Substance Misuse & Health Doc 5/5/06 1:52 pm Page A Substance Use and Health Related Needs of Migrant Sex Workers and Women Trafficked into Sexual Exploitation in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and the City of London Substance Misuse & Health Doc 5/5/06 1:52 pm Page B Report produced by: Research and Development Unit Programme Service The Salvation Army United Kingdom Territory with the Republic of Ireland 101 Newington Causeway London SE1 6BN Tel: 0207 367 4859 April, 2006 The views expressed in this report are those of the individual authors, and not necessarily those of The Salvation Army, the London Borough of Tower Hamlets or the City of London. Substance Misuse & Health Doc 5/5/06 1:52 pm Page 1 Contents Acknowledgements . 3 Appendices Appendix A: Map of London boroughs. 93 Executive summary . 5 Appendix B: Organisation list. 95 Introduction . 13 Appendix C: Case studies . 101 Definitions and scope of the study . 15 List of Tables Aims and methodology. 17 Table 1: Table listing the nationalities . 22 of African women arrested as part of Operation Kon Tiki between 2003-2005. Trafficking routes to the UK . 21 Table 2: Table listing the nationalities . 23 of women from The Americas arrested Scale of migrant sex work and trafficking . 27 as part of Operation Kon Tiki between for sexual exploitation in the UK 2003-2005. Table 3: Table listing the nationalities . 24 Review of current literature on migrant . 29 of Asian women arrested as part of sex work and trafficking in the UK Operation Kon Tiki between 2003-2005. Table 4: Table listing the nationalities . 25 History of sex work in the area . 33 of Central and Eastern European women arrested as part of Operation Kon Tiki between 2003-2005. Review of current service providers . 35 in Tower Hamlets & The City Chart 1: Telephone survey: regional . 49 nationalities/ethnicities identified in The City, Tower Hamlets and surrounding boroughs. Profile of the sex working population . 45 in Tower Hamlets & The City Chart 2: Telephone survey: nationalities/ . 49 ethnicities identified in The City by region. Extent and nature of substance use . 57 Chart 3: Telephone survey: nationalities/ . 50 amongst the sex working population ethnicities identified in Tower Hamlets of Tower Hamlets and The City by region. Chart 4: Telephone survey: comparison of . 50 Health needs of sex workers . 63 nationalities/ethnicities by area. Chart 5: PunterNet: nationalities/ethnicities . 51 Barriers to accessing health services . 73 identified in East London by region. for sex workers Chart 6: What action do GPs in Tower . 74 Hamlets take if a non-EU national presents Gaps in current service provision . 81 with invalid documentation when registering? Conclusions . 85 Authors Recommendations . 89 Rebecca Dibb Tamsin Mitchell Gayle Munro Bibliography . 107 Elizabeth Rough With additional material from Dr Mike Emberson Contents 1 Substance Misuse & Health Doc 5/5/06 1:52 pm Page 2 2 Contents Substance Misuse & Health Doc 5/5/06 1:52 pm Page 3 Acknowledgements Several persons and institutions have made valuable The researchers would also like to thank the following contributions to this study. We would like to thank individuals for their contribution: Matthew King, Gilly Cottew and the rest of the team at London Borough of Tower Hamlets (LBTH) DAT for their Jane Ayres, Praed Street Project, input and support. Sarah Few and Mike Gregory, Braintree Advice and support from the following individuals in District Council, Design Services, the form of contributions at steering and advisory Chief Superintendent Martin Jauch (retired), group meetings is much appreciated: Tim Jones, formerly of The Salvation Army Golda Behr, City Drug Action Team (DAT), Research & Development Unit, Dr Adrian Bonner, University of Kent/The Cathy Le Feuvre, The Salvation Army Salvation Army Social Services Department, Communications Department, Stan Burnyeat, Government Office for London, Mary Cate Maclennan and the rest of the Major Mary Capsey, The Salvation Army team at CLASH, International Development Unit, Duncan Parker and Graham Hodge, The Dr Mike Emberson, The Salvation Army Salvation Army International Development Research & Development Unit, Unit, Catherine French, formerly of City DAT, Garry Smith, The Salvation Army Research & Development Unit, Captain Dr Bramwell Hayes, The Salvation Army Greig House, Rio Vella, U-Turn. Fiona Mackay, Government Office for London, We would particularly like to thank our interviewees for Georgina Perry, Open Doors, their insight and their time and for consenting to the publication of detailed case studies. A full list of Alice Peycke, Safe Exit Tower Hamlets. contributing agencies and individuals can be found at Appendix B. Tower Hamlets Partnership This publication is part funded by the Tower Hamlets Partnership using the Safer Stronger Communities Fund. The Tower Hamlets Partnership brings together all of the key stakeholders - residents, statutory and voluntary organisations - to deliver on our shared vision of a better quality of life for everyone living and working in Tower Hamlets. Acknowledgements 3 Substance Misuse & Health Doc 5/5/06 1:52 pm Page 4 4 Acknowledgements Substance Misuse & Health Doc 5/5/06 1:52 pm Page 5 Executive summary Introduction The methods detailed above led to: This report presents the findings of a research study ● Interviews with 65 service providers/organisations into the substance use and health needs of migrant sex workers and women trafficked into sexual exploitation ● Interviews with seven migrant sex workers in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets (Tower Hamlets) and the City (City). Research was conducted ● Interviews with five maids working in off-street over a period of approximately four months, November commercial sex premises 2005 - February/March 2006. The aims of the study, as ● Interviews with two managers of lapdancing/strip laid out by the commissioning body, were: clubs ● To map the incidence of the trafficking of women ● Case studies drawn from interviews with migrant and girls into sexual exploitation in Tower Hamlets sex workers and service providers. and the City, identifying country of origin and trafficking routes The study was approved by The University of Kent’s Research Ethics Committee and The Salvation Army’s ● To identify the nature and extent of safety, Medical and Ethics Advisory Committee. substance use and health related needs of trafficked and migrant women working in the sex Access to such a vulnerable, hard-to-reach and hidden industry. population proved problematic and despite the multi- methodological approach adopted by the researchers, The study was largely funded by the London Borough of barriers involved in the research study proved to be Tower Hamlets Safer and Stronger Communities Fund multiple. Levels of co-operation from the various with additional funding from The Salvation Army. The service providers and agencies varied widely. It is likely research findings aim to inform the programme to be that had the research period been of a longer duration offered by a women-only drugs service, due to open in and allowing time for full NHS ethical approval to be Tower Hamlets in the summer of 2006. secured, a more comprehensive study could have been carried out. Methodology Recognising the hard to reach nature of the target group, the researchers adopted a multi-methodological Summary of key findings approach to ensure that all potential sources of data Presence of migrant sex working population in Tower were examined. The methods included: Hamlets and the City As one of the main areas for street prostitution in ● A comprehensive literature review London, the on-street sex market in Tower Hamlets has ● A mapping exercise of commercial sex sites across been discussed in previous literature (Brewis, 2003; the two research areas, including: a website search Dickson, 2004b; Safe Exit Tower Hamlets, 2006; for commercial sex premises; collection of Skidmore, 2005). While the majority of women working telephone numbers from cards advertising sexual on-street in Tower Hamlets are British, the current services in telephone boxes and the windows of study indicates that migrant women and girls have newsagents; a telephone survey of sites identified been identified working on-street in Tower Hamlets and surrounding areas (particularly Newham and Kings ● Distribution of flyers, advertising the study and Cross), in much smaller but increasing numbers. This calling for participants, to service users from the study did not find any indication of migrant women target group through 17 direct service providers working on-street in the City. ● Use of an advertisement calling for participants in Much less is known about the off-street commercial sex a local weekly newspaper market in Tower Hamlets. The telephone survey of off- street premises in East London conducted for the ● Researchers accompanied staff from a sexual current study indicated a higher number of premises in health agency on street outreach Tower Hamlets than cited in existing sources.1 The ● Attendance by a researcher at a central London survey identified 71 premises as operational overall sexual health clinic for sex workers. (with a total of 114 women working in them), 21 of these located in Tower Hamlets (30 women). Eleven lap dancing, strip or ‘gentlemen’s’ clubs were also identified in Tower Hamlets in the course of the 1 Including Dickson, 2004b and Lilley, 2005a Executive Summary 5 Substance Misuse & Health Doc 5/5/06 1:52 pm Page 6 research. Although these clubs generally maintain that following ethnicities/nationalities: Black; French entertainers are not involved in selling sex2, a local Caribbean; German; half Greek/half English; Indian; sexual health service provider reports seeing women Singaporean. There were no women identified from who work in dance clubs and who supplement their Eastern Europe. income by working in flats. The majority of women who work in off-street premises in Tower Hamlets would Tower Hamlets was found to have 21 off-street premises appear to be migrant.