Sex worker beaten by her clients shares deportation fears as police crack down on prostitution

Exclusive: Sex worker says being put through criminal justice system has ‘destroyed’ her life

(Getty Images/iStockphoto)

“Five or six police officers came to my flat last April,” Iris* said. “I was really shocked so I didn’t open the door because I didn’t know what was going on. They broke my door.”

The 35-year-old woman who works as a hospital technician and sex worker said officers put her in handcuffs before taking her to a police station where she waited in a cell for six hours before they interviewed her.

Iris, who is originally from South Korea but has lived in Britain for 12 years, is under investigation and could face prison for carrying out sex work.

The mother of a young daughter said being put through the criminal justice system has “destroyed” her life and made her homeless.

Iris’s case is not unique according to the English Collective of Prostitutes, a leading campaign group that supports sex workers.

The organisation warned increasing numbers of prostitutes are being placed under investigation by the police for lengthy periods of time.

“It was cold,” Iris said of the police cell she waited in before being questioned by officers. “The house they arrested me in was my personal place; I did not use it for sex work.”

She said officers confiscated her purse before releasing her late at night from the station with no money, and officers refused to give her any spare change. The investigation has also led to her bank accounts and assets being frozen.

Officers told her she was under arrest on charges of modern slavery, as well as other offences related to brothel-keeping, she said. Iris said the charges against her were wholly unfair.

None of the fellow sex workers she has helped are trafficking victims, she added.

“They are healthy, they call their family every day, they are free to come and go as they want,” she says. “I get them to call me in case they have any trouble. If I can’t contact them, I call the police or someone else to help them.”

One time, a client let another four guys into the apartment. They wrecked the place and tried to rape me but didn’t because I was crying and begging.

Iris

In one instance, she said she knows of a sex worker who was kidnapped by one of her clients and put inside a van.

“That client pretended he was a police officer,” Iris said. “He tortured her for two or three hours. She came back and had bruises and swollen eyes and everything. After that, I assisted her to go to the police station and report and helped her translate.”

Iris said she has suffered a great deal of violence too, as well as having been robbed by male customers many times.

The sex worker fears she may be deported over the charges she is facing, explaining she has had to postpone the nursing training course she was accepted onto. “There is no timeline,” she said. “I might still not know in three or four years. Nobody is contacting me telling me details of my case.”

While Iris is confident the authorities cannot their allegations, she said the case is having repercussions on her mental health and finances.

She is sofa-surfing and not able to visit her daughter abroad due to the police confiscating her passport. “I had to sell my house because I couldn’t afford my mortgage,” she said.

I have seen so many women who get a conviction in their early 20s and then are stuck in prostitution for the rest of their life because they are barred from other jobs, especially ones that they would be ideally suited to like care jobs.

Niki Adams

Niki Adams, a spokesperson for the English Collective of Prostitutes, told The Independent Iris is one of many women their network supports who has been raided, arrested and prosecuted simply for supporting other sex workers against potentially dangerous customers.

“Most of these raids are justified by police saying they are cracking down on ‘modern slavery’ but it is migrant sex workers who are harmed,” Ms Adams added.

“The consequences are so serious; even an arrest can bar you from other jobs, let alone a conviction. I have seen so many women who get a conviction in their early 20s and then are stuck in prostitution for the rest of their life because they are barred from other jobs, especially ones that they would be ideally suited to like care jobs.”

Ms Adams, who is supporting Iris with her case, argued the modern slavery agenda has provided the police with “justification” to increase raids and arrests of migrant sex workers as she argued the legislation is being misused.

“The women in our group who have been raided and prosecuted for brothel-keeping are heads of households, with families both here and back home who depend on them for their survival,” Ms Adams said.

Ms Adams said that Iris ringing other sex workers before and after they see clients has likely “saved a lot of women from being robbed and raped”.

The campaigner said it was standard for the police to seize and freeze bank accounts, as well as confiscate phones, computers, purses, credit cards, and paperwork, such as documents connected to their home. “There seems to be a pattern now; instead of releasing people on bail or charging them, they just release them under investigation, so people sit in limbo,” Ms Adams added.

*Name changed