scholarly journals The Philippine Sex Workers Collective: Struggling to be heard, not saved

2019 ◽  
pp. 57-73
Author(s):  
Sharmila Parmanand
Keyword(s):  
Violence Against Women ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
War On Drugs ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Structural Configuration ◽  
Civil Society Organisations ◽  
Legal Remedies ◽  
Outreach Work ◽  
Metro Manila

The Philippine Sex Workers Collective is an organisation of current and former sex workers who reject the criminalisation of sex work and the dominant portrayal of sex workers as victims. Based on my interviews with leaders of the Collective and fifty other sex workers in Metro Manila, I argue in this paper that a range of contextual constraints limits the ability of Filipino sex workers to effectively organise and lobby for their rights. For example, the Collective cannot legally register because of the criminalisation of sex work, and this impacts their ability to access funding and recruit members. The structural configuration of the Philippines’ Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking incentivises civil society organisations to adhere to a unified position on sex work as violence against women. The stigma against sex work in a predominantly Catholic country is another constraint. Recently, President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs has been weaponised by some members of the police to harass sex workers. Finally, I reflect on strategies the Collective could adopt to navigate the limited space they have for representation, such as crucial partnerships, outreach work, and legal remedies.

scholarly journals Why should Sex Tourism and Prostitution be Legalized in the Philippines

2020 ◽  
pp. 251-260
Author(s):  
Mark Gabriel Wagan Aguilar
Keyword(s):  
Violence Against Women ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Sex Industry ◽  
Commercial Sex ◽  
Sex Tourism ◽  
Hotel Employees ◽  
Financial Need ◽  
Philippine Government

Several laws linked to Prostitution have been enforced in the Philippines and in countries where it is not permitted over the years, however, evidences show that it has unceasingly developed, in fact, has been coined already as the “oldest profession” and has already become a multi-billion-dollar Industry. As laws in the Philippines continuously fail to solve the problem, this study suggested legalization as a better option to minimize its negative implications, if it does not totally become a solution. Results show that legalizing sex work would cause more positive implications to the society than to criminalize it. Legalization has been determined to decrease incidents of physical and sexual violence against women and cases of Sexual Transmitted Deceases. Criminalization on the other hand has been found to lack of the ability to stop or even slow down the growth of the commercial sex Industry and proven to expose sex workers to physical and sexual assault and harassment not just from their clients but also from law enforcers. In the Philippines where sex work is illegal, financial need was identified as the primary reason why people choose to work as prostitutes, unfortunately, it was discovered that they are treated badly; there are times that they are not being paid, they experience being forced to do things they don’t want to do, and they are harassed by hotel employees and law enforcers. Furthermore, though the Hospitality Industry may not be in support of prostitution, it seems like it is as hotels are used as the primary venue for the service. The Philippine Government if will stick to having sex work as a crime should therefore look into Hotels and conceptualize ways to make sure that people who are checking In are not there for commercial sex.

Overcoming and Penalizing Precarity: Narratives of Drug Personalities Arrested in the Philippine War on Drugs

2022 ◽  
pp. 089692052110702
Author(s):  
Filomin C. Gutierrez
Keyword(s):  
Drug Use ◽  
Trade Liberalization ◽  
War On Drugs ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
The State ◽  
Individual Choice ◽  
Drug Problem ◽  
Productive Work ◽  
Authoritarian Populism ◽  
Metro Manila

The article problematizes state penality as a mechanism of repression of precarious workers through a war on drugs in the Philippines. The narratives of 27 arrested ‘drug personalities’ in Metro Manila tell of how methamphetamine energizes bodies and motivates minds for productive work. Bidding to be classified as willing and able workers and family men, the study’s participants orient to a moral stratification that pits the ‘moral versus immoral’ and the ‘hardworking versus lazy’. Qualifying their drug use as strategic and calculated, they uphold the neoliberal values of individual choice and accountability. Their support for the anti-drug campaign stems from their recognition of a drug problem and the socioemotional toll of the dysfunctions of living in the slums. While trade liberalization facilitates methamphetamine inflow, a war on drugs fuels an authoritarian populism. As the state reaffirms symbolic mission to protect its citizens, it blames precarity to a problem population.

scholarly journals Unacceptable Forms of Work in the Thai Sex and Entertainment Industry

2019 ◽  
pp. 108-126
Author(s):  
Leo Bernardo Villar
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Entertainment Industry ◽  
Decent Work ◽  
Civil Society Organisations ◽  
Police Harassment

This article examines the working conditions in sex and entertainment work in Thailand using the Unacceptable Forms of Work (UFW) Framework. Criminalisation of sex work and insufficient oversight of labour conditions increase the vulnerability of sex workers to police harassment; prevent sex workers from accessing legal and social protections; and contribute to the decent work deficit in the sector. Protecting the human rights of sex workers and ensuring decent work in the Thai sex and entertainment industry necessarily involves the decriminalisation of sex work; amending labour and social protection laws, policies, and systems to be inclusive of sex workers; and ensuring implementation. Throughout the process of policy change, the involvement of sex workers, their employers, and civil society organisations is crucial.

scholarly journals The Double-Edged Sword of Health and Safety: COVID-19 and the Policing and Exclusion of Migrant Asian Massage Workers in North America

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 157
Author(s):  
Elene Lam ◽  
Elena Shih ◽  
Katherine Chin ◽  
Kate Zen
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Social Welfare ◽  
Human Trafficking ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Interpersonal Violence ◽  
Sex Trafficking ◽  
The State ◽  
Emergency Relief ◽  
Sexual Services

Migrant Asian massage workers in North America first experienced the impacts of COVID-19 in the final weeks of January 2020, when business dropped drastically due to widespread xenophobic fears that the virus was concentrated in Chinese diasporic communities. The sustained economic devastation, which began at least 8 weeks prior to the first social distancing and shelter in place orders issued in the U.S. and Canada, has been further complicated by a history of aggressive policing of migrant massage workers in the wake of the war against human trafficking. Migrant Asian massage businesses are increasingly policed as locales of potential illicit sex work and human trafficking, as police and anti-trafficking initiatives target migrant Asian massage workers despite the fact that most do not provide sexual services. The scapegoating of migrant Asian massage workers and criminalization of sex work have led to devastating systemic and interpersonal violence, including numerous deportations, arrests, and deaths, most notably the recent murder of eight people at three Atlanta-based spas. The policing of sex workers has historically been mobilized along fears of sexually transmitted disease and infection, and more recently, within the past two decades, around a moral panic against sex trafficking. New racial anxieties around the coronavirus as an Asian disease have been mobilized by the state to further cement the justification of policing Asian migrant workers along the axes of health, migration, and sexual labor. These justifications also solidify discriminatory social welfare regimes that exclude Asian migrant massage workers from accessing services on the basis of the informality and illegality of their work mixed with their precarious citizenship status. This paper draws from ethnographic participant observation and survey data collected by two sex worker organizations that work primarily with massage workers in Toronto and New York City to examine the double-edged sword of policing during the pandemic in the name of anti-trafficking coupled with exclusionary policies regarding emergency relief and social welfare, and its effects on migrant Asian massage workers in North America. Although not all migrant Asian massage workers, including those surveyed in this paper, provide sexual services, they are conflated, targeted, and treated as such by the state and therefore face similar barriers of criminalization, discrimination, and exclusion. This paper recognizes that most migrant Asian massage workers do not identify as sex workers and does not intend to label them as such or reproduce the scapegoating rhetoric used by law enforcement. Rather, it seeks to analyze how exclusionary attitudes and policies towards sex workers are transferred onto migrant Asian massage workers as well whether or not they provide sexual services.

scholarly journals HIV and STI positivity rates among transgender people attending two large STI clinics in the Netherlands

2021 ◽  
pp. sextrans-2020-054875
Author(s):  
Susanne Drückler ◽  
Ceranza Daans ◽  
Elske Hoornenborg ◽  
Henry De Vries ◽  
Martin den Heijer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Gender Identity ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Sexual Behaviour ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Hiv Prevalence ◽  
Hiv Positive ◽  
Gender Identities ◽  
Transgender People ◽  
Sexually Transmitted

BackgroundGlobal data show that transgender people (TGP) are disproportionally affected by HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STIs); however, data are scarce for Western European countries. We assessed gender identities, sexual behaviour, HIV prevalence and STI positivity rates, and compared these outcomes between TGP who reported sex work and those who did not.MethodsWe retrospectively retrieved data from all TGP who were tested at the STI clinics of Amsterdam and The Hague, the Netherlands in 2017–2018. To identify one’s gender identity, a ‘two-step’ methodology was used assessing, first, the assigned gender at birth (assigned male at birth (AMAB)) or assigned female at birth), and second, clients were asked to select one gender identity that currently applies: (1) transgender man/transgender woman, (2) man and woman, (3) neither man nor woman, (4) other and (5) not known yet. HIV prevalence, bacterial STI (chlamydia, gonorrhoea and/or infectious syphilis) positivity rates and sexual behaviour were studied using descriptive statistics.ResultsTGP reported all five categories of gender identities. In total 273 transgender people assigned male at birth (TGP-AMAB) (83.0%) and 56 transgender people assigned female at birth (TGP-AFAB) (17.0%) attended the STI clinics. Of TGP-AMAB, 14,6% (39/267, 95% CI 10.6% to 19.4%) were HIV-positive, including two new diagnoses and bacterial STI positivity was 15.0% (40/267, 95% CI 10.9% to 19.8%). Among TGP-AFAB, bacterial STI positivity was 5.6% (3/54, 95% CI 1.2% to 15.4%) and none were HIV-positive. Sex work in the past 6 months was reported by 53.3% (137/257, 95% CI 47.0% to 59.5%) of TGP-AMAB and 6.1% (3/49, 95% CI 1.3% to 16.9%) of TGP-AFAB. HIV prevalence did not differ between sex workers and non-sex workers.ConclusionOf all TGP, the majority were TGP-AMAB of whom more than half engaged in sex work. HIV prevalence and STI positivity rates were substantial among TGP-AMAB and much lower among TGP-AFAB. Studies should be performed to provide insight into whether the larger population of TGP-AMAB and TGP-AFAB are at risk of HIV and STI.

It’s Not Just Sex: Relational Dynamics between Street-Based Sex Workers and Their Regular Customers

2021 ◽  
pp. 095001702110217
Author(s):  
Sharon S Oselin ◽  
Katie Hail-Jares
Keyword(s):  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Service Industry ◽  
Washington Dc ◽  
Work Practices ◽  
Considerable Time ◽  
Economic Stability ◽  
Relational Dynamics ◽  
Relational Work ◽  
Boundary Setting

Establishing regular customers is an integral aspect of any service industry since they can increase profits and referrals. Most research on regulars within sex work focuses on indoor, high-end workers, who cultivate them through relational work practices. Yet very little is known about whether street-based sex workers employ these same tactics or even seek out regulars. This article draws upon interviews with 36 street-based sex workers in Washington, DC, USA. Sex workers dedicate considerable time and effort in order to retain regulars via relational work, noting such customers offer greater economic stability and fewer risks. Relational work also has disadvantages, exacerbated by the illicit and illegal nature of this work. Street-based sex workers navigate boundary setting and slippage as a part of retaining or rejecting regular clients. These findings have implications for policies that can reduce harms for sex workers and enhance their protections.

scholarly journals The Impact of the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) on the Health and Social Needs of Sex Workers in Singapore

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rayner Kay Jin Tan ◽  
Vanessa Ho ◽  
Sherry Sherqueshaa ◽  
Wany Dee ◽  
Jane Mingjie Lim ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Food Insecurity ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Social Needs ◽  
Medical Services ◽  
Substantial Impact ◽  
Sex Worker ◽  
Permanent Resident ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Depth Interviews

AbstractWe evaluated the impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on the sex work industry and assessed how it has impacted the health and social conditions of sex workers in Singapore. We conducted a sequential exploratory mixed methods study amidst the COVID-19 pandemic from April to October 2020, including in-depth interviews with 24 stakeholders from the sex work industry and surveyor-administered structured surveys with 171 sex workers. COVID-19 had a substantial impact on sex workers' income. The illegality of sex work, stigma, and the lack of work documentation were cited as exclusionary factors for access to alternative jobs or government relief. Sex workers had experienced an increase in food insecurity (57.3%), housing insecurity (32.8%), and sexual compromise (8.2%), as well as a decrease in access to medical services (16.4%). Being transgender female was positively associated with increased food insecurity (aPR = 1.23, 95% CI [1.08, 1.41]), housing insecurity (aPR = 1.28, 95% CI [1.03, 1.60]), and decreased access to medical services (aPR = 1.74, 95% CI [1.23, 2.46]); being a venue-based sex worker was positively associated with increased food insecurity (aPR = 1.46, 95% CI [1.00, 2.13]), and being a non-Singaporean citizen or permanent resident was positively associated with increased housing insecurity (aPR = 2.59, 95% CI [1.73, 3.85]). Our findings suggest that COVID-19 has led to a loss of income for sex workers, greater food and housing insecurity, increased sexual compromise, and reduced access to medical services for sex workers. A lack of access to government relief among sex workers exacerbated such conditions. Efforts to address such population health inequities should be implemented.

scholarly journals Unfinished Decriminalization: The Impact of Section 19 of the Prostitution Reform Act 2003 on Migrant Sex Workers’ Rights and Lives in Aotearoa New Zealand

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 179
Author(s):  
Calum Bennachie ◽  
Annah Pickering ◽  
Jenny Lee ◽  
P. G. Macioti ◽  
Nicola Mai ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Interview Data ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Fear Of Deportation ◽  
Permanent Residency ◽  
The Impact

In 2003, Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ) passed the Prostitution Reform Act 2003 (PRA), which decriminalized sex work for NZ citizens and holders of permanent residency (PR) while excluding migrant sex workers (MSWs) from its protection. This is due to Section 19 (s19) of the PRA, added at the last minute against advice by the Aotearoa New Zealand Sex Workers’ Collective (NZPC) as an anti-trafficking clause. Because of s19, migrants on temporary visas found to be working as sex workers are liable to deportation by Immigration New Zealand (INZ). Drawing on original ethnographic and interview data gathered over 24 months of fieldwork, our study finds that migrant sex workers in New Zealand are vulnerable to violence and exploitation, and are too afraid to report these to the police for fear of deportation, corroborating earlier studies and studies completed while we were collecting data.

scholarly journals Sex Work in Slovenia: Assessing the Needs of Sex Workers

2021 ◽  
pp. 136078042110184
Author(s):  
Leja Markelj ◽  
Alisa Selan ◽  
Tjaša Dolinar ◽  
Matej Sande
Keyword(s):  
Needs Assessment ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Social Distress ◽  
Legal Advice ◽  
The Law ◽  
Client Relations ◽  
Insight Into

The research comprehensively identifies the needs and problems of sex workers in Slovenia from the point of view of three groups of actors in a decriminalized setting. The objective of the rapid needs assessment was to identify the needs of sex workers as perceived by themselves. In order to gain a deeper insight into this topic, we analyzed the functioning of the organizations working with the population, and examined the perspective of the clients. The results of the study show that no aid programmes have been developed for sex workers, even though organizations from various fields often come in contact with this population. Sex workers express the need to be informed about various topics (health, the law, legal advice) and emphasize client relations as the primary issue. The findings indicate the need for the development of a specialized aid programmes to address the fields of advocacy, reducing social distress and providing psychosocial assistance.

scholarly journals Visions of Peace Amidst a Human Rights Crisis: War on Drugs in Colombia and the Philippines

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Salvador Santino F Regilme
Keyword(s):  
War On Drugs ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Illegal Drug ◽  
Public Health Approach ◽  
Illegal Drugs ◽  
Drug Problem ◽  
State Repression ◽  
The Core ◽  
Contemporary Politics ◽  
Local Discourses

Abstract Peace is one of most widely used yet highly contested concepts in contemporary politics. What constitutes peace? That broad analytic inquiry motivates this article, which focuses on the contentious discourses of peace within a society besieged by widespread trafficking and use of illegal drugs. Focusing on the illegal drug problem in Colombia and the Philippines, the central puzzle of this paper constitutes two fundamental questions: How do state leaders justify their respective “war on drugs”? How do they construct and discursively articulate ideals of peace in the context of the illegal drug problem? This paper compares the post-9/11 Colombian war on drugs (2002–2010) vis-à-vis the Philippine war on drugs under the Duterte administration (2016–2019), particularly in terms of how their presidential administrations articulate “peace” in the context of resolving the drug problem. The paper examines the varying discourses of peace, investigates how those local discourses relate to global discourses on peace and illegal drugs, and underscores how and under which conditions those peace discourses portray the material distributive conflicts in those societies. The core argument states that the Uribe and Duterte administrations primarily deployed the notion of peace as a justificatory discourse for increased state repression, intensified criminalization of the drug problem, and the reluctance of the state in embracing a public health approach to the proliferation of illegal drugs.

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