:00:08. > :00:11.This programme contains some scenes Demand for sexual services means
:00:11. > :00:15.that human traffickers the Northern Ireland as a lucrative market.
:00:15. > :00:20.These are very dangerous individuals who see these people as
:00:20. > :00:26.a business commodity. They are shattering the lives of dozens of
:00:26. > :00:32.vulnerable women here. They do not care! It is just about meat, flesh,
:00:32. > :00:34.that is all. But tonight on Spotlight, we examine a
:00:34. > :00:41.controversial new bill that has been proposed to tackle the growing
:00:41. > :00:46.problem. I believe that traffic in this modern-day slavery. It would,
:00:46. > :00:55.for the first time in the UK, making it illegal for a man to buy
:00:55. > :01:05.sex in any circumstances. I work all week, 40 hours. I pay my taxes,
:01:05. > :01:39.
:01:39. > :01:47.Police! Earlier this year, the PSNI raided suspected brothels right
:01:47. > :01:51.across Northern Ireland. Police! Stand still! What we discovered is
:01:51. > :01:55.that prostitution is occurring in every county in Northern Ireland.
:01:55. > :01:58.We arrested a number of people involved in brothel keeping, and we
:01:58. > :02:08.recovered a number of people that I would consider to be victims of
:02:08. > :02:10.
:02:10. > :02:14.Estimates from the PSNI indicate that prostitution in Northern
:02:14. > :02:24.Ireland generates �25 million every year, making it one of the largest
:02:24. > :02:26.
:02:26. > :02:31.But it is one that very few of us ever get to say. You may think just
:02:31. > :02:36.because you do not see sex workers in your town or city, they are not
:02:36. > :02:41.there, but there are various websites offering services of women
:02:41. > :02:47.right across Northern Ireland. So just how easy is it to book one? Of
:02:47. > :02:52.the dozens of women advertised, I spoke to 10, seemingly from various
:02:52. > :02:57.nationalities, all in Belfast, and all available to meet for sex.
:02:57. > :03:06.I just want to know if you are free for a date tonight. How much is it
:03:06. > :03:16.for an hour? 160. Is that everything? OK, so what shall I do?
:03:16. > :03:21.
:03:21. > :03:28.How does it work? You come to me. I I called earlier, I am near Belfast
:03:28. > :03:37.Telegraph now. OK, my darling. was as straightforward as that.
:03:37. > :03:41.OK, well, I came to where she wanted to meet, she gave me some
:03:41. > :03:49.further directions to where she is now, but obviously that is as far
:03:49. > :03:55.From making the court is standing outside the apartment took no more
:03:55. > :04:03.than 20 minutes. It shows just how quick, simple and easy it is to buy
:04:03. > :04:06.sexier. -- sex here. So profitable is the industry in Northern Ireland
:04:06. > :04:12.that it attracts prostitutes from all over Europe. Tonight we speak
:04:12. > :04:16.to people with very different experiences of the trade. Laura is
:04:16. > :04:20.an independent escort who knows there is big money to be made here.
:04:20. > :04:25.I can only speak from my own experience, and my experience is
:04:25. > :04:35.very positive in the sex industry. It is a buoyant market and there is
:04:35. > :04:37.
:04:37. > :04:42.That demand is coming from men like Darren. Over the last three years,
:04:42. > :04:48.he has been a regular visitor to prostitutes in County Antrim.
:04:48. > :04:55.work all week, 40 hours. I pay my taxes, I have some money, I treat
:04:55. > :05:04.myself from time to time. Is that how you see it, as a treat that you
:05:04. > :05:09.have learned? Not that I earned, but it is nice. The estimates he
:05:10. > :05:13.has spent over �2,500 on prostitutes. He believes it was
:05:13. > :05:22.money well spent. What is it now that makes you go
:05:22. > :05:27.back again and again? For the bars -- bars, it is a privilege to get
:05:27. > :05:33.to know girls of that high standard, you do not see them type of girls
:05:33. > :05:40.in town much. You'd have to spend �500 wining and dining them. It
:05:40. > :05:45.bypasses that. Because there are so many men like Darren here who are
:05:45. > :05:50.prepared to pay for sex, the PSNI say that Northern Ireland is now a
:05:50. > :05:54.draw for Human Traffic is eager to exploit that buoyant market. --
:05:54. > :06:00.human traffickers. They have seen there is a demand from the men for
:06:00. > :06:06.sex, and they will supply that demand to their market place. That,
:06:06. > :06:10.to me, it is not a very nice thing to say about our society in
:06:10. > :06:15.Northern Ireland, that there is that supply and demand. I would
:06:15. > :06:18.estimate on any one day that there are probably about 170 people
:06:18. > :06:22.working or advertised as escorts in Northern Ireland, probably
:06:22. > :06:27.somewhere between 50 and 60 of those individuals may display the
:06:27. > :06:31.indicators of being victims of trafficking. In the last three
:06:31. > :06:34.years, there have been over 40 victims of sexual trafficking
:06:34. > :06:39.recovered in Northern Ireland. They are often extremely traumatised by
:06:39. > :06:43.the experiences, and this means that we very rarely get to hear
:06:43. > :06:48.their stories. But tonight we here exclusively from the only victim of
:06:48. > :06:55.sexual trafficking in Northern Ireland to speak publicly. Sarah
:06:55. > :06:59.had moved to the UK, had a job, friends and family. Her hopes and
:06:59. > :07:03.dreams were in front of her. Then one day she was simply taken.
:07:03. > :07:09.just disappear, in one moment, and you find yourself in an airport
:07:09. > :07:17.with people you do not even know and taken, just taken in a car and
:07:17. > :07:21.goodbye for ever. You must have Sarah believes that all prostitutes
:07:21. > :07:25.are effectively victims of rape and feels that the real story must be
:07:26. > :07:30.told. Do you think people in Northern
:07:30. > :07:35.Ireland understand what is really going on? I don't think so. It is
:07:35. > :07:40.very important for people to know what is really happening appear.
:07:40. > :07:45.Probably there are over... I couldn't say a perfect number, but
:07:45. > :07:50.over 500 rapes a day in Belfast. you think that any of the men who
:07:50. > :07:56.came to see you knew that you were traffic? Yes. They knew everything.
:07:56. > :08:01.They knew. They were speaking with them, they knew. Did they care?
:08:01. > :08:06.Who cares? I was beaten because of them. I am sorry to tell it like
:08:06. > :08:12.that, but they knew, they don't care. It is just about meat, flesh,
:08:12. > :08:15.that's all. Sarah's experience is not unique. The PSNI fear that the
:08:15. > :08:23.real level of human trafficking in Northern Ireland could be double
:08:23. > :08:28.the official figures. In an attempt to address this horrific crime, the
:08:28. > :08:31.UK per year and MLA Maurice Morrow has proposed a ground-breaking but
:08:31. > :08:36.controversial new Bill. It is setting out to basically do three
:08:36. > :08:43.things or try to achieve three things. First, more support for
:08:43. > :08:48.victims. Make more robust provision for the conviction of traffickers.
:08:48. > :08:51.And reduce demand for trafficking. And it is his plan through what is
:08:51. > :08:56.called Clause IV to reduce the demand for sex that makes the bill
:08:56. > :09:00.so unique. Almost all of the laws that currently deal with
:09:00. > :09:04.prostitution in the UK, like keeping a brothel or solicitation,
:09:04. > :09:08.targets the seller or the prostitute and not the buyer.
:09:08. > :09:12.Although already illegal to pay for sex with a forced prostitute, the
:09:12. > :09:16.reality is that this law has proved very difficult to enforce, and as
:09:16. > :09:19.yet there has never been a conviction for that crime in
:09:19. > :09:24.Northern Ireland. This Bill is designed to make things much
:09:24. > :09:30.simpler, because of the very first time it makes buying consensual sex
:09:30. > :09:35.also a crime. There is a demand there, so we must tackle the demand,
:09:35. > :09:41.and that is what Clause IV will do. At the moment, there are some
:09:41. > :09:45.people who, perversely, salve their conscience by saying, what I am
:09:45. > :09:49.doing here, and not breaking any law, and I believe that if this was
:09:49. > :09:54.legislation tomorrow, that would right away take out those who have
:09:54. > :09:59.a regard for the law. I believe it is needed, and I believe it is the
:09:59. > :10:07.real way of tackling human trafficking. If the bill goes
:10:07. > :10:11.through, it would make men like If Lord Morrow was sitting here now,
:10:11. > :10:19.saying that he wants to make you a criminal, what would you say to
:10:19. > :10:23.him? Good luck. I have done absolutely nothing wrong, and I
:10:23. > :10:29.will continue to do so, no matter what. Would this not stop you?
:10:29. > :10:33.Absolutely not, no. Sex worker Laura also believes the bill is
:10:33. > :10:37.misguided and will not help those who are victims of trafficking.
:10:37. > :10:42.do away with demand, to do away with trafficking, it is erroneous,
:10:42. > :10:45.completely wrong. You simply cannot do away with demand. It might
:10:45. > :10:50.deplete on a very small level, but in actual fact what will happen is
:10:50. > :10:53.that you will push the women who do so badly need our help further away
:10:53. > :10:58.from those people who can help them. You are targeting the wrong group
:10:58. > :11:02.of people. You are targeting the people who are paying for and then
:11:02. > :11:08.joined consensual sex, when really what we need to do his target the
:11:08. > :11:14.traffickers. But for Maurice Morrow, proved his law would work exists a
:11:14. > :11:24.short plane ride away. -- proof. Stockholm.
:11:24. > :11:30.
:11:30. > :11:34.In a place where this law has been More than 10 years ago, Sweden
:11:34. > :11:40.became the first country to make the purchasing of sex and illegal
:11:40. > :11:50.act. Ever since then, it has been held up around the world to tackle
:11:50. > :11:52.
:11:52. > :11:58.the horrors of human trafficking -- an illegal act. The impact of the
:11:58. > :12:02.sex purchase law on trafficking was only realised later. It is a great
:12:02. > :12:06.benchmark to see if this bill in Northern Ireland would work. Helped
:12:06. > :12:11.by a local journalist and interpreter, we hit the streets to
:12:11. > :12:19.try to talk to prostitutes to hear how they think this law has worked.
:12:19. > :12:23.We spoke to a woman in her 30s. She would not do an on-camera interview
:12:23. > :12:28.but did share her views. The traffic in has gone down. Some
:12:28. > :12:34.years ago, the girls could make heaps of money. But people are more
:12:34. > :12:37.cautious now. Demand has dropped but she still believes there are
:12:37. > :12:42.trafficked prostitutes and people from all walks of life still going
:12:42. > :12:46.to the industry. The maybe you are a single parent, a student, need
:12:47. > :12:50.some extra money. Then it is your own choice to come here. Then you
:12:50. > :12:56.go home and lead an ordinary life. We asked her if this was what she
:12:56. > :13:01.wanted to do. Want is perhaps too strong a word. That is what you
:13:01. > :13:06.have chosen to do. No one has forced me to come here. A do you
:13:06. > :13:12.think prostitution will always be in Stockholm? Yes, I think so.
:13:12. > :13:15.it ever go away? I do not think so. I have seen numerous prostitutes
:13:15. > :13:20.here. I have seen them doing business. I have seen users looking
:13:20. > :13:30.for them. I spoke to a prostitute who said that although the demand
:13:30. > :13:31.
:13:31. > :13:36.has dropped if men want sex they will find it. With demand for sex
:13:36. > :13:45.reduced but evidently still there, how do the police feel the law is
:13:45. > :13:50.working? Detective Inspector is from the Stockholm police
:13:50. > :13:54.prostitution unit. You still have some street prostitution? It has
:13:54. > :14:02.drastically decreased after the law. Before the law, we could have about
:14:02. > :14:12.up to 18 women on an ordinary night -- up to 80. If we go out later
:14:12. > :14:12.
:14:12. > :14:20.tonight, you would find about 10, 15. More at weekends. He offered to
:14:20. > :14:24.show me where the street prostitutes take their clients. It
:14:24. > :14:29.is not the most likely place I thought we would end up. The reason
:14:29. > :14:35.why we are here is that this church and graveyard is very close to one
:14:35. > :14:40.of our streets with prostitution. What they do is take their clients
:14:40. > :14:50.from the street and go here because this place is dark and shabbily.
:14:50. > :14:57.
:14:57. > :15:01.They will actually have sex against a tombstoning -- a tombstone or up
:15:01. > :15:06.against the church wall. The street prostitutes, most of them do not
:15:06. > :15:09.have places to have sex. When you deal with people who will go to
:15:09. > :15:15.those extremes, to have sex in a graveyard with a prostitute, is a
:15:15. > :15:22.fine going to be a deterrent? first-time offender, I would say
:15:22. > :15:25.that a find is probably a deterrent. He evidence of sex was everywhere.
:15:25. > :15:30.Used condoms lying all around the church. It makes me think that if
:15:30. > :15:36.you keep coming back and arresting people here, the deterrent is not
:15:36. > :15:42.working because they are still doing it. You have to think of if
:15:42. > :15:51.we were not having this law, what with the situation be like? De you
:15:51. > :15:56.think it would be worse? Probably 10 times worse. 20. 100 times worse.
:15:56. > :15:59.But there are critics here who feel the reduction in its street
:15:59. > :16:04.prostitution owes more to the internet moving the industry
:16:04. > :16:11.indoors than to the introduction of the law. I went to make a writer on
:16:11. > :16:16.the sex industry -- I went to meet. Hello. Come in. Thank you very much.
:16:16. > :16:25.What is it about this nor that does not work? I would turn the question
:16:25. > :16:27.around and ask, what is working? -- what is it about this law. It is
:16:27. > :16:32.claimed that prostitution is lessened but there is no evidence.
:16:32. > :16:37.It is claimed that trafficking is less but there is no evidence.
:16:37. > :16:42.There is no evidence it has deterred men from buying sex. We
:16:42. > :16:47.can go on with a list but there is no proof. Before the law was put in
:16:47. > :16:53.place, I went with some other people -- by voiced concerns with
:16:53. > :16:59.some other people. The live for sex workers marginalised, their lives
:16:59. > :17:05.would be worse. We warned it would be harder to choose what client you
:17:05. > :17:10.would go with. It would be harder to negotiate safer sex practices.
:17:10. > :17:20.We warned that the stigma against sex workers would be raised. Most
:17:20. > :17:27.
:17:27. > :17:31.This one went saw the effects of the law first time when she was a
:17:31. > :17:41.prostitute. Now I campaigner, she believes laws like this are not
:17:41. > :17:41.
:17:41. > :17:45.needed. I believe that the law should protect you and me as well.
:17:45. > :17:49.You can point your finger at any problem we have in the sex industry
:17:49. > :17:53.and there will be a law for that already. We have laws against
:17:53. > :17:57.sexual exploitation, slavery, a child labour, forced labour,
:17:57. > :18:07.kidnapping, rape. All of the laws are there. It would be more
:18:07. > :18:07.
:18:07. > :18:12.effective to use them. But Sweden's leading expert on human trafficking
:18:12. > :18:19.is convinced the law has led to a 75% reduction in that street
:18:19. > :18:28.prostitution. But has it had an impact on traffickers? We can hear
:18:28. > :18:32.it telephone conversations that traffickers speak about Sweden as a
:18:33. > :18:39.bad market. They are afraid of getting caught. She also believes
:18:39. > :18:44.the law has changed the attitudes of the Swedish people. It has a an
:18:44. > :18:49.important impact because legislation communicate its values
:18:49. > :18:53.in society first. The decision... Most people want to stand on the
:18:53. > :18:58.right side of legislation. It works on most people but it does not work
:18:58. > :19:01.100%. We do not have any legislation that works 100%.
:19:01. > :19:05.have heard arguments but these two subjects prostitution and
:19:05. > :19:12.trafficking should not always been mixed, but they are somehow
:19:12. > :19:17.separate things. They are linked. If there were no prostitutes and
:19:17. > :19:23.demand for social services, there would be no trafficking. -- demand
:19:23. > :19:27.for sexual services. The debate in Sweden is still raging as to the
:19:27. > :19:32.real impact this law has had on demand for sexual services. It is
:19:32. > :19:36.an argument that is being echoed back in Northern Ireland. Sex for
:19:36. > :19:41.sale is never going to go away no matter whether we criminalise the
:19:41. > :19:47.client, the sex worker, the advertiser, it is not going to go
:19:47. > :19:55.away. That is not a reason not to try and address demand for some.
:19:55. > :20:00.I would love there to be no murders, no robberies. The real world tells
:20:00. > :20:03.me those things are going to happen. But I am not going to sit back and
:20:03. > :20:07.say, because those things happen, there is nothing we could or should
:20:07. > :20:12.be doing. I am going to try and be the voice of those who have no
:20:12. > :20:15.voice on this issue. I will be speaking out for them. Those who
:20:15. > :20:22.have experienced the pain back the industry can inflict believe that
:20:22. > :20:26.doing nothing is not an option. This trafficking victim endured
:20:26. > :20:29.many months of being moved around locations right across Northern
:20:30. > :20:34.Ireland. She still struggles to overcome the effect of daily abuse.
:20:34. > :20:44.Is there such a thing as a typical day? The number of men, the Times,
:20:44. > :20:51.how would it work? It is at any away in the night because they do
:20:51. > :20:57.not care. You are forced. It means anybody can come there. It means 15
:20:57. > :21:05.minutes on the clock. It means you cannot stay... Basically, how many
:21:05. > :21:15.people? Between five and 15. Probably more. It depends how you
:21:15. > :21:21.can resist. A day? Yes. That is how it is done. Every day? Yes Foster
:21:21. > :21:27.you cannot walk. - macro yes. You cannot walk. Had I do you survive
:21:27. > :21:35.that? I wished sometimes to be dead. Not to be there. How often way you
:21:35. > :21:43.beaten? Every day. Every day. -- how often were you beaten? For what
:21:43. > :21:48.reason? No reason. Just if I was looking out of the window or
:21:48. > :21:57.probably if I was missing my family or something. They would just be to
:21:57. > :22:00.you for that? One? Because they want to make you we care so that he
:22:00. > :22:06.fell and they create their addiction in you. You do not have
:22:06. > :22:11.food, sleep, freedom. You cannot even watch the window. They saw I
:22:11. > :22:15.was fighting so after a while they plan to kill me. But they did not,
:22:15. > :22:22.they could not, because people were paying money for me. Did you
:22:22. > :22:27.believe they were going to kill you? Yes, are believed it. The PSNI
:22:27. > :22:33.say these fears are well-founded. These are very dangerous
:22:33. > :22:40.individuals. They are serious and organised criminals who exhort and
:22:40. > :22:47.use control on the people that they are moving. They see them as
:22:47. > :22:51.commodities. The people will be moved in to read be used and abused.
:22:51. > :22:55.People that you could be living with in your own street or in a
:22:55. > :23:00.family who are involved in the purchasing of sex. If you could say
:23:00. > :23:04.anything to the guys who come to see you, what would you say?
:23:04. > :23:08.take a second view on what they are doing. If I could scream in this
:23:08. > :23:13.room 10,000 times, do you think somebody would hear me? What is the
:23:13. > :23:17.level of the screen, the sound of it? That is how much they hurt.
:23:17. > :23:24.They were just watching me and saying, you are such a beautiful
:23:24. > :23:28.girl, now get naked. There are impassioned arguments for and
:23:28. > :23:34.against this law. It seems that often the more you have seen all
:23:34. > :23:38.felt the paint the industry can inflict, the more likely you are to
:23:38. > :23:44.believe or hope that the proposed legislation would work and reduce
:23:44. > :23:48.the demand for paid sex -- the more you have felt or seemed the pain
:23:48. > :23:54.the industry can inflict. Drug addiction took this mother from a
:23:54. > :24:02.happy normal life to selling sex on the streets of Dublin. Now drug-
:24:02. > :24:06.free, but she fears she will never be the same again. Sometimes I am
:24:06. > :24:11.scared I will be forever seen as damaged and there has now made
:24:11. > :24:14.myself untouchable -- and I have now made myself untouchable for the
:24:14. > :24:21.rest of my life. There are things that have happened I will never
:24:21. > :24:26.make sense of. A it is clear that the demand is fuelling trafficking
:24:26. > :24:30.needs. Prostitution and trafficking are intrinsically linked. You have
:24:30. > :24:35.more because of the other. Talking about human trafficking and not
:24:35. > :24:40.talking about prostitution is like talking about the slave trade and
:24:40. > :24:44.forgetting to mention the plantation, the sex industry is a
:24:44. > :24:49.vile, sit, twisted world and must be brought in its knees. The only
:24:49. > :24:54.way it can is to cut off what makes it exists and that is the demand
:24:54. > :24:58.for. Men who think they have a right to buy a that human beings.
:24:59. > :25:02.This man says he would never buy sex from an unwilling or trafficked
:25:02. > :25:06.sex worker and does not see anything wrong in what he is doing.
:25:06. > :25:12.I think it is entirely different what we are doing to what they are
:25:12. > :25:16.doing. That is important that we should... I see fully independent
:25:16. > :25:20.escorts. There are criminal gangs who are human trafficking and that
:25:20. > :25:27.is different. How we do know? just know. Their personalities. If
:25:27. > :25:35.they are happy are not. Is there a danger that there is a wilful sort
:25:35. > :25:40.of ignorance in men who biceps? I do not think so. -- in men who
:25:40. > :25:43.buy sex. I know if they are independent and happy. But this
:25:44. > :25:50.woman says there is no such thing as a happy prostitute and all
:25:50. > :25:58.romanticised notions of the sex industry are flawed. I know women
:25:58. > :26:05.on the streets that fantasise about it, they believe their favourite
:26:05. > :26:12.customer will rescue them and save them. But they do not want to. And
:26:12. > :26:17.when we die, they come back the next week. We do die. We die lonely
:26:17. > :26:23.of massive overdoses, poll from the canals stone-cold. Imagine the last
:26:23. > :26:26.thing you do when you're alive is give a bludgeon to a 60 year-old?
:26:26. > :26:30.Women say it provides support and accommodation for victims of
:26:30. > :26:35.trafficking and sexual abuse. They have heard stories like this many
:26:35. > :26:40.times before and back the proposed legislation. I have no
:26:40. > :26:45.understanding of why people would not support this bill. I think
:26:45. > :26:53.morally and as a society, why would we not pass this bill? Why would we
:26:53. > :26:57.not say sexual violence against women is wrong? I have not heard a
:26:57. > :27:00.good argument to change my mind. Many legal experts and law-
:27:00. > :27:08.enforcement bodies remain unconvinced that the Bill would
:27:08. > :27:12.work. This criminologist from Queen's University... The bill
:27:12. > :27:16.conflates two fairly distinct activities. One trafficking and the
:27:16. > :27:20.other prostitution. Some trafficking may involve an element
:27:20. > :27:23.of prostitution but there are lots of trafficking activities that do
:27:23. > :27:30.not necessarily involved prostitution. Prostitution because
:27:30. > :27:34.it is a varied practice can exist in the absence of trafficking. What
:27:34. > :27:38.the Bill is effectively saying is that everyone involved in sex work
:27:38. > :27:44.and prostitution are traffic. There is no evidence that is in fact the
:27:44. > :27:49.case. And the Justice Minister is on record as having concerns that
:27:49. > :27:53.making the purchase of consensual sex a crime risks driving
:27:53. > :27:58.prostitution underground and make it honourable people at greater
:27:58. > :28:03.risk of harm while the PSNI fear the Bill would divert vital police
:28:03. > :28:07.resources away from recovering trafficking victims. My opinion is
:28:07. > :28:12.it may hamper the recovery of human trafficking victims and change the
:28:12. > :28:21.focus from recovery of them on to purely prostitution. Human
:28:21. > :28:26.trafficking is not... We showed what we had discovered in Sweden
:28:26. > :28:34.but he remained convinced the law would pass. Here's a message.
:28:34. > :28:37.can decide that we can play around the edges of this problem or we can
:28:37. > :28:42.take a more positive and robust approach and say that we should
:28:42. > :28:49.tackle this issue. We should not allow a situation to continue to
:28:49. > :28:55.deteriorate whereby you then have this issue of human trafficking
:28:55. > :28:58.escalating year on year. But while lawmakers, legislators and those
:28:58. > :29:04.who work both willingly and unwillingly in the sex industry
:29:04. > :29:08.continued to disagree, one thing will remain certain. Every day and
:29:08. > :29:16.every night in Northern Ireland, the demand for paid sex remains.
:29:16. > :29:23.That means for some so will the pain. These are men far our