Paying for sex should be outlawed, Minister says

In order to stop women being trafficked into prostitution, Home Office Minister Sarah Dines MP, wants to see the practice of paying for sex outlawed.

Infront of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee on Wednesday, Ms Dines told MPs there is a demand for paid sex, that it’s “part of human nature”, and it’s for this reason that women continue to be trafficked into prostitution.

When pressed by the select committee on what action the government are taking to reduce the demand for paid sex, Dines confirmed they were using the legal system to “make the UK the most unfriendly country for this sort of practice”.

She added: “The sex industry… has been around for thousands of years. Reducing that demand is difficult. There have been various models across the world… we know other countries have tried outlawing various practices.

“What we are doing practically – to answer your questions – is we are funding a lot of work to stop this trade. It goes to the very heart of the whole reason why we have got the Illegal Migration Bill now passed – because we want to squash the international organised crime aspect of this.”

The government recently claimed that the migrants crossing the Channel in small boats were “gaming” the modern slavery laws, which came under fire by the committee.

In response, Dines provided four examples of specific cases, with police testimony which she felt proved there was a problem with migrants taking advantage of the modern slavery legislation.

Dame Diana Johnson MP, committee Chairwomen, quickly dismissed these arguments as unreliable. She said, “giving four examples of individuals is not data that should help determine whether a policy is working or not.”

Dines reminded MPs that these types of crimes are “incredibly difficult to get the data on” because of a reluctance of trafficked sex workers to support prosecutions against the men exploiting them.

She went on to insist that the key to reducing the problem of women being trafficked into Britain was to target the international crime groups responsible for this.