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The Observer Sunday 10 Feb 2002 Letters to
the Editor Anti-trafficking laws hurt women Your cover
story (Review, last week) repeats misinformation aimed at promoting new
anti-trafficking laws. An unbiased look would spot that such laws would
remove the requirement for the victim to give evidence against her abuser,
thus enabling her immediate deportation. The use of
anti-trafficking as a means for deportation was exposed in last year's
Soho raids. More than 40 women were arrested and some deported without
regard for legal and human rights. Many had fled the war in Kosovo, some
were rape victims, some had children. As a public
outcry questioned the raids and their legality, the police story changed:
from 'liberating victims of trafficking' and 'looking for children' to
'acting on behalf of residents'. Yet no victims of trafficking or children
were found, and the residents' Soho Society opposed the raids. To justify
such deportations, statistics claim 80 per cent of prostitutes in London
have been trafficked and all immigrant sex workers are victims. You call for
resources for women. This won't happen while the media peddles Government
measures which increase deportations, not protection.
International Prostitutes Collective
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