A Few Questions for Belle de Jour, Call Girl and Scientist

November 20, 2009, 1:30 pm
By RYAN HAGEN
In 2003, a young American woman in London studying for her PhD. ran into money trouble. To support herself while writing her thesis, she joined an escort service. Under the assumed name Belle de Jour, she started to blog her experiences. That blog led to a series of successful, [...]

UK: A law which will protect women from exploitation

Letters:
UK news | The Guardian
Thursday 22 October 2009
Nick Davies follows a long tradition of saying that trafficking is not a big problem and so no action should be taken to deal with it. I have always been of the view that anyone coerced into selling their body experiences unacceptable abuse of their human rights. That [...]

UK: Sex trafficking is no illusion

Nick Davies argues that the problem of sex trafficking has been exaggerated. This is the last thing trafficked women need

Comments (362)
Rahila Gupta, guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 20 October 2009 11.00 BST
An article on trafficking into the sex trade has been written by the investigative reporter Nick Davies, whose reputation will lend authority to it – although it [...]

UK: Trafficking: we can learn from victims

A report in today’s Guardian suggests sex trafficking has been exaggerated; but it must not be reduced to a numbers game
Comments (89)
Helen Bamber
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 20 October 2009 22.30 BST
Knowledge about the wider picture of trafficking can be accumulated only over time and gleaned from a detailed and dedicated approach to the cases of individual victims. [...]

UK: Sex trafficking: a futile war of statistics

The descent of a Newsnight discussion on the sex trade into a shouting match shows how difficult it is to debate the issue
Comments (130)
Denis MacShane
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 21 October 2009 16.30 BST
Anyone see the ding-dong between Jeremy Paxman and Denis MacShane on Newsnight? I was there. It was an utterly weird experience to be in the [...]

UK: Have sex traffic levels been exaggerated?

The Guardian newspaper has said that the problem of sex trafficking has been exaggerated and that the number of people who have been brought into the UK and forced against their will into prostitution is much smaller than claimed.
Jeremy Paxman talks to former minister for Europe, Dennis McShane, and Nikki Adams, of the English Collective [...]

UK: A bad bill for sex workers

A lack of trafficking evidence highlights the flaws in a policing and crime bill that fails to distinguish between types of sex work
Elizabeth Pisani
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 21 October 2009 10.00 BST
Last night, I went to a play about sex trafficking at the Arcola theatre. The programme notes: “While elements of It Felt Empty When the Heart [...]

Prostitution debate rages worldwide

Natalie Alcoba, National Post
Friday, Oct. 16, 2009
A prostitute in Amsterdam’s red light district. The debate around legalizing the sex trade rages in many countries around the world, including Canada. – Anoek de Groot/AFP/Getty Images
One of the latest battlegrounds for the highly charged issue of prostitution – is it violence, is it a job? – is [...]

Older Stories: Beyond Immigrant Brothels

by Juhu Thukral on October 2, 2006
At the age of 17, Cathy* came to the United States from Thailand, expecting to work off a debt. As soon as she arrived, though, her traffickers demanded the money. If they weren’t paid, they said, she would have to go into prostitution.
Cathy was able to escape on her [...]

Lessons from a Mexican Brothel

by Patty Kelly on June 16, 2009
On a chilly March morning, my friend Abraham and I head out by car from Washington, D.C. to rural Virginia to do some exploring. Visiting from Mexico City, Abraham has been to New York City many times. But large cities can give a visitor the wrong idea about a [...]