Most sex workers meet customers in person. For them, the coronavirus spells economic ruin. I [normally] only make a bit of money through online avenues. But like many others, Cleo has switched focus to digital since the lockdown came into effect. Online dominatrix Eva de Vil says: "There's lots of new girls joining the scene right now - or offline sex workers moving online to help with finances. And she has seen a growing appetite from her clientele for isolation-themed roleplay "clips" - on-demand videos not filmed live.

This story was originally published on Medium. Across the world, millions of women and girls live in the long shadows of human trafficking. Whether ensnared by force, coercion, or deception, they live in limbo, in fear, in pain. However, the vast majority of detected trafficking victims are women and girls, and three out of four are trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation. Human trafficking is a heinous crime that shatters lives, families and dreams.

Sex trafficking is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation, including sexual slavery , which is considered a form of modern slavery. In , the International Labour Organization reported Most victims find themselves in coercive or abusive situations from which escape is both difficult and dangerous. Locations where this practice occurs span the globe and reflect an intricate web between nations, making it very difficult to construct viable solutions to this human rights problem.

Vulnerable women, mainly from eastern Europe, are being trafficked into England and Wales and forced to have sex with clients in rental homes and hotels, according to an inquiry into so-called pop-up brothels by a cross-party group of politicians. Organized crime groups advertise their victims to buyers on sex marketplace websites and host them in temporary brothels - often homes rented for short periods of time - the report said. Short-term home rental giant Airbnb said this year it would invest in new technology to tackle modern slavery amid concerns that traffickers are using its properties as pop-up brothels to sexually abuse women and girls in Britain and the United Sates.