the cost of human traffic

This should be common sense to everyone - a person under the threat of violence isn't free to give any kind of consent, which is why this reform from the Home Office is a good one:

Men who knowingly have sex with trafficked prostitutes will be prosecuted for rape as part of a police crackdown, the Guardian has learned.

A drive to cut the demand for trafficked prostitutes will target punters by urging them to report any contacts they have with trafficked women and making it clear that action will be taken against any who have sex in the knowledge that the woman has been trafficked.

The crackdown will be publicised with advertisements in "lads' magazines" and on websites used by men who buy sex.

This is a good idea - go after the people who own and run brothels staffed by trafficked prostitutes AND the men who make the sale of women into sexual slavery profitable in the first place. I am slightly worried about what form the advertisment campaign will take, given the Home Office's recent run of crass attempts at reaching men on the issue of rape.

It would also be good if the government would finally sign the Council of Europe convention on human trafficking, rather than offering up excuses that are devoid of meaning:

A Home Office spokesman said: "We too want to see widespread action to tackle this abhorrent trade at source. The UK has not yet signed the convention but that doesn't mean that we won't sign it."

There's also the sticking point that only men who knowingly have sex with trafficked women will be prosecuted, which seems to create a special class of consent for sex workers which doesn't apply to other women - it also contradicts the Home Office position that consent be understood as something given actively, without coercion, rather than assumed.

I think we also need to think about pursuing and punishing anyone who buys the services of someone who has been sold into sexual slavery. We need to establish a legal perimeter around this crime that burns anyone who gets involved. There should be no reason to feel sympathy for any man inadvertently "caught" in this situation: payment to a third party is not the same as consent.

Similarly, if a person doesn't care enough to check whether the prostitute they buy time with is even a minimally willing party, then I don't care enough to find out if they've made a horrible "innocent" mistake. I have no patience whatsoever for those who complain that it will be "difficult" to find out if a prostitute is the victim of trafficking, least of all for anyone who thinks that these just aren't the questions that men will ask the kind of woman they pay to have sex with.

As ever, the easiest way to avoid accidentally having sex with people who have been sold into slavery is to not pay for sex - or, at the very least, show the minimal level interest or regard you would expect to be shown to your daughter, sister or wife.

If we want to be serious about a society where some people can actively choose to be sex workers - who, on the face of things, will always form a minority of those involved in prostituion - then we need to be deadly serious about the forms of sexual labour which are transparently illegal and immoral.