The organiser of this event, James Harkin, got in touch with me some months ago about doing a panel. I told him I was not keen on having a pointless confrontation with activists who think I’m the devil incarnate – or worse, a sex trafficker. The result is this panel, all of whom i expect to see the complexities and nuances in the topic. We’re only meant to speak five to ten minutes apiece, so I haven’t yet figured out exactly what to say. Perhaps something more rip-roaring than my usual anthropological gaze, given current proposed anti-Demand legislation in the UK. There will be general discussion, so please do come along if you have questions or contributions in London that evening.
SEX TRAFFIC at London’s ICA – Institute of Contemporary Arts
11 March 2009 – 1900 / 7pm
The media and NGOs have raised awareness of sex trafficking in recent years, but does it serve the interests of migrant sex workers to suggest they have been trafficked, or does it collude in their criminalisation and deportation? Should our priority be to give migrant women in the sex industry more control over their own lives, or to stop the traffic?
Speakers: Laura María Agustín, author of Sex at the Margins and a former educator working with expatriate sex workers; Georgina Perry, service manager for Open Doors, an NHS initiative which deliver outreach and clinical support to sex workers in east London; Catherine Stephens, sex worker; Jon Birch, inspector, Metropolitan Police Clubs and Vice Unit. Chair: Libby Brooks, deputy Comment editor, The Guardian.
Nash Room. Book here £10 / £9 Concessions / £8 ICA Members
The ICA is located on The Mall, London SW1Y 5AH. How to get there.
Box Office: 020 7930 3647 Switchboard: 020 7930 0493
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