Hong Kong Sex Workers and Police Violence

Submitted by: Action for Reach Out, a sex workers concern group established since 1993, Hong Kong, China

Input for: Expert Group Meeting: "Violence Against Women: A statistical overview, challenges and gaps in data collection and methodology and approaches for overcoming them," 11-14 April 2005, Geneva, Switzerland

Topic: Violence against women in the sex industry

AFRO conducted a survey during the period from mid-March to late June of 2005. We managed to collect all 73 finished questionnaires back. The ten respondents, who mentioned in the questionnaire that they experienced arrest and questioning by the police, were invited for an in-depth interview. In the end, we successfully conducted in-depth interviews with six of the ten respondents.

40 of the 73 respondents were street sex workers, while 27 of them worked in nightclubs/bars/karaokes and six of them worked in one-woman brothels/hair salons.

60 of the 73 respondents had encounters with the Hong Kong police. The ten of the 60 who had encounters with the police had been arrested. six of the ten who were arrested by the police experienced lawsuits against them in Hong Kong.

Impolite treatment by the police

Among 60 respondents who had encounters with the Hong Kong police, 65 per cent of them considered most or all of the police officers they encountered polite. 30 per cent of them thought half of the police officers they encountered were polite and half of them were not. Those who thought most or all of the police officers they encountered impolite made up five per cent of 60 respondents.

For the item "Impolite Treatment", what the respondents mostly referred to were "Unfriendly Look" and "Verbal Assault". Despite the fact that 65 per cent of the respondents who had encounters with the Hong Kong police considered most or all of the police officers they encountered polite, 22 of them raised concrete examples of impolite treatments towards them by the police. Among them, street sex workers made up the majority (fourteen persons.) It was mainly this latter group that was subject to assault and personal attack by the police, when they were staying on the streets or simply passing by.

Unreasonable treatment by the police

The unreasonable treatment that the respondents experienced most was "Check your I.D./passport without telling you the reason" (31 persons = 51.7 per cent). 16.7 per cent (ten persons) experienced "Raid your work place without telling you the reason." Some respondents experienced extremely unreasonable treatments, which should be considered misconducts of the police; such as "Take away your property without telling you the reason" (4 persons) and "Severe Physical Conflicts" (two persons). A police officer even once threatened one respondent with a false "set up."

Among sex workers who experienced unreasonable treatment by the police in the last twelve months, ten per cent of them (six persons) had such experiences for six — more than ten times in the last twelve months.

Unreasonable arrests

Among ten of the respondents who experienced arrest by the police, 60 per cent (six persons) were not told reasons for the arrest. Among them, six gave in-depth interviews to AFRO. four of them in fact were not working when they were arrested. three of them were only staying alone inside the premise where they stayed in Hong Kong or walking alone on the street. There was no evidence to prove that they were "soliciting" somebody for an immoral purpose or working in Hong Kong. The arrests by the police were actually groundless. Besides, among these six respondents, one of them (a Hong Kong resident) suffered violence by the police when she was arrested.

Exploitation of rights upon arrest and detention

After being brought back to the police stations, all respondents were NOT told of their rights. Some rights were explained only upon request.

Comparative analysis of respondents' experiences

The experiences of being arrested, questioned and detained of the six respondents, who accepted in-depth interviews by AFRO (including three non-Hong Kong residents who in the end were just sent back to Mainland China without being charged with anything at all, and three Hong Kong residents who were charged and prosecuted and had to attend lawsuits against them in Hong Kong), are very similar. The six cases in fact can reflect a typical model of how police officers in Hong Kong treat sex workers — exploiting basic rights of them, as persons under investigation by, or detained in the custody of the police.

Among the six respondents, only Respondent B was indirectly told the reason for the arrest. She was told, "You did not break any law. But Hong Kong does not welcome you." However, through the whole process, Respondent B was not explained how and why she was not welcome.

Besides her, upon being arrested, all the other five respondents were not told by the police reasons for arresting them.

Before the questioning started, all three respondents from Mainland China were told nothing about the basic rights that any person under investigation by the police should enjoy.

Comparing the experiences of the three Hong Kong residents and three non-Hong Kong residents, the only difference identified is that, after questioning, the three Hong Kong residents were provided with an opportunity to read the statement, or the police officers would read the statement aloud for them. Also, they were given copies of the statements. (Even though, all three of them were more than once forced /wheedled to sign the statement that they did not agree with.)

Of the three respondents from Mainland China, they were given no chance to read the statements at all. Some respondents indicated that the police officers covered the statements so as not to let them see/read the content. The police officers were "furious;" some even beat those arrested persons who were not cooperative. The number of the police officer was covered therefore the beaten persons were unable to identify the officer(s) to file a complaint.

In addition, some respondents who were detained in detention rooms of police stations indicated that the condition of the detention rooms was bad, in addition to the attitude of the staff. There was little or no space for the detainees to rest and the detainees were forced to eat, rest, sleep and use the toilet facilities in the same small place of the detention room. Some respondents mentioned that they had seen staff of the detention rooms beat the detained sex workers.

Conclusions

The survey result reflects the severe problem of exploitation of basic rights against both local and migrant sex workers (especially street sex workers) during their encounters with the Hong Kong police. Although 65 per cent of the respondents considered most or all of the police officers they encountered polite, there were cases of assaults and threats by the police identified during their encounters.

The problem of exploitation of sex workers' basic rights during arrest, investigation or detention by the police is now exposed. Besides not telling sex workers the reasons for arrests, after bringing sex workers back to the police stations, the police officers did not inform them of any of the basic rights that sex workers, as other persons, were entitled to. The police officers did not let the arrested sex workers read the written statements, forced them to sign the statements and other documents that they did not have a chance to read. Sex workers suffered misconduct and mistreatment at the hands of the police such as threats, insults and physical assaults. As this survey reflects, this is unjust and unreasonable treatment against sex workers. In addition, the condition of the detention rooms in police stations and attitudes of staff there also deserve further public concern.

Requests and recommendations

Based on the above-mentioned survey result, AFRO makes the following requests and recommendations to Hong Kong Police:

1. Stop immediately all kinds of impolite, unjust and unreasonable treatments towards sex workers.
2. Stop using violence towards sex workers.
3. Make sure the arrests of sex workers are reasonable and sex workers are explained the full reasons right upon the arrests take place.
4. Make sure proper procedure of case handling is followed by every single police officer. Guarantee that throughout the process of arrest, investigation or detention, sex workers are informed of and are not hindered from exercising the basic legal rights and that they are treated by the police in a just, fair and reasonable way, as every person is entitled to be.
5. Improve facilities of detention areas in police premises, including temporary holding areas and detention rooms inside police stations, to improve the current condition where detainees are forced to eat, to rest and to use toilet facility in the same limited space, so as to guarantee the basic human rights of all detainees.
6. Stop sending migrant sex workers back to place of origin without trial.
7. Arrange regular meetings with NGOs concerning sex workers, in order to strengthen.
8. Accept sex workers' complaints or cases to seek help filed by concerned NGOs with sex workers' privacy and personal information protected. Follow and handle the case/complaint extensively.
9. Arrange concerned NGOs to participate in training for police officers, so as to facilitate communication between concerned NGOs and police officers and to mutually enhance understanding on the sexual service industry as well as interaction between sex workers and frontline police officers.

Submitted by:

• Action for Reach Out
  P.O. Box 98108
  T.S.T. Post Office
  Tsim Sha Tsui Kowloon
  Hong Kong
  Tel: +8 52 2770 1065
  Email: afro@iohk.com