Codenamed Operation Phoenix, senior police officials have started briefing a number of Jersey hotels about signs to look out for that could suggest people are being forced into selling sex.
Officers say they are aware of a number of hotels in the Island that are being used by teenage and adult prostitutes which may involve organised exploitation.
The hotel briefings come months after the JEP revealed that police were aware of up to 40 women and men offering sex for sale in Jersey.
During this newspaper’s three-month investigation into prostitution in the Island, it found that a number of women, many travelling to the Island from the UK, were using well-known Island hotels to sell sex for up to £160 an hour.
Although many appeared to be working independently, police fear some may be being ‘exploited and controlled’ by others.
Under Jersey law prostitution is not classed as an offence, however it does provide protection for people under trafficking legislation.
Detective Chief Inspector Chris Beechey said that tackling the problem in the Island was not an easy task.
‘We believe that some of the women, and men, receiving payment for sexual services may be vulnerable and possibly being controlled by others, as well as facing obvious risks when alone with clients,’ he said.
‘We want to ensure the safety of these people from exploitation and trafficking, however this is not always an easy task as many do not see themselves as victims. By educating hotel staff we hope to be able to identify those who are potentially vulnerable and engage with them.’
Officers are advising hotels to look out for a range of signs including drug use, guests paying in cash and high-traffic to hotel rooms.
In December Romanian national Catalin Mihail Avram, who had travelled to the Island from the UK, was deported and banned from the Island for three years by the Magistrate’s Court after he pleaded guilty to running a brothel in St Helier. The court heard how he had arrived in the Island with two women, one of whom was his pregnant girlfriend, who he had sold for sex.
Jersey police have advised hotels to look for:
• Adult refusing to leave credit card details and paying in cash.
Jersey’s only prostitution law dates back to 1915.
The legislation, which is written in French, does not make selling sex illegal, but it does outlaw men from advertising or selling sex on the street or living off the profits made from prostitution.
The law also states that it is illegal for ‘any man or woman’ to influence the movements of a prostitute or help them engage in the act.
Anyone found guilty of these offences ‘shall be liable to imprisonment not exceeding two years’, the law states.
Because of the restrictions imposed on police by what officers describe as an ‘outdated’ prostitution law, they said many of their efforts were based around the more recent human trafficking legislation that was introduced in 2008.
It is listed under Crime (Transnational Organised Crime) 2008, Article 4, and covers the movement of a person, for the purposes of physical exploitation, across or even within a border.
That means the legislation can be used even if a person is trafficked from one part of the Island to another.
However, the law can only be used if ‘the recruitment, arrangement, organisation or procurement’ is by means of any of the following: the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, abduction, fraud or deception; the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability; or the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person.
• Teenagers loitering in public areas/external areas of premises.
• Guests with local addresses renting a room.
• Guests who appear secretive about their visit or trying to conceal their activities in the room, or who they are with last minute/walk-in bookings.
• Bookings made in different names to those who check-in / person speaking a different language to the person booking.
• Frequent visitors to the hotel who do not appear to have a reason for being there.
• Guests who move in and out of the premises regularly at unusual hours.
• Guest rooms with a lot of condoms/condom wrappers, drugs/drug paraphernalia (e.g. syringes, wraps, pipes, bongs, broken light bulbs, spoons, plastic bags).
• Signs of alcohol, drug or substance misuse.
• High traffic to guest room.
• Guests arriving and asking for a specific room number but they don’t know the name in which the room is booked.
• Guests who don’t want their room cleaned or visited.
• Guests who do not have any luggage or ID.
• Young people with significantly older boyfriends/girlfriends.
• Guests who appear to be under the age of 25 for ID both in the licensed area and when delivering alcohol to rooms.
• A pre-paid bar tab to a room where children stay.
• Number of persons visiting a room at regular intervals – a person may have arranged for others to visit the room where a child is being sexually exploited.
• Young persons who appear overly made up.
• Guests who access an excessive or unusual amount of pornography (TV or computer).
• Individuals who appear to be monitoring public areas
IT is often said that there are few better places to live in the world than Jersey, and it is not hard to see why.
A strong sense of community, high standards of living underpinned by a healthy economy and the beautiful natural environment make Islanders the envy of thousands of visitors every year.
The Island is also blessed with a relatively low crime rate, but it would be foolhardy to believe that we are completely insulated from the many ills of the world beyond our shores.
In November last year the JEP shone a light into the shadowy and secretive world of prostitution – an issue which has been the subject of rumour and suspicion for years.
The findings of our investigation made it crystal-clear that we can never be complacent about the risk of vulnerable people being exploited under our noses – in places we pass every day without giving it a second thought.
While it may come as no surprise that the oldest profession is alive and well in our community, it is the presence of organised criminals who come with prostitution that should ring alarm bells.
We revealed that there are two types of worker operating in the sex trade.
Some escorts describe themselves as self-employed, but there are fears that many women working are being coerced into selling sex.
Two of Jersey’s most senior policemen said that officers at the ports and the Airport have intercepted women accompanied by what he describes as ‘chaperones’.
He fears that these women are too frightened to speak out.
Although hamstrung by inadequate legislation, the police are doing what they can to root out this problem.
There must be others, however, who know what is going on but who say nothing to protect their own sick or selfish ends.
If men and women are being bought and sold as commodities against their will by criminals from here or from abroad, we must do everything possible to offer them protection.
There is a very real chance that people are being trafficked to Jersey.
Whether it is happening in a house in Trinity or in hotels across St Helier, prostitution is not something to snigger about.
