On the 20th October, the APG launched its new report, ‘Hidden in plain sight: how websites advertising prostitution facilitate sexual exploitation in Northern Ireland.’
The event heard from: the APG Co-chairs, Peter Martin MLA and Connie Egan MLA, and the Secretariat Tim Cairns on the recommendations made and the implications the reports finding have for the Assembly; Survivor and Witness Rebecca, who shared how these websites were integral to her own exploitation; Director of SERP, Ruth Breslin on the need for a whole island approach to tackling trafficking; and Former MP and Director of Policy at CARE, Caroline Ansell on how this report and its recommendations must be leveraged to spur Westminster on to action.
The event was held at Stormont and was attended by a number of MLAs, including the Deputy First Minister. The cross-party support highlights the political will to act on these sites. The primary recommendation made in the report is for the banning of websites that advertise prostitution. As Rebecca’s experience proves, for too long these sites have been normalising the purchase of vulnerable women and enabling sexual exploitation and organised trafficking across the nation.
The APG again thanks all those who submitted written or oral evidence to the Inquiry. As co-chair Connie Egan said, this report, the stories and the women it represents, deserve not our sympathy, but our action.
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