Deputy Mayor for Policing, Kit Malthouse, has called on Londoners to join the fight to end violence against women and to give prostitution adverts the red card. Kit Malthouse was joined by the Met Police, and partner agencies including the White Ribbon Campaign, Eaves, Object, and the Salvation Army to highlight the proliferation of prostitution cards in telephone kiosks across London.

This year over 400,000 cards have been seized by the police and other agencies. They are often the main form of advertising by brothels and are a direct sign of the growth of the city’s vice industry and the sexual exploitation of women- many whom may have been trafficked to the UK.

When elected last year, the Mayor Boris Johnson pledged to make the capital safer for all Londoners and has since launched ‘The Way Forward- A call for action to end violence against women’. An estimated 4,000 women and girls were trafficked into the UK for sexual exploitation in 2003. Men who buy sex are often not aware that women involved in prostitution may have been coerced, exploited and sometimes trafficked these women are being forced into prostitution.

Deputy Mayor for Policing Kit Malthouse said:

“We should not allow criminals to advertise their services in our city and that includes pimps. These cards are the visible manifestation of a growing industry and today we are signaling to those who exploit women that we have had enough. We want to make it dangerous for pimps to advertise by hitting them in the pocket and targeting their customers who use the numbers on the cards.

“Technology means we know who they are, and from today we are doing something to stamp out these cards. We want people to be free to use telephone boxes without having to see pornography and at the same time do something to help those women at the other end of the line who are forced into a life of misery.”

Ch Supt Richard Martin said:

“Dozens of explicit advertising cards in phone boxes is a visible representation of prostitution. This creates unease and increases the fear of crime. If ignored the problem will grow unchecked.

”Due to the large scale of the operation we are satisfied that the vice trade in London will be disrupted. It’s all part of our long-term plan to put those who organize and direct vice in our communities behind bars. Catching carders and taking their cards away eats away at the foundations of this immoral trade.  With the information, evidence and intelligence we obtain we will pursue those organizing the brothels and break their criminal networks apart.

”The impact of this trade on women can never be overstated.  Behind the brothel doors my officers have found women who have been exploited, abused and sometimes trafficked into this country.  It is our biggest priority to stop this happening.”

Chris Green, White Ribbon Campaign UK Director said:

“The White Ribbon Campaign is the leading group of men taking action to tackle male violence against women. There are proven links between the treating of women like commodities to be bought and sold, and violence against women.  Until all men have respect for women we will not end the violence against women. Sex adverts in phone boxes and newspapers fuel trafficking in women by increasing the demand for the buying of sexual services. White Ribbon Campaign will work alongside women’s organizations until this obscene slavery is finished.”

Anna van Heeswijk, Object Campaigns Coordinator said:

“London phone boxes currently act like message boards for pimps, traffickers and other aspects of organized crime, with punters purchasing women as if they were ordering a take away. In light of new  legislation making it a criminal offense to pay for sex from a person who has been exploited, OBJECT supports this GLA initiative to clamp down on commercial sexual exploitation by taking a stand against women being advertised, bought and sold as if they were sexual objects and  not real people.”

Major Anne Read, The Salvation Army’s Anti-Trafficking Response Co-ordinator said:

“The Salvation Army in the United Kingdom and internationally helps and supports the victims of human trafficking and we are also deeply concerned that some of those people being ‘sold’ through sex cards and similar advertising may have been exploited and forced into prostitution against their will. The removal of sex cards from telephone booths is a very positive signal of the ongoing commitment to anti trafficking policies and policing which determines to put an end to this ‘modern slave trade.”

Ruth Breslin, Research & Development Manager, Eaves’ Lilith Project:

“We are very pleased to be working with the GLA on this excellent initiative. We know that the vast majority of phone numbers on these cards do not connect the caller to individual women, but to brothels where women are being exploited. In preparation for new legislation which will clamp down on those who buy sex from anyone subjected to force, we also support any initiative which tackles those who profit from the sexual exploitation of women.

“We are delighted that the GLA recognises the harm inherent in prostitution, and we applaud Kit Malthouse and his team for taking on the issue as part of their move to tackle violence against women in London. We look forward to continuing to work with the GLA to ensure the provision of high-quality support services for those seeking to exit prostitution.”

The display of vice cards was made an arrestable and recordable offense in 2001.  Recent research undertaken by the Child and Woman Abuse Studies Unit and the Safe Exit Project found that one of the most common access routes used by men to source a woman involved in prostitution was in phone boxes.

Source: London.gov

Net News Publisher for World News