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17/01/2006
Calls for prostitution laws to be reviewed
Police have called for new legislation to help them to deal more effectively with street prostitution, which has greatly increased in the Belfast area.
Residents and businesses are becoming so concerned with the amount of soliciting occurring on their doorstep that a public meeting was called to try to work out how to deal with the problem.
The meeting was held at Belfast City Hall and dozens of residents and business owners were there to raise their concerns about what was going on in the area.
Many of the residents spoke of their dismay at being mistaken for potential clients or customers, and representatives from local businesses raised issues about the safety of their staff.
One local resident accused the authorities of ignoring the problem.
He said: "The most annoying thing about it is the feeling that you have to put up with this, week in week out, year in year out and that the police will turn a blind eye to it."
The meeting revealed that there was a lucrative trade for prostitutes in Belfast, and women from across Europe, Africa and Britain, as well as both sides of the border, were currently working on the streets. It also unveiled that there are around 50 brothels in South Belfast and some of the curb crawling laws have not been reviewed for around 150 years.
A spokesperson for the PSNI said that they currently have no power to arrest and prosecute kerb crawlers and are dealing with extremely out of date laws. He added that police services elsewhere in the UK have a more updated legislation specifically designed against these types of offences.
The government has today announced a new crackdown on prostitution in England and Wales, and residents in Belfast are calling for the same tactics to be applied to Northern Ireland.
(EF/GB)
Residents and businesses are becoming so concerned with the amount of soliciting occurring on their doorstep that a public meeting was called to try to work out how to deal with the problem.
The meeting was held at Belfast City Hall and dozens of residents and business owners were there to raise their concerns about what was going on in the area.
Many of the residents spoke of their dismay at being mistaken for potential clients or customers, and representatives from local businesses raised issues about the safety of their staff.
One local resident accused the authorities of ignoring the problem.
He said: "The most annoying thing about it is the feeling that you have to put up with this, week in week out, year in year out and that the police will turn a blind eye to it."
The meeting revealed that there was a lucrative trade for prostitutes in Belfast, and women from across Europe, Africa and Britain, as well as both sides of the border, were currently working on the streets. It also unveiled that there are around 50 brothels in South Belfast and some of the curb crawling laws have not been reviewed for around 150 years.
A spokesperson for the PSNI said that they currently have no power to arrest and prosecute kerb crawlers and are dealing with extremely out of date laws. He added that police services elsewhere in the UK have a more updated legislation specifically designed against these types of offences.
The government has today announced a new crackdown on prostitution in England and Wales, and residents in Belfast are calling for the same tactics to be applied to Northern Ireland.
(EF/GB)
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Northern Ireland WeatherToday:There will be a mixture of bright intervals and a few showers. Best of the sunny spells will be near the North Coast. Feeling on the cool side. Maximum temperature 10 °C.Tonight:Showers will gradually die out during the evening. A cold night with long clear spells leading to a touch of frost in places. Minimum temperature 0 °C.
