SL, Indian sex workers face police/military harassment: UN
22 October 2012 06:57 pm
The United Nations said Sri Lanka, India and Bangladesh were among countries where sex workers were often the target of police or military harassment.
“Incidents involving sexual assaults by police or military have been reported from Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Fiji, India, Kiribati, Myanmar, Nepal, Papua New Guinea and Sri Lanka,” the United Nations Development Programme and the UN Population Fund, in partnership with the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS and non-governmental organisations across Asia stated in a 210-page report, "Sex Work and the Law in Asia and the Pacific,”.
It said that across almost all of Asia; laws, policies and practices put in place to regulate prostitution do more harm than good, driving sex workers underground and increasing their vulnerability to HIV and a long string of other socially transmissible diseases.
“Sex workers are often targeted by police for harassment and arrest under public order offences and offences relating to beggars or vagrants. This may lead to arrest and detention in special ‘rehabilitation’ facilities (e.g., Sri Lanka and India).”
The report also said that confiscation of condoms by police as evidence of illegal conduct or to justify harassment and extortion was a widespread problem. “Countries where sex workers report condom confiscation or police harassment for possessing condoms include China, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Viet Nam.”
“In Sri Lanka, most sex workers are street-based or operate from shanty dwellings. In addition to street work, some clandestine brothels operate in Sri Lanka and many sex workers work from karaoke clubs or as escorts.”
"Compulsory detention of sex workers, for the purpose of 'rehabilitation' or 're-education' is a highly punitive approach used in China, India, Sri Lanka and Myanmar, also known as Burma. In some countries, centres are used as a source of free or cheap labour," it further said.
“There are networks of ‘middle men/women’ who can arrange sex with foreign sex workers who come to the Maldives on visa runs from their usual location of work in Sri Lanka and India. There are women from Sri Lanka, India, Southeast Asian countries, Russia, and Eastern Europe,” it added.
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