, and health outcomes”, while there is “no evidence that FOSTA/SESTA has curbed trafficking”.
Decrim Now’s letter also draws attention to the Nordic Model’s disproportionate effect on marginalised groups, including women, migrants, people of colour, disabled people, LGBTQ+ people, and those that have experienced poverty and homelessness “the same workers often conflated with trafficked victims”.
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