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Abstracts: 2000 and Older Articles
July 4, 1999
Kosovo sex slaves held in Soho flats
Investigations into sex slave trafficking by Scotland Yard and the Sunday Times.
According to this article:
A dramatically increasing number of Albanian women in London brothels was
reported by Det. Inspector Paul Holmes. An Albanian trafficking gang in Tirana
was infiltrated by a Sunday Times reporter who was offered delivery of women to Italy or Germany at £830 each, with an additional £1,330 to Britain.
In 1998, a 23 year old Albanian woman escaped from her traffickers and testified against her pimp "Shemsi Gjika". Gjika and fellow Albanian "Fatmir Gashi" had arranged a false Greek passport for her and forced her into prostitution. Gjika was convicted of living on immoral earnings. Gashi could not be found.
A Sunday Times reporter met a 23 year old prostitute, Djemila, who had fled Kosovo into Albania. Seeking help from an Albanian criminal to get a German visa, she had been smuggled into Italy and then London. She was locked in a flat, informed it would require a further £7,000 to get to Germany and forced to become a prostitute. She was beaten when she refused and was told she would be killed if she did not comply.
Sheehan, Maeve. "Kosovo sex slaves held in Soho flats" Sunday Times 4 July 1999. <http://www.agitprop.org.au/stopnato/19990709slaves.htm>
November 15, 1999
They're brazen, and coming to a town near you.
According to this article:
Information regarding the SFI Group, Britain's biggest chain of lapdancing clubs
and a description of Nick Horley's personal "research" into the theory that lapdancing prompts men to buy sex.
Quote:
"She has turned around, placing her naked bottom six inches from your face, and now she's folded in half at the hips, leaving you with nowhere to look other than her smiling upside-down face or her labia, which she is lightly fingering."
He describes the acts performed by dancers as "quasi-sex" and his response as accepting paid for sex as an "logical, acceptable next step."
Quote:
"For Your Eyes Only certainly helped me overcome my inhibitions about paying for sex. My local paper, the Hammersmith and Fulham Times (published by a woman) carries a full page of adverts for prostitutes every week, under the headings "Escorts" and "Massage". Formerly I regarded them as out of bounds, but in my newly enlightened state I phoned a "Stunningly Beautiful Student" and, within 15 minutes, there was a 23-year-old Russian vision of beauty in my house, wanting an hour's sex with me for [pounds]120. Well, not wanting it, but offering it. I accepted her offer. I'll spare you the details, but the transaction we completed seemed much the same as the [pounds] 10 deals in the lap-dancing club: the difference was merely one of degree."
Horley, Nick. "They're brazen, and coming to a town near you. " New Statesman 15 Nov. 1999. <http://www.newstatesman.com/nsqpass.php3?num=10&
QryTxt=lap+dance>
March 2, 2000
Telegraph exposes sex acts at club
Lancashire Evening Telegraph dossier
According to this article:
The Lancashire Evening Telegraph provided a dossier to police regarding sex acts at a lap-dance club. Reporters entered the "members only" club unhindered and witnessed one barmaid pouring beer over a naked customer and committing "indecent acts" with him and a second barmaid committing "indecent acts" with customers for £2 a time. The club owner denied the findings until being told the acts had been witnessed by a reporter.
"Telegraph exposes sex acts at club" HoldTheFrontPage website 2 March, 2000.
<http://www.HoldTheFrontPage.co.uk>
May 23, 2000
Auctions for sex: Europe's thriving slavery industry
Carroll, Rory. "Auctions for sex: Europe's thriving slavery industry" The
Guardian. May 23, 2000
<http://www.uri.edu/artsci/wms/hughes/ukraine/auctioneng.htm>
July 3, 2000
Gardaí play down occurrences of forced prostitution in Dublin
Trafficking of women into Ireland
According to this article:
Ruhama Women's Project warned the Gardaí and the Department of Justice that it has encountered a "small but significant number" of trafficked women in Dublin. Ruhama stated that the women were lured to Ireland by false promises of employment, are at risk of being murdered by their traffickers and have had their passports taken by the traffickers. They stress that safe houses, repatriation and
counseling are needed for the victims.
An examination of one case of trafficking for the purposes of prostitution by the Director of Public Prosecutions is underway. Chief Superintendent, Nacie Rice does not consider it a big problem and believes that existing legislation is capable of dealing with it.
"Gardaí play down occurrences of forced prostitution in Dublin" RTE 3 July, 2000. <http://www.rte.ie/news/2000/0703/trafficking.html>
July 4, 2000
Foreign women exploited as sex slaves
Seminar held on July 3, 2000 by the Ruhama Women's Project's regarding trafficking of women for prostitution.
According to this article:
Women from the former Soviet Bloc, South America and Africa are smuggled to Ireland, deprived of their passports and forced into prostitution by organized criminals. Geraldine Rowley, Ruhama's outreach manager expressed Ruhama's goal to raise awareness and set up networks and procedures for victim protection and trafficking prosecutions.
Ruhama supports new legislation to deal specifically with sex trafficking. The Illegal Immigrants (Trafficking) Bill has not been signed into law as sections of it have been referred to the Supreme Court for
judgment regarding compliance with the Constitution.
Quinlan, Fionnuala. "Foreign women exploited as sex slaves" Irish Examiner 4 July, 2000. <http://migration.ucc.ie/examiner/examiner4
july1.htm>
August 2-8, 2000
Around Ireland Sex in the City, yes, that city
The "Voodoo Rooms" on Catherine St.
Markey, Patrick. "Around Ireland Sex in the City, yes, that city" Irish Echo August 2000. <http://www.irishecho.com/search/searchstory.cfm?id=
7340&issueid=147>
September 22, 2000
Adventures on the skin trail;
There is a new route to sexual slavery in Europe, and it leads from the former Soviet Union to the sex clubs of Soho
An undercover investigation into sex trafficking. The article gives details of the lives of women trafficked into Denmark and the UK. Ireland is demonstrated to be a transit point due to its open borders with the UK.
According to this article:
Denmark:
Sue Lloyd-Roberts accompanied a Latvian journalist posing as a 21 year old dancer, "Aija" seeking employment through the internet to "Club 8" in Copenhagen. Upon arrival, "Aija" was informed that she would be required to take part in "sex parties". Police were contacted and the club was raided. Four Hungarian girls were arrested and deported. No charges were made against the club management or customers.
Lloyd-Roberts interviewed another Latvian victim of trafficking. This young virgin traveled to Denmark for a job as an au pair, was met at the airport by a pimp, taken to a brothel and endured three months of sexual slavery. Other cases mentioned included imprisonment in cellars and murder.
Danish lawyer, Dorit Otzen, is quoted: "The police don't know, and they don't want to know anything about trafficking. You can get up to 10 years for selling or importing drugs into Denmark but the longest sentence anyone has ever received for importing women is a year. And even then the judge apologised to the man in court, saying it was a long sentence. You could cry!"
Ireland:
The "back door" of the Irish Republic is being used to bring girls into Britain. Lloyd-Roberts interviewed two young Latvian women in Riga, "Sveta (21) and Ljuba (19.) They answered an agency job ad for "hotel domestics" in the Republic of Ireland and were told to undergo Aids tests, asked for their bust measurements and for a full-length photograph. The girls decided against the jobs. Lloyd-Roberts traveled to Portumna, Ireland and met the owner of the hotel in question. He had posted an online ad for a waitress but had never received a reply.
Lloyd-Roberts investigated the vice scene in Dublin. She interviewed Detective Inspector Sean Camon, who stated that the brothels had been "cleared out" a few weeks prior. Camon said "We found a few girls from Eastern Europe and we've got rid of them."
She arranged a meeting with a "money launderer" in the Dublin vice trade who explained that the "fancy prostitutes" had re-located. His theory of the Portumna/Riga case was that traffickers would use bona fide employers as fronts
- easily getting work permits due to the thousands processed monthly. He explained that the sex trafficker then uses the free movement between the Republic and Britain to send the women to London, Birmingham and Manchester.
Quote: "I know one of the big names in vice here in Dublin who is transporting the girls to Belfast, and from there, they're taken to Britain." Although a girl might have obtained a work permit for Ireland, once in the UK, she is an illegal and the pimp uses this to coerce her. "He will seize her passport and force her into prostitution, arguing there is no other way to pay back her 'travel expenses', which amount to thousands of pounds. Payback time involves servicing up to 20 clients a day."
United Kingdom:
80% of women working in Britain's brothels and massage parlours are foreign. Penalties to traffickers are minimal. The existing offences of sexual exploitation carry a maximum two years' jail sentence. The maximum sentence for trafficking in drugs is life imprisonment.
The Metropolitan Police Vice Squad explain that their difficulties include the intimidation by the traffickers and current immigration policy. The girls are afraid to testify in court and immigration officials expedite deportations. The UK deals with these cases as immigration rather than a human rights problems.
Nearly every country worldwide is affected by sexual slavery, either by sending girls, transiting girls or as destination points. According to the latest figures from the Institute of Migration, half a million girls are shipped annually into the UK from either the Far East or the former Soviet Bloc. Interpol has only two full-time officers coordinating information on sex trafficking. Annual profits in for sex trafficking are estimated to be 9 billion pounds per year, equal to drug trafficking profits.
Lloyd-Roberts, Sue. "
Adventures on the skin trail;
There is a new route to sexual slavery in Europe, and it leads from the former Soviet Union to the sex clubs of Soho" The Independent (London) 22 Sept. 2000. <www.neww.org/pipermail/women-east-west/2000-September
/000508.html>
October 28, 2000
Tits for Tories
According to this article:
The author describes Peter Stringfellow's 60th birthday celebration held that week at his Covent Garden lapdancing club. He provides a description of the club itself, the dancers and businessmen downstairs. The dancers end 10 a dance and "pull in about 200 an evening". The disc jockey "fulfils a sort of sergeant-major role." At midnight, the 'Parade of Angels' occurs - 50 girls walking a catwalk.
Stringfellow was quoted complaining about the local council rules:
'It's absolutely ridiculous, anything that man has ever enjoyed, somebody else has tried to stop. The trouble I had in setting up this place was unbelievable . . . And I still have to put up with the three-foot rule.'
American lapdancing is then described. The author claims that "anything goes" in the US - full nudity, touching, massaging. In the UK, any touching is strictly forbidden and a three foot rule exists. When Stringfellows first opened, a local council worker was deputised to watch hours of video footage to insure the dancers did not break the rule.
Dancers interviewed included Yoka from Slovakia, Lola from Hungary and Diamond from the Gold Coast, who were all in favour of lifting the restrictions placed on them. There were few English lapdancers. One of them, Cass, said Peter treated them well.
Stringfellow was described as the son of a Sheffield steelworker and a committed Tory since youth and "keen on maintaining his Tory links: sitting at his private table at the party was one of the whips in Ted Heath's 1970 administration, Lord Bethell." According to Stringfellow, "New Labour are in total disarray...If Tony Blair was honest, he'd admit that he's a federal European but, although I think he's a man of principle, he's dropped his principles. He can't come out and say how committed he is to the euro. I wish he would. I'd love to hear a proper argument as to why we should join.'
The article then describes other political and social views held by Mr. Stringfellow. He believes private health and education are the way forward and opposes capital gains taxes.
Mount, Harry, "Tits for Tories" The Spectator; Vol. 285, Oct. 28, 2000 (Available through ProQuest)
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