More women are being forced to consider prostitution because of the recession in Scotland, it has been claimed.
Jan MacLeod, chairwoman of the Women’s Support Network, said more women are contacting prostitution support centres for help because they are struggling to pay their bills.
Women’s groups in Tayside and Fife said it was notoriously difficult to assess the full extent of the issue due to the ”hidden” nature of the trade.
Sheila Noble, of Fife Domestic and Sexual Abuse Partnership, said women from the region travel to Dundee and Edinburgh to sell their bodies.
”I think it is recognised that prostitution tends to be more centred around cities but we don’t have a lot of hard knowledge on this,” she said. ”Anecdotally, we know of women and men from Fife who travel to either Edinburgh or Dundee.
”If you go into some newspapers and look in the ads in the personal columns there will be people from Fife working within the sex trade advertising sex, but it’s hard to say if that has increased with the recession. There is no part of the country that is immune.”
Anne Brown, chairwoman of Angus Women’s Aid, claimed there had been a recent rise in women being forced into prostitution by their partners.
She said: ”It is a hidden issue. More and more women are being forced into prostitution through domestic abuse and it seems that is becoming relatively common.
”Nobody chooses to resort to prostitution. We have never worked with a woman who has seen it as a choice.”
Ms MacLeod said sex workers were often people who had suffered from abuse or a difficult childhood and had turned to drugs as a coping mechanism.
However, women suffering financial hardships are now turning to prostitution to help them get out of debt.
”Changing attitudes towards the role of the buyer in the chain of the sex industry is crucial,” Ms MacLeod said.
”No one is saying it will bring an end to prostitution altogether, but it will make buyers see it is not a victimless action, and help to ensure people who are vulnerable and disadvantaged are protected frompredators, criminals and traffickers.”
The Women’s Support Network has urged supporters to write to the Scottish Government over a proposal for a Bill to make it an offence to purchase sex.
Laws apply to running brothels and loitering, such as kerb crawling, but a previous attempt for a total ban by former MSP Trish Godman was not adopted as part of the Criminal Justice and Licensing Bill.
A consultation on the latest proposal, by MSP Rhoda Grant, is under way.
The closing date for responses is December 14.
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