The organisation that supports women affected by prostitution and trafficking in Ireland has seen an 18 per cent increase in demand for its services in the last year.
In its annual report Ruhama says it worked directly with over 300 women last year. 83 of those were suspected victims of sex trafficking.
There was an increase of 29% in the number of women (219) accessing Ruhama’s Casework, which involves designing a person-centred care plan to respond holistically to the individual woman’s needs.
Sarah Benson is CEO of Ruhama - she says that the sex trade is now controlled by ruthless criminal gangs. She says women are utterly expolited and subjected to slavery.
Speaking at the launch, She said “It is quite remarkable when we analyse our work over the past 25 years to see the number of women assisted by Ruhama and the range of nationalities which is indicative of the globalised sex trade which now exists in Ireland”.
