‘Alarming surge’ in women reporting ‘sex-for-rent’ cases in Ireland

Published

4 months ago

March 2, 2025

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A number of young women have told Sky News of receiving “shocking” offers of accommodation in exchange for sex, with international students particularly affected.

As the only English-speaking country in the EU, Ireland is a perennially popular destination for English language students, thought to currently number around 40,000.

They arrive to a country beset by a years-long housing crisis and often respond to adverts in private Facebook groups.

Brazilian Ana Paula Viana came to Dublin in 2022 to study English and complete a master’s degree. Like many students, she scanned listings on Facebook to find accommodation.

Ana, who had worked as a journalist in Brazil, responded to an ad for a single bedroom in the city centre.

“When I asked him for a price he said it wouldn’t be necessary to pay if I slept in his bedroom a few times a week,” she says.

“I felt a bit shocked. I just forgot about it and tried to move forward because I really needed to find a place to live, which is wrong because I would have reported it somewhere.”

The adverts almost never make any mention of sexual requests, but when young women respond, the intentions of the advertiser soon become clear.

This practice of asking for sex in lieu of rent has seen an “alarming surge”, according to the Irish Council for International Students (ICOS).

The organisation recently carried out a survey which showed that one in 20 students had been propositioned in this way.

Laura Harmon, executive director of ICOS, said “urgent legislative action is needed” to address the issue.

Two bills designed to specifically outlaw it fell when the Dail (lower house of the Irish parliament) was dissolved ahead of an election last year.

The new minister for justice, Jim O’Callaghan, has said the government is “seeking to make offering sex for rent a specific criminal offence” and that work is ongoing between his department and the attorney general “on a suitable provision”.

Ana told Sky News the government “definitely” needs to legislate as soon as possible.

“Another problem is with women from Latin America or South America,” she says.

“People in general sexualise us as women. Some men take advantage because we are from Latin America, they think we are dying for any place, or we are poor or something like that.”

Darling Duran is from Bolivia and also came to Ireland to study English. She responded to an online ad for a one-bed apartment, available at €700 (£578) per month.

When the landlord replied, she says he told her “he was working at night so the bed is free, so I can stay in his room. He told me because he was working the bed is free, so I would stay in his bed, but sometimes he would be there”.

The advertiser, who Darling believed to be from a European country, told her that “he had no problem to share the bed with me because he is single”.

After Darling refused, the man tried repeatedly to ask her on a date.

“I don’t think it’s funny,” Darling says. “In that moment I was very uncomfortable, and I was thinking that nobody deserves to go through this kind of situation.”

With average rents in Dublin around €2,500 (£2,064), up 4% on last year, and a shortage of rental properties, international students will continue to turn to social media to source accommodation.

Until specific legislation is introduced, it’s feared they will continue to encounter those who see sexual opportunity in the midst of Ireland’s chronic housing crisis.

World

Trump applying ‘heavy pressure’ on Netanyahu to end war in Gaza

Published

5 hours ago

July 9, 2025

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Trump applying 'heavy pressure' on Netanyahu to end war in Gaza

US President Donald Trump is putting “heavy” pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the war in Gaza, two sources close to the ceasefire negotiations have told Sky News.

One US source said: “The US pressure on Israel has begun, and tonight it will be heavy.”

The source, who is not authorised to speak publicly, was referring to the White House dinner on Monday night between Trump and Netanyahu.

A second Middle Eastern diplomatic source agreed that the American pressure on Israel would be intense.

Netanyahu arrived in Washington DC in the early hours of Monday morning and held meetings on Monday with Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Middle East envoy, and Marco Rubio, the secretary of state and national security adviser.

The Israeli prime minister plans to be in Washington until Thursday with meetings on Capitol Hill on Tuesday.

Trump has made clear his desire to bring the Gaza conflict to an end.

However, he has never articulated how a lasting peace, which would satisfy both the Israelis and Palestinians, could be achieved.

His varying comments about ownership of Gaza, moving Palestinians out of the territory and permanent resettlement, have presented a confusing policy.

Situation for Palestinians worse than ever

Over the coming days, we will see the extent to which Trump demands that Netanyahu accepts the current Gaza ceasefire deal, even if it falls short of Israel’s war aims – the elimination of Hamas.

The strategic objective to permanently remove Hamas seems always to have been impossible. Hamas as an entity was the extreme consequence of the Israeli occupation.

The Palestinians’ challenge has not gone away, and the situation for Palestinians now is worse than it has ever been in Gaza and also the West Bank. It is not clear how Trump plans to square that circle.

Trump’s oft-repeated desire to “stop the killing” is sincere. Those close to him often emphasise this. He is also looking to cement his legacy as a peacemaker. He genuinely craves the Nobel Peace Prize.

In this context, the complexities of conflicts – in Ukraine or Gaza – are often of secondary importance to the president.

If Netanyahu can be persuaded to end the war, what would he need?

The hostages back – for sure. That would require agreement from Hamas. They would only agree to this if they have guarantees on Gaza’s future and their own future. More circles to square.

Was White House dinner a key moment?

The Monday night dinner could have been a key moment for the Middle East. Two powerful men in the Blue Room of the White House, deciding the direction of the region.

Will it be seen as the moment the region was remoulded? But to whose benefit?

Trump is a dealmaker with an eye on the prize. But Netanyahu is a political master; they don’t call him “the magician” for nothing.

Trump makes decisions instinctively. He can shift position quickly and often listens to the last person in the room. Right now – that person is Netanyahu.

Gaza is one part of a jigsaw of challenges, which could become opportunities.

Diplomatic normalisation between Israel and the Arab world is a prize for Trump and could genuinely secure him the Nobel Peace Prize.

But without the Gaza piece, the jigsaw is incomplete.

World

IDF presence in Gaza ‘only issue’ still to be resolved in push for Israel-Hamas ceasefire, Sky News understands

Published

5 hours ago

July 9, 2025

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IDF presence in Gaza 'only issue' still to be resolved in push for Israel-Hamas ceasefire, Sky News understands

Only one issue remains unresolved in the push to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza, according to Sky sources.

Intense negotiations are taking place in Qatar in parallel with key talks in Washington between US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Two sources with direct knowledge of the negotiations have told Sky News that disagreement between Israel and Hamas remains on the status and presence of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) inside Gaza.

The two sides have bridged significant differences on several other issues, including the process of delivering humanitarian aid and Hamas’s demand that the US guarantees to ensure Israel doesn’t unilaterally resume the war when the ceasefire expires in 60 days.

On the issue of humanitarian aid, Sky News understands that a third party that neither Hamas nor Israel has control over will be used in areas from which the IDF withdraws.

This means that the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) – jointly run by an American organisation and Israel – will not be able to operate anywhere where the IDF is not deployed. It will limit GHF expansion plans.

It is believed the United Nations or other recognised humanitarian organisations will adopt a greater role.

On the issue of a US guarantee to prevent Israel restarting the war, Sky News understands that a message was passed to Hamas by Dr Bishara Bahbah, a Palestinian American who has emerged as a key back channel in the negotiations.

The message appears to have been enough to convince Hamas that President Trump will prevent Israel from restarting the conflict.

However, there is no sense from any of the developments over the course of the past day about what the future of Gaza looks like longer-term.

Final challenge is huge

The last remaining disagreement is, predictably, the trickiest to bridge.

Israel’s central war aim, beyond the return of the hostages, is the total elimination of Hamas as a military and political organisation. The withdrawal of the IDF, partial or total, could allow Hamas to regroup.

One way to overcome this would be to provide wider guarantees of clear deliverable pathways to a viable future for Palestinians.

But there is no sense from the negotiations of any longer-term commitments on this issue.

Two key blocks have been resolved over the past 24 hours but the final challenge is huge.

The conflict in Gaza erupted when Hamas attacked southern Israel in October 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli figures. Some 20 hostages are believed to remain alive in Gaza.

Israel has killed more than 57,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.

World

‘Widespread sexual violence’ took place during Hamas’s 7 October attacks, report by Israeli experts says

Published

14 hours ago

July 8, 2025

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'Widespread sexual violence' took place during Hamas's 7 October attacks, report by Israeli experts says

A newly released report led by Israeli legal and gender experts presents detailed evidence alleging “widespread and systematic” sexual violence during the Hamas-led terror attack on 7 October.

Warning: This story contains descriptions of rape and sexual violence

The findings, published by the Dinah Project, argue that these acts amount to conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV), and assert that “Hamas used sexual violence as a tactical weapon of war”.

The report draws on 18 months of investigation and is based on survivor testimonies, eyewitness accounts, and interviews with first responders, morgue personnel and healthcare professionals.

According to the Dinah Project, the documented patterns – such as forced nudity, gang rapes, genital mutilation, and threats of forced marriage – indicate a deliberate and coordinated use of sexual violence by Hamas operatives during the attack.

Reported incidents span at least six locations, including the Nova music festival, and several kibbutzim in southern Israel.

One section of the report describes victims “found fully or partially naked from the waist down, with their hands tied behind their backs and/or to structures such as trees and poles, and shot”.

At the Nova music festival and surrounding areas, the investigators found “reasonable grounds to believe” that multiple women were raped or gang-raped before being killed.

The report’s findings are consistent with earlier investigations by the United Nations and the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The UN’s Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict previously concluded that there were “reasonable grounds to believe” CRSV took place during the attack.

Significantly, the Dinah Project urges the international community to officially recognise the use of sexual violence by Hamas as a deliberate strategy of war and calls on the United Nations to add Hamas to its list of parties responsible for conflict-related sexual violence.

The nature and scale of sexual violence on 7 October have been a subject of intense controversy, with some accusing parties of weaponising the narrative for political ends.

This report seeks to confront what its authors call “denial, misinformation, and global silence,” and to provide justice for the victims.

Hamas has denied that its fighters have used sexual violence and mistreated female hostages.