Problems Facing Sex Workers: Work rights exploited

Submitted by: Kendy Yim, 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

According to Hong Kong Law, a resident being a sex worker is not illegal, however, work rights of a sex worker are often exploited. Sex workers are often discriminated against, unreasonably arrested and mistreated by law enforcement agents. For instance, streetwalkers get arrested when they are simply walking on the street without any purpose of "soliciting". Police and courts often assume that streetwalkers must be the ones who solicit. But in certain occasions, customers are the ones to solicit. The spirit of "Soliciting for an immoral purpose" is simply being ignored. Besides, many women who work independently in a "one-woman brothel", which is legal according to the law, are harassed by the police. Police officers frequently "check out" their workplaces without notice and intervene their work. Not only this scares away their customers, affects their work, undoubtedly, it also exploits their work rights.

Migrant sex workers marginalized

People who enter Hong Kong with tourist visas may be charged for "Breach of Condition of Stay" if they engage in any form of work in Hong Kong. Therefore, sex workers from Mainland China or other countries who enter Hong Kong with tourist visas become more vulnerable and are further marginalized. There are cases that migrant sex workers are stopped on street for ID inspection and the rooms they rented as living quarters are raided. When they are found without Hong Kong ID but valid papers for traveling, they are immediately arrested and charged with "Soliciting for an immoral purpose" and/or "Breach of condition of stay". In these cases, condoms found in handbags or rooms are usually used as circumstantial evidence for proof of soliciting or BOC. And in some occasions, migrant sex workers are spotted by immigration officers and sent back straight to the place of origin without trial, simply because their stay in Hong Kong is defined "un-welcomed". As a result, sex workers, especially migrant sex workers, are afraid to reveal their work identity and seldom report crime against them to the police, i.e. clients refusing to pay, theft, threatening, robbery, or even cases of severe violence like physical assault or rape.

Unfair and unjust treatment

At the police stations, many sex workers fail to enjoy the entitled rights upon arrest and questioning, i.e. making phone calls to friends, families and lawyers for help, using toilet facilities, taking a break and etc. Sex workers who do not sign the charge sheet because they do not agree with the account of the police are refused bail or the police officer then writes on the charge sheet "Uncooperative". And in the court, statements given by sex workers are usually less credited. Once a judge even told a sex worker that he would not trust her simply because she was a sex worker.

Rights education

Life education for youth

In August 2004, AFRO co-organized a Life Education Program with a youth center of a social service agency. The program aimed to broaden the view of youngsters, to let them to know and understand more about sex workers and the sex industry, particularly about their life stories and experiences with law enforcement (mostly unequal and unfair), with a more opened mind and heart. We hoped that it would encourage them to self-reflect their certain kinds of stereotyping/discrimination on sex workers and the sex industry before joining the program.

The program consisted of a few sessions. The introductory session was a sharing among the 20 participants themselves (mainly young people aged 16 to 23) on their general impressions on sex workers and the industry, and also a process of reflection on why and by how such impressions had been constructed. Followed were sharing sessions between participants and invited sex workers, as well as a series of outreach activities to the work places of sex workers.

Throughout the program, we could see that most of the participants had been willing to listen, to try their best to understand the situations, the problems and the complicated feelings of sex workers. The encounters and interaction with sex workers provided them an opportunity to rethink or even challenge their existing perspectives and attitudes towards these women. Also, they understood and appreciated that sex workers who joined as "guest-speakers" were courageous and generous to share with them their far from pleasant life stories and experiences with law enforcements.

After the program, ten out of the 20 young some participants determined to contribute, and by taking action to show their concern to the sex workers' community. They volunteered themselves for a video production project for AFRO's legal rights education for sex workers. From collecting stories and information, writing scripts, to acting and directing, the youngsters worked in a team to visualize the scenes of right-abuse cases experienced by sex workers and present in the video a could-be-different ending in case sex workers had been able to safeguard their entitled rights. The final product of the video now serves as a piece of in-house educational material for AFRO.

We see the Life Education Program as a success, not only as an education program for youth on building capacity in critical thinking and sense of social justice, but also as an empowerment and development process for sex workers' self-expression and self-representation. Appreciation and gratitude that the youngsters have shown to the sex workers undoubtedly warmed their hearts, yet boosted their self-esteems and made them feel more confident about their capacity in combating people's bias and prejudices against sex workers and the industry.

Submitted by:

• Kendy Yim
  PO Box 98108
  TST Post Office
  Tsim Sha Tsui Kowloon
  Hong Kong
  Tel: +852 2770 1065