Sex buyers have continued to purchase sexual access to vulnerable women throughout Ireland’s Covid-19 lockdowns, a new study has found.
The Government-backed study from UCD has found that the country's sex trade is mainly made up of young and vulnerable migrant women with poor English, who have only recently travelled to the State.
The trade is causing “untold harm and misery” to those caught up in it, according to the study carried out by the Sexual Exploitation Research Programme at the university.
“The trade is very much fuelled by those sex buyers who we found really are not at all concerned about the women’s vulnerabilities or the difficult circumstances they may find themselves in,” co-author Ruth Breslin said.
Women need options, they need to be able to find a way out
“They’ve continued to purchase sexual access to women and we found in the study that they continued to do that, even now through two Covid-19 lockdowns.”
Among the study’s recommendations are improved resourcing for gardaí to target the criminal gangs, traffickers and pimps behind the trade, along with better supports for women to leave it.
The study found young migrants to make up the majority of the 650 women advertised online each day, with women moved around Ireland to meet the demands of sex buyers.
“Gardaí need to be further resourced to tackle the buyers but also, of course, to tackle the organisers,” Ms Breslin said.
“We need better resourcing for some high-level Garda operations against these buyers, and I think we would also like to see, very importantly, those really good holistic supports in place for women who want to get out of this trade,” she added.
“Women need options, they need to be able to find a way out where ever they can.”
