Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

Lewis Whyld/PA Wire/AP

Ruhama reports 18 per cent increase in demand for support services

Group which assists women affected by prostitution and trafficking says it supported 241 women last year.

THE NUMBER OF WOMEN accessing Ruhama’s support services for women affected by prostitution and trafficking grew by almost one-fifth last year, according to the group’s annual report for 2011.

In total, the group supported 241 women, 41 of whom were assisted through the group’s street outreach programme.

The 200 women whom Ruhama supported in casework last year came from 36 different countries. Ninety-one were suspected victims of sex trafficking.

Last year, 44 per cent of the women who sought help from Ruhama were new referrals, while the remaining 56 per cent were ongoing cases.

The report also says that Ruhama worked with agencies including the HSE Separated Children Team to provide support to vulnerable young people.

Ruhama CEO Sarah Benson said that the experiences reported by the women to Ruhama “echo those reported by women every year for the last 22 years of Ruhama’s existence”, including physical and sexual assault, degrading abuse, hypervigilance and feelings of isolation.

She also said that “changing methods of control used by traffickers are making it more difficult for authorities to identify the hard edge of trafficking”.

“While the number of new referrals of victims of trafficking is slightly lower than last year, we believe this decrease is not representative of the overall scale of the problem in Ireland.”

“The over reliance on the immigration system to detect victims of trafficking and the fact that most victims are forced to make their own escape from traffickers, if they are to access help, results in a relatively low number of victims receiving assistance in Ireland,” she added.

Launching the annual report, Ruhama’s chairperson Valerie Judge said that there is no other service in Ireland to assist women in leaving prostitution. “Ruhama is committed to remaining a supportive presence for women affected by prostitution and sex trafficking, in their often dangerous journeys,” she added.

Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone...
A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.

Close
42 Comments
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Deadly Buzz
    Favourite Deadly Buzz
    Report
    Aug 22nd 2012, 11:04 AM

    Further evidence again as to why we should legalise it. Section off parts of Dublin, make it govt run and ensure workers have proper health and safety procedures in place. I imagine most women do this out of choice. Bead rattlers of course will be fishing out the red thumbs but common sense was,never their strong point.

    44
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Seán O' Dulaing
    Favourite Seán O' Dulaing
    Report
    Aug 22nd 2012, 11:23 AM

    Yes you’re right. Trafficked women do it from choice, how did no one think of this before!

    23
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute SaintRuth
    Favourite SaintRuth
    Report
    Aug 22nd 2012, 12:47 PM

    Yes, DeadlyBuzz, I know what you mean. I constantly have the same discussions with girls who say “well, I was thinking of doing science in UCD but there’s an opening in the local brothel that I’d consider instead. They say they’ve a great career path and benefits package”.

    And now I hear the points for prostitution on the CAO were just under those for Science too.

    18
    See 7 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Deadly Buzz
    Favourite Deadly Buzz
    Report
    Aug 22nd 2012, 1:11 PM

    You only need 69….
    I’m sorry if I don’t subscribe to medievals doctrines but people should have the welfare of the people primarily. What do we do if we criminalise it? Are ALL women forced into it?

    16
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute SaintRuth
    Favourite SaintRuth
    Report
    Aug 22nd 2012, 1:16 PM

    We criminalise it out of concern for the welfare of women. Even if some women do choose it, we criminalise it for the same reason we criminalise the hard drugs that those women usually also take, because of its destructive effects on the women’s welfare.

    Perhaps if the “customers” had more interest in helping those women rather than f**king them, the women would be better off.

    13
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Deadly Buzz
    Favourite Deadly Buzz
    Report
    Aug 22nd 2012, 2:19 PM

    The legalisation of prostitution would make sure that there is a certain minimum standard. If the state takes such actions under it’s control it can ensure the women are not trafficked. If a man or a woman wants a ride they know they can go somewhere for a safe ride where both punter and sex worker are.safe. The criminalisation of f$&king as you so eloquently put it is a private act between consenting adults and as such the state has no business interfering in the lives of consenting adults. A lot of women choose it as it works for them . Perhaps if the customers and sex workers were perhaps listened to instead of a few nuns dictating what should be the.status quo….

    16
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Petr Tarasov
    Favourite Petr Tarasov
    Report
    Aug 22nd 2012, 2:36 PM

    Sean and Ruth want to take agency away from women.

    12
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Dean McDonnell
    Favourite Dean McDonnell
    Report
    Aug 22nd 2012, 4:55 PM

    @SaintRuth

    I find it interesting that you compare the virtues of criminalisation of prostitution to the criminalisation of drugs, which works so well, practically nobody takes drugs any more.

    The fact of the matter is, in both cases, criminals are allowed to run markets that there is clearly a demand for and neither the drug user or the sex worker have any rights, and why should they, after all, given that they don’t align to your specific set of morals they should get no support from us eh?

    12
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Eleen
    Favourite Eleen
    Report
    Aug 22nd 2012, 7:57 PM

    Saint Ruth if you “We criminalise it out of concern for the welfare of women.” – stupid sentence. Criminalising sex work does nothing for the welfare of the women involved – it only makes it worse.

    And Sean – trafficking is illegal and will be illegal even if sex work is legalised.

    9
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Gaye Dalton
    Favourite Gaye Dalton
    Report
    Aug 24th 2012, 2:19 PM

    ‘@SaintRuth I seriously doubt if anybody’s welfare is ever best served by taking away their income and their right to choice.

    5
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Michael Fagan
    Favourite Michael Fagan
    Report
    Aug 22nd 2012, 10:12 AM

    Where do male prostitutes go for help and support ???

    30
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ed Appleby
    Favourite Ed Appleby
    Report
    Aug 22nd 2012, 5:20 PM

    Well it won’t be Ruhama given their religious backing they don’t deal with sinners like homosexuals! Take anything this lot say with a very big pinch of salt they’re main aim is to criminalise buying sex so no agenda there then! No coincidence that this comes out the day after the NI assembly voted to do just that!

    11
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute maurice frazer
    Favourite maurice frazer
    Report
    Aug 22nd 2012, 10:15 AM

    I mean no offence, but is there a Budget on the way?

    24
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Deadly Buzz
    Favourite Deadly Buzz
    Report
    Aug 22nd 2012, 11:48 AM

    Only 10% of women are trafficked according to “Turn off the blue light”. If sex work was legalised as well as being regulated by law it would be more than like,policed by sex workers themselves.

    23
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ryan Allen
    Favourite Ryan Allen
    Report
    Aug 22nd 2012, 2:23 PM

    And has any independent source any statistics? It’s just that when an organization supporting a particular change of legislation pays for research and then gets a statistic that backs up its argument I’m suspicious.

    I wonder about the methodology as well.

    7
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Deadly Buzz
    Favourite Deadly Buzz
    Report
    Aug 22nd 2012, 2:39 PM

    I’m on my phone at the moment but will dig out stats later :-) on the laptop.

    3
    See 1 more reply ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ed Appleby
    Favourite Ed Appleby
    Report
    Aug 22nd 2012, 5:26 PM

    Ryan the Irish govt. rely on the likes of Ruhama for their figures they haven’t actually dedicated anyone independent to do any research into trafficking, they just go along with whatever Ruhama and groups like Turn of the red light tell them, the Gardai may be the best source to see the real figures on women who are trafficked for prostitution.

    9
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Stephen Maher
    Favourite Stephen Maher
    Report
    Aug 22nd 2012, 10:47 AM

    In a country that’s supposed to be on its knees economically, the mind boggles as to where these sad little men are getting the money to indulge themselves with these sordid “pleasures”.

    23
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute James Higgins
    Favourite James Higgins
    Report
    Aug 22nd 2012, 12:38 PM

    Amazing that it’s mostly men that seem to be the ones calling for prostitution to be legalised. I wonder why ? Ruhama deal with the women who are victims of prostitution and I reckon they know what they are talking about.

    20
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute the lost lenore
    Favourite the lost lenore
    Report
    Aug 22nd 2012, 12:57 PM

    They’re a catholic organisation run in part by an order of nuns. Not that this diminishes their work or questions the figures but it’s worth taking note of.

    Personally, I wonder about this. Trafficking and prostitution are two different issues – people are trafficked into all sorts of work – including men.

    More information on the issue is needed before Im going to form an opinion. I’m long past the time when I’d accept stats or surveys as evidence of anything.

    23
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Eleen
    Favourite Eleen
    Report
    Aug 22nd 2012, 8:01 PM

    Ruhama are run by two orders of nuns who ran Magdalene Laundries. It’s easy to access the information online.

    From Ruhama’s website:
    “Ruhama was founded as a joint initiative of the Good Shepherd Sisters and Our Lady of Charity Sisters, both of which had a long history of involvement with marginalised women, including those involved in prostitution.”
    (http://www.ruhama.ie/page.php?intPageID=4)

    From the Irish Times Archive:
    Magdalen laundries: a brief history of the institutions:
    The first Magdalen laundry opened on Dublin’s Leeson Street in 1767. After the Famine, four female Catholic religious congregations came to dominate the running of the laundries. These were the Sisters of Mercy (SM), Sisters of Charity (SC), Sisters of our Lady of Charity of Refuge (SCR), and the Good Shepherd Sisters (GSS).
    (http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2011/0611/breaking9.html)

    So yeah, when they say they have a long involvement with marginalised women, they’re not kidding.

    And no, they don’t know what they’re talking about. And there are plenty of women, including sex workers who are against their campaign.

    13
    See 2 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Mick Collins
    Favourite Mick Collins
    Report
    Aug 22nd 2012, 11:16 PM

    Ruhama is a Quango that receives Government funding and makes outrageous claims in their Annual Report about trafficked women prostituting themselves in this country. These claims are contradicted by the Gardai who have true expertise in the area.
    There are vested interests at work here and we need to be a little more careful in accepting all that is put before us in case we are taken for fools.

    12
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Gaye Dalton
    Favourite Gaye Dalton
    Report
    Aug 24th 2012, 2:25 PM

    @James In my experience, all Ruhama actually do is make a lot of stuff up to suit themselves that has nothing to do with real people and their lives. That is why the legislation they are demanding would do so much harm to sex workers.

    What I will never understand is why they do not even care a little bit about that.

    (Sadly that is a pretty common attitude in the NGO sector, and it, genuinely, wouldn’t surprise me if it is one of the factors that has driven a lot of women to try and use the money from sex work to sort out their own problem rather than place their lives at the mercy of NGOs that only make a mess of them to suit their own agenda….and please remember it is the taxpayers who foot the bill for this overpaid useless travesty.)

    9
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Sex Work IE
    Favourite Sex Work IE
    Report
    Aug 22nd 2012, 2:22 PM

    Interesting that Ruhama have decided to include no details of how they spend their funding in this year’s report?

    19
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Joey Donnelly
    Favourite Joey Donnelly
    Report
    Aug 22nd 2012, 1:34 PM

    If they want to work let em work sure????

    11
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute James Higgins
    Favourite James Higgins
    Report
    Aug 22nd 2012, 2:51 PM

    Sweden is hardly a place where catholic church holds much sway and they have taken active measures to curb prostitution. Such as making buying sex a crime. Maybe they think that women deserve to be treated as human beings irrespective of the situation they are in ?

    8
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Dean McDonnell
    Favourite Dean McDonnell
    Report
    Aug 22nd 2012, 5:02 PM

    You mean human beings with choice and self determination or just human beings with choice and self determination as long as it is in line with your views…

    9
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Gaye Dalton
    Favourite Gaye Dalton
    Report
    Aug 24th 2012, 2:14 PM

    The way to treat somebody as a human being is to respect them as an intelligent adult and your equal, and support them in making their own, free choices.

    Imposing your choces on them seems to be the exact opposite to that to me.

    6
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute James Higgins
    Favourite James Higgins
    Report
    Aug 22nd 2012, 7:16 PM

    Who wakes up one morning a d decides to become a prostitute as if deciding to study Accountancy or Law ?

    7
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Deadly Buzz
    Favourite Deadly Buzz
    Report
    Aug 22nd 2012, 8:15 PM

    People with a choice I would imagine…

    8
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Eleen
    Favourite Eleen
    Report
    Aug 22nd 2012, 8:20 PM

    Just because you have a problem with it doesn’t mean everyone else will too. And life is not always so simple. Perhaps some women don’t particularly see sex work as a fulfilling career choice, but it’s often a very good one for reasons such as pay and the amount of free time you can have. If you work independently you’re your own boss too. Why should they be shamed and seen as helpless victims for choosing sex work?

    8
    See 1 more reply ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Gaye Dalton
    Favourite Gaye Dalton
    Report
    Aug 24th 2012, 2:11 PM

    Who on earth wakes up one morning and decides to work in MacDonalds or Tesco as if deciding to study accountancy or law?

    As far as I can see the vast majority of people “work to live” in jobs they hate and would like to get out of. The difference is that sex workers can make more money in less hours and have the extra time to spend looking and even qualifying for the jobs they REALLY want to do.

    Like accountacy, law, medicine, social work, fashion design…

    6
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute James Higgins
    Favourite James Higgins
    Report
    Aug 22nd 2012, 6:04 PM

    Yeah Dean. What about underage girls put on the game by older men who they are in relationships with ? How does that fit in with your ideas of free choice ? There is such a think as coercion you know.

    6
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Eleen
    Favourite Eleen
    Report
    Aug 22nd 2012, 8:16 PM

    James, making sex work legal for WOMEN who chose to do it would make no difference to the law when it comes to underage girls. It will still be illegal for underage girls to be involved in sex work, as it would still be illegal to force anyone into sex work. You have no argument here.

    11
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Deadly Buzz
    Favourite Deadly Buzz
    Report
    Aug 22nd 2012, 8:22 PM

    Do you think a government run scheme would allow that? LOL!

    7
    See 1 more reply ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Gaye Dalton
    Favourite Gaye Dalton
    Report
    Aug 24th 2012, 2:06 PM

    James, I want you to explain to me how it is not coercion to legislate to take away somebody’s only available source of adequate income because the work they are doing does not suit your personal belief system?

    (Incidentally, I think the “underage girls put on the game by older men” thing went out with flared jeans and the Monkees. Women, even very young girls, have a totally different mindset these days)

    3
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Cisca Bos
    Favourite Cisca Bos
    Report
    Aug 22nd 2012, 2:31 PM

    even if you would legalize it, there always will be trafficking ! proof enough in other eu country’s !

    6
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Deadly Buzz
    Favourite Deadly Buzz
    Report
    Aug 22nd 2012, 2:42 PM

    As compared to the situation at moment? We could give legal avenues for sex workers to earn a wage.

    9
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Deadly Buzz
    Favourite Deadly Buzz
    Report
    Aug 22nd 2012, 2:44 PM

    We should also legalise make prostitution too. Not much mentioned about it.

    5
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Lorna Jimenez
    Favourite Lorna Jimenez
    Report
    Dec 20th 2012, 4:12 PM

    I agree with a lot of the points made in your article. I suggest many others do too but the stigma regarding prostitution (and sex in general) in Ireland prevents people putting forward a contrary view to the ‘Establishtment’ or Official Ireland whatever you want to call it.

    Ruhama and the Immigrant Council of Ireland (also connected to the Sisters of Mercy) are regular contributors to RTE shows like Drivetime where their opinions generally go unchallenged. This bothers me for two main reasons

    1) As a rationalist I object to them exploiting the shame around sex to present a distorted picture of the sex trade/prostitution in Ireland. The Gardaí and some brave journalists like Jim Cusack have both said there are hardly any figures to show trafficking is widespread in Ireland. Of course ANY cases of it should result in the toughest penalties but it’s wrong for Ruhama/ICI to mislead the public to promote their own agenda which is obviously to prohibit any and all prostitution for their own respective conservative moral or radical feminist perspectives.

    2) As a liberal and ‘sex positive’ (look it up) feminist I contest the view that you can’t be a feminist and believe women (and men) should be able to do what they want with their own bodies as long as they harm nobody else. Ruhama quote and rely on radical feminists Andrea Dworkin and Catherine McKinnon whose works have regrettably become the mainstream of feminism in the USA. Both authors have consistently marginalised and demonised men and also rage against pornography, sex shops and other consensual activity. I suggest anyone read ‘The New Victorians’ by Rene Denfeld who shows how McKinnon and Dworkin have more in common with the right wing of the Republican Party in the USA than the needs of 21 Century empowered and free thinking women.

    Open your minds and realise Ruhama and ICI are more about ‘slut shaming’ than empowering women. That’s my two cents worth anyway.

    4
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Lorna Jimenez
    Favourite Lorna Jimenez
    Report
    Dec 20th 2012, 4:16 PM

    Meant to say I agree with a lot of the points made in your responses, not in the article!

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Gaye Dalton
    Favourite Gaye Dalton
    Report
    Aug 24th 2012, 2:43 PM

    You might be interested in this:
    http://www.turnofftheredlight.ie/2012/08/press-statement-56-organisations-submit-case-to-outlaw-payments-for-sex/

    It seems to me that it is all just a glorified demand for more funding:
    “We also recommend that the change in legislation would be complimented by enhanced and sustained support services for people in prostitution who wish to exit.”

    The change in legislation they demand would take away the income of sex workers and create an artificial appearance of demand for the the services they would like you to fund (including, but not limited to junketing each other at four star hotels).

    This helps nobody except overpaid NGOs. Please do not be gullible enough to let them get away with it.

    4
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.
JournalTv
News in 60 seconds