English Collective of Prostitutes
Crossroads Women's Centre, PO Box 287, London, NW6 5QU
Tel (minicom/voice) Fax:(0207) 209 4761/07956 316 899
e-mail: crossroadswomenscentre@compuserve.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- On eve of public enquiry

Sex workers & other Soho residents demand protection not eviction

PRESS CONFERENCE

12.30 pm Monday 10 February 2003, Church Hall, St Anne's Church, 55 Dean Street, Soho, London W1

Hear from: women whose loved ones were recently murdered; women fighting eviction after living & working in Soho, some for 25 years; the Soho Society; the local Rector & other community support.

Elizabeth Valad, the young mother whose body was so tragically found in bin bags in Camden, North West London a month ago, is one of three women to be murdered in recent years who were forced out of Soho flats by Westminster.

One local woman commented:
"Liz was a friend of mine. Before Christmas she was working in Windmill Street and was forced out into King's Cross. When other women are all driven out, what is going to happen to them? Then they are at the mercy of the traffickers and Jack the rippers. Women look out for each other here. We are proud of the fact that no woman has ever been killed in a Soho flat."



Soho is one of the longest established red light areas and has traditionally been a safe place for women to work. Sex workers are part of a strong protective community and have support from other residents including the Soho Society, the Rector of the local church and many local businesses. Yet Westminster Council continues to issue Compulsory Purchase Orders (CPO) saying that prostitution is a "blight to the local environment and quality of life for people living, working and visiting in the neighbourhood". Westminster Council cannot abide that women are working independently and taking care of each other. Prostitute women and their maids are protesting against the CPOs and have forced a public enquiry to be heard on Tuesday 11 February.

Instead of protecting prostitute women the police have used their regular 'security' visits to harass, searching flats and possessions and pass information to immigration officers. In February 2001 over 60 flats were raided and only the prompt intervention of the sex worker community and Legal Action for Women prevented immigrant and asylum seeking women being sent back to the war-torn countries they had fled from. Mothers were separated from their children. The raids have continued weekly. They must stop.