More women turning to prostitution to make ends meet, figures suggest

More women are turning to prostitution to "make ends meet" in the UK's increasingly challenging financial climate, figures suggest.

ITV reports that the number of new accounts registered with a prostitution website by women in Wales increased from 260 at the beginning of 2023 to 461.

The English Collective of Prostitutes, which deals with women across the UK, said the rise is representative of a wider trend, driven by the cost of living crisis.

A spokeswoman for the group said: "Since the start of the cost of living crisis we saw an increase in calls to our helpline: women, specifically, asking how to go into prostitution".

She added that many women after having left for years were thinking about how to get back into it, suggesting that "people were turning to prostitution to fill the gap".

Campaigners are calling for prostitution to be "decriminalised" in the UK - a move CARE warns would aid criminals, including human traffickers.

Recent cases in Northern Ireland showed that women had been trafficked from Romania to NI for the purpose of sexual exploitation.

Although the purchase of sex is illegal in NI, authorities have failed to prosecute men who visited brothels where trafficking victims were exploited.

Commenting on the situation earlier this month, CARE's Senior Policy Officer Tim Cairns said:

“With countries across the world now adopting the Nordic model to protect vulnerable victims of human trafficking, it is alarming that the PSNI and the courts in Northern Ireland have not done so properly.

"Their failure to secure convictions ensures that demand for sexual exploitation continues. This is good news for criminals, and bad news for those they exploit."

The Scottish Government is also considering a change in the law to criminalise the purchase of sex - an approach taken in various countries that's proven to curb trafficking.