On 21 January 2021 European Parliament voted on a resolution that ‘urges the Commission to establish a concrete framework for the rights and protection of sex workers during and after a crisis; further insists on the importance of including measures and strategies that tackle the discrimination faced by sex workers in access to funding, housing, healthcare, education and other services’. 

The resolution comes after a year of failing to include sex workers in measures of protection against the effects of the pandemic in European countries. As SWAN and ICRSE documented in the beginning of the pandemic, sex workers were disproportionately affected by the pandemic, losing their income and access to key health services while still being criminalised by the law enforcements. Furthermore sex workers weren’t able to access the financial support mechanisms that were created by the national governments.

SWAN joins ICRSE and other sex worker’s rights organisations, as well as other progressive NGOs, in welcoming the decision that recognises the importance and urgency of inclusion of sex workers in the strategies to fight against the effects of COVID19 pandemic.