Trafficking campaigners call for laws to target men who buy sex

Published on Monday 26 July 2010 18:14

THE head of a Scottish charity supporting victims of human trafficking has called for new laws targeting men who purchase sex after seeing a steep rise in referrals of women brought to Scotland to work as sex slaves.

Ann Hamilton, from the Trafficking Awareness Raising Alliance (Tara), wants the Scottish Government to focus on those who advertise, facilitate and, in particular, buy sex.

She was speaking after the Scottish charity received 25 cases in the past three months, half the 50 received in 2009-10, which itself was up on 34 in the previous year, and 14 in 2007-8.

Ms Hamilton said the rise was partly due to improved awareness among police, councils and other support groups, but also because more women are being forced to come to Scotland to meet the growing demand from men for exotic-looking prostitutes.

She said: "It's big business to have women who look different from Edinburgh or Glasgow women. There would appear to be more demand now, and that is partly because of this acceptance that prostitution is just part of normal activity. The more aware the public are, the more sympathetic they will be to criminalising the purchasers, facilitators and advertisers."

This is the approach supported by Scottish Labour, which put forward two amendments to the Criminal Justice and Licensing Bill making it a crime to buy, facilitate or advertise sex for sale, one focusing on general prostitution, and one specifically on human trafficking. Both were defeated, although MSPs did vote for a clearer definition of the offence of trafficking, which they hope will be easier to prosecute. There has not been one human trafficking conviction in Scotland, compared with more than 100 in England and Wales.

Despite this, Ms Hamilton is encouraged that police are putting greater emphasis on tackling human trafficking.

She said "We've a number of women co-operating with police at the moment and we're certainly hopeful that (a human trafficking conviction] will be the case."

A Scottish Government spokesman said: "Human trafficking is an abhorrent crime and one that the Scottish Government is absolutely committed to tackling, working with the police and other law enforcement agencies.

"That is why we have provided the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency with additional funding of 4 million over the next two years to boost capacity to tackle organised crime and, within that, provide Scotland's first dedicated expert resource to build the intelligence necessary to support and improve human trafficking investigation."

Detective Chief Superintendent Stephen Whitelock, of SCDEA, added: "Our work is focused on two key areas, one being around improving our knowledge of who is involved, and detecting and disrupting their criminal activities. We are also focused on identifying victims and, in partnership with other organisations, providing appropriate support."