A GoFundMe campaign has been set up by SWARM and SWAI (Sex Worker Advocacy and Resistance Movement and the Sex Workers’ Alliance Ireland) to support two incarcerated sex workers in Ireland. 

The page, active since June 16, has already surpassed its goal of raising £2,000.

The GoFundMe page says: “On Friday, June 7th, Ana and Adrina were sentenced to nine months in prison. They were selling sex in Ireland, a country where prostitution is subject to the Nordic model. Although it was introduced with the promise that it would only target clients and managers, the Nordic model criminalises sex workers for working together – which is what Ana and Adrina were doing.”

The author of the gofundme, Molly Singer, notes that Adrina is pregnant and is facing the possibility of giving birth in prison if things do not chang.

Singer also comments, “Criminalisation is disproportionately targeted at migrants. Ana and Adrina were just trying to stay safe, but the Irish state chose to arrest them, prosecute them, and hand them a jail sentence.

“What has happened to Ana and Adrina is completely unjust. It painfully illustrates what sex workers have been saying for years: the Nordic model does not decriminalise people who sell sex. Raids, arrests, prosecution and jail are violence against sex workers.”

Singer continues, “We have been in touch with their solicitor, so we can get the money to them. We want to do something practical to help these two women – and to tell the world that sex workers need decriminalisation and resources, not the Nordic model.”

Singer offers the services of the advocacy organisations, saying, “If you are a sex worker and have been prosecuted for brothel-keeping because you were sharing a space with another worker in England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland or Northern Ireland, please get in touch. We are two small grassroots organisations with very little money, but we would be keen to offer you solidarity if we can.”