Invisible Lives | Vignettes

Vignettes #3

I have been doing sex work for over 15 years, in Turkey, Greece, Spain, and now in the UK. I have a 17 year old daughter, back in Romania. Recently, I got a call from my daughter to say she had an accident and her knee needed to be fixed in a plaster.

‘I’m worried about my daughter. And now, I am worried because I am told that I have Hepatitis B, which I could pass on to my daughter and I think I already infected my husband. My husband lives with me here. I want to go back to Romania for Easter and be with my family. ’

A week later after this conversation, I was in court with a couple of hundreds fine for soliciting sex on the street. I did my best to explain to the Magistrates that this court order will only send me back into the street to make the money and pay the fine. It was too late for them to change their mind, but they agreed that I should pay in small weekly installments.

M. went to Romania for Easter, and then to Spain to sex work there again.

All I wanted was ‘a room where I can give birth and take care of my baby’. All I asked for was accommodation. But, in only three days since we spoke with you, my situation got worse.

On Monday morning my friend told me that I have to live as soon as possible the place we shared in the last months because she does not want to pay the rent for both of us [these two friends are sex workers, but Andra stopped selling sex when she was around 6 months pregnant].

By Monday evening me, my unborn child and my husband, were looking out for a place to sleep. We found a friend who lodged us overnight. But, the next day, I accepted to go have my check-up in the hospital to see if my baby was alright [it was the first time in eight months since she was pregnant]. After the social worker assessed me and my needs, I was told that they cannot get me a place for me, my husband and the unborn baby.

Vignettes #2

Vignettes #1

I am a mother of a three year old but she’s with my parents back in Romania. It’s difficult being here on my own, it gets lonely, you know. I send money back to my family in Romania. There are about 11 people who are relying me for money. But it’s difficult because work has been slow lately. I used to work selling sex through a massage parlour but they ended up taking most of what I earned. On a good day I’d make 700 but I’d only get to keep 100 of that so now I work by myself on the streets.

Last night, around ten thirty, I was sitting on the steps where I usually wait for clients opposite a bus stop. A man got off the bus and smiled at me as he passed by. Around midnight the same man comes and asks me what I’m doing sitting there alone so I tell him I’m working. He asks how much I charge and if I want to go with him so I told him how much I charge for twenty minutes and that I only do it with a condom. He agreed so we went towards the alley behind the main road.

We stopped by a back garden fence of this house, I was with my back to the fence and he was in front of me with his back to the road and I couldn’t see his face because of the darkness and the hat he was wearing. First he lit a cigarette and pretended to look for money so I asked him to pay me for the second time before I did anything.

He looked left and right and behind him and he pretended to get the money from his coast but instead he takes out a kitchen knife, puts it to my throat and says “Go down on me and make me happy without a condom.” I felt my body go cold and I froze and all I could say was “please, please, why?”

In the meantime, a hand stretched out from nowhere; it passed by my head aiming towards the attacker’s arm holding the knife. I felt my body being pushed forward. By the time I realized what was happening, the fence had already fallen onto my back pressing me to lean towards my attacker. The attacker though, ran with his knife. I ran too; and as I reached the car parked nearby the man in it, asked me if I was alright. I think that man saw everything.

Vignettes #5

Vignettes #4

Tonight I am hiding from the Police. When I saw the blue lights, I ran to hide behind the back of a car because I am still on curfew.

It's going to be fine. I wait till they pass and then I'll ask the NHS workers to give me a couple of hot chocolate drinks.

Tonight I had my hair in a pony tail and I carry a little shopping trolley to disguise from the Police.

Because they took me to the Police station and kept me there last Monday night, it meant that I could not get on a methadone script the next day.

But, I will definitely go to the NHS office tomorrow to get scripted. This time, I will definitely go – if I get scripted I will not need to come out on the street to make money and buy me drugs.

I lived and worked in Spain for years. I was very young when my parents move to Spain. My father is Romanian and my mother gypsy, but they are not together anymore. I left home when I was 16 to work in a bar and then I took another job in a restaurant. One day, I said why not work on the street – to make more money. I’ll show my father I can have a good life even though I don’t live in their home. That’s how I decided to sell sex on the streets in Madrid.

‘One day, another girl came on my turf and I beat her up badly. When police came and saw swollen eyes they had to take me. They knew me, but they hat to take me at the Police station when they saw what I did to that girl.

They took me from the street to the station; I helped the Police officers once to catch a drug dealer and since they were really good to me. They made me a hot drink when I came. They started to interrogate me about the girl.

I only had a short mini that could barely cover my ass. There were those small phones then, so as soon as I found a good moment I put the tiny Samsung in my vagina, but I started to get worried that it might start vibrating. So, I began to re-adjust my position all the time till they noticed and they asked me if I was alright. I didn’t tell them. What, did you want me to stay in the cell all night without a phone?