Coronavirus and the prostitution question

The whole world is going through a difficult time these days. Many people are locked in their homes, becoming ill, losing their livelihood. In existential danger, the weak ones always suffer more. This post is about those women who, even in times of prosperity, find themselves distressed, poor, marginalised and transparent to the rest of the society as women in prostitution.

The states and jurisdictions with legalised brothels have already closed them in the first phase of the lockdown. In the UK, Holbeck managed red light zone has been suspended, with no soliciting allowed at any time during the coronavirus lockdown. In Switzerland, one of the countries that were affected by the epidemic the most, the government halted all public and private events. Prostitution was banned, as Switzerland shut its borders and declared a state of "exceptional" emergency. The ban initially planned to last until the 29th March, is expected to be extended.

In Bangladesh, the village of Daulatdia, which is one of the largest brothels in the world, is shut down. About 1,500 women are engaged in prostitution in Daulatdia, and many live there with their children. Daulatdia is one of about 12 officially sanctioned brothels in the South Asian country and receives an estimated 5,000 customers every day. On average, the women earn between $12 to $24 a day. As for now, the village claimed to shut down until the 5th April. The government promised women in prostitution 30 kilograms of rice, $ 25, and a freeze on rent. However, the women asked for immediate help, saying they had no money left to buy food for them or their children because of the sudden closure of the complex.

In Bolivia, the president has imposed the nighttime curfew to try to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Prostitutes protested against the new regulations. They said that their already precarious livelihoods are at stake. According to Lily Cortes, a representative of Bolivia's sex workers union, "if the legal establishments cannot function, the sex workers will go out to work the streets, and the result will be worse."

Recently the German government and the federal states have agreed to severe restrictions on public life to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The municipalities have been given authority to make decisions regarding the brothels' activities. Some cities, such as Stuttgart and Karlsruhe, began to fine women in prostitution who did not obey the new instructions. In a country where the sex trade consists of 80% to 90% of women from South-Eastern Europe in forced prostitution or prostitution out of poverty, this is an extreme measure, says Huschke Mau, founder of the Mutual Aid Group for sex trade survivors "Nezwerk Ella". However, many women in Germany continue to receive clients despite the pandemic.

Susanne Bleier Wilp, a spokeswoman for the Association of Erotic and Sexual Services Providers, or BESD, said the virus had caused fear and uncertainty in the sex trade. "There are those who are withdrawing from the business entirely at the moment for safety reasons". This measure is unlikely to effectively stop the spread of the virus during close physical contact, according to the medical experts. A German woman in the sex trade who preferred to stay anonymous said that she continues to accept punters due to a complete lack of resources. Moreover, she charges less, because relatively few customers are willing to take the risk these days, hence expecting discounts.

A brothel in Sydney (New South Wales, Australia), another jurisdiction with "decriminalised" sex trade, has been fined $5000 for staying open despite Coronavirus restrictions. Three women have also been fined $1000 each for "providing services", yet the punters weren't fined at all.

In the Netherlands, Amsterdam's famed red-light district was similarly hard hit after the government on Sunday night ordered the closure of schools, bars and restaurants for three weeks. Some women consider switching to the (web) camming and selling porn online, while others would resort to deliver sex services privately, despite the health risk involved.

Greece's closures also affected brothels, while in Poland, where brothels are officially illegal, "massage" parlours were affected by the shutdown. In Nigeria, the National Association of Nigerian Prostitutes, NANP, has called on its members to suspend their bed-to-wealth business till further notice. In France, where the sex trade suffered a significant decline due to the Sex Buyers Act, the lockdown was applied as well. The women in prostitution found themselves without means of livelihood. Undocumented migrants struggle to feed themselves and find a place to live because the cheap hotels where many of them lived were also closed. The upper-end well-paid escorts can survive without income for about a month, but then they have to look for risky solutions. The risks include being out in case of opting for webcamming, or contracting the coronavirus and being fined in case of providing sexual services despite the lockdown.

In the US, the sex trade is entirely prohibited even during standard days, but strip clubs are legal. After being closed as a part of efforts to slow down the epidemic, one of the clubs turned the business into the dubious "Boobers Eat" food delivery service. The owner is unclear about the additional "services" provided. He insists though that he does not violate the regulations, because the customers are not allowed to touch women anyway. According to the article, "social distancing seemed to be a struggle for the women themselves". No doubt the most challenging thing in the sex trade is a ban on hugging.

In South Africa, with approximately one hundred sixty thousand of women in prostitution, the sex trade lobby used the pandemic to repeat their demands to decriminalise the industry. According to the lobbyists, decriminalisation benefits the women in prostitution, who support an average of seven people; this way, they can have access to the assistance given to the self-employed in the current crisis.

Even in the UK, the sex trade lobby catches a ride on the pandemic and demands the complete decriminalisation of the industry. The English Collective of Prostitutes is requesting emergency funds from the government, following the loss of income caused by the coronavirus crisis. Their requests include:

1. Immediate easy-to-access financial support for sex workers in crisis and worker status so they can get sick pay, wage relief and the benefits that other workers are demanding.

2. The decriminalisation of sex work and an immediate moratorium on raids, arrests and prosecutions.

3. Rent, mortgage, utility bill relief and emergency housing for homeless sex workers.

One can see that justified demands for emergency assistance are intermingled here with an attempt to imply that the decriminalisation of the sex trade may have been a solution for women in prostitution in acute economic distress. However, experience in countries with legalised prostitution shows that those assistance arrangements are rarely available to women in prostitution. Even when the sex trade is legalised or decriminalised, the vast majority of prostitutes are no employees but rather "freelancers". Many of them have no work permit, others work anyway informally, and hence they are not eligible for any official support. Moreover, the funds are usually not paid immediately. A large proportion of women in prostitution need their money today; According to the pieces of evidence, even the women who have earned well in the sex trade can live without additional income for at most a month. The decriminalisation of the sex trade is never a solution.

There is also a bright spot in the darkness of the plague that descended upon us. A small handful of women and women's organisations reached out to our sisters in the sex trade during this time. In Pune (Maharashtra, India), the brothels were recently shut down, just like elsewhere. The women, who lived in the brothels, remained in their rooms. That said, they had no means of subsistence or access to food. Local volunteers went to the streets to feed those women, mostly as a private initiative.

In the UK, several hardship funds have been set up to support women in the sex trade. In Israel, aid NGOs continue to operate in a limited format. The staff of the mobile clinic ("Levinsky") continues to provide food and medical tests to the women in street prostitution. The emergency shelter and rehabilitation hostels also operate in a limited format. That said, more and more women are asking for help, while the extra funds are only coming from private donors. The "Lo Omdot MiNeged" ("Don't be a bystander") NGO, which provides emergency assistance to survivors and women in the sex trade, delivers about 50 food packages per day (week supply) from the supermarkets' delivery services.

The individuals, private funds and NGOs seem to help the impoverished women in prostitution during the viral outbreak more than any other source. In the short term emergency funding must be provided by the state, however, in the longer term real solutions must be put in place. The answer is not decriminalisation, but supported exit programmes. We know that most women in prostitution want to leave - let's give them the opportunity to do so.

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