Sex Workers and HIV Prevention in Fiji - after the Fiji Crimes Decree ...

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identified ‘hotspots’ regardless of their actual behaviourat the time.Moreover, some soldiers did invoke the Crimes Decreeand its terms in justification of their actions when theypicked up sex workers. In Lautoka, where militarypersonnel regularly engage in the enforcement of the‘Prostitution offences’:generating anxieties about income, the fear of arrestforces sex work to become more clandestine:You have to be very cautious eh so that you are notseen and caught. So whatever you do, you do it ina way that no one sees it, that no one knows whatyou’re doing. (Bree)One of the soldiers, they said that the Crime Decreecame into effect so, so you can’t do this [stand on thestreet at night], it’s not allowed. (Magda)While the military invoke the law when they take sexworkers into custody, they also threaten the sex workerswith punishment way outside the terms of the law:We were told that if we are going to be caughtagain, we will be taken to go and bath where thepigs always bath, at the pigsty. There are twopunishments, if we are caught again we will be takento the pigsty, after that if we’re caught again wewill be locked up in a container which contains thesoldiers’ shit, we will be locked inside, that is the thirdpunishment. The fourth punishment, we will spendsix years in jail and there won’t be any court hearing.(Susan)They didn’t charge us, but they say if we will comethere twice or three times they’ll put us in prison. Ifnot, they’ll take us to this one church denominationeh. They’ll take us to be part of that denomination.(Betty)The detention and abuse of sex workers has certainlyengendered fear in the community. Bree told us:Doing sex work is now hidden and they don’t takechances when they pick up clients… they are afraidof the place to meet their client and have contact bymobile phone. (Catherine)Sex work becomes a more covert and isolated activityas opposed to the more public and collective endeavourthat was characteristic of Fijian sex work in 2009. Nowsex workers have less contact with one another. Breesaid, ‘It’s mostly done now by phone contact … it’s nowprivate, like it’s hidden now’. As working from streets andbars becomes more perilous, sex workers move to newplaces. Even the motels are more difficult to work out of,and a number of sex workers have begun to work fromhome or in dark places:The Crimes Decree is hard for us sex workersbecause sometimes we can’t display ourselvesnicely on the street. Like we are just frightened andwe always hide, sometimes even when there’s a lotof clients, when they go past we’re hiding inside thebushes. (Miranda)Samantha also talked about what she called the increasein ‘undercover’, by which she meant new, more secretivesex workers, who unlike the better networked and moreexperienced sex workers, ‘are ashamed of using thecondom … Those are the type that don’t use condom’.Sex WoRKeRS and HIV PreveNTIon in Fiji - After The Fiji Crimes Decree 2009For me when this law came I didn’t go to town for twomonths. I didn’t go because I heard that some of myfriends have been taken to the army camp and theyput the cone on them. (Bree)Changes in sex worker practiceSex work is still driven by financial need in Fiji. A recentheightened fear of arrest, detention and physical abusechanges the way sex work is carried out. Sex workersworry about the army patrolling the streets and the effectit will have on their ability to feed their families. As Angiesays: ‘My perspective about this Crimes Decree is thatfor us when we stand there [on the street], we stand tolook for our money for our bread and butter’. Along withA trend to more hidden and hard-to-reach sex workersis extremely problematic for HIV prevention as well asundermining other aspects of sex worker safety. Theincreasingly isolated nature of sex work makes sexworkers less accessible to outreach, peer educationand condom distribution services. There is also adiminishment of opportunity and motivation in the sexworker community for the sharing of resources andknowledge that was such a strong feature in the 2009Risky Business research.For the sex workers, financial pressures remain but therisks attached to sex work increase. Mary-Alice talks ofsome sex workers moving from sex work into burglary:18
Before, when there was no Crime Decree the girlsjust move like this and like that and it’s easy for themto hook a client. But now when this Crime Decreecame, everything is difficult. That’s why some of thegirls nowadays do bling [burglary], they break in tohouses and some do robbery. They do other things,which bring more problems than doing sex-work.(Mary-Alice)Disincentives to carrying condomsWhile Part 13, Sections 230–231 of the Crimes Decree on‘Prostitution offences’ does not mention carrying condomsas proof of soliciting, sex workers have reported that boththe police and the army search the workers for condoms.As a consequence, many sex workers believe thatcondoms can be used as evidence of sex work. Certainlysex workers know from experience that carrying condomsprovides a reason for agents of the law to harass them.Carrie says, ‘Sometimes the police search our bag, ifthe condom is there the problem is there. The police say‘’What’re you doing with the condoms?’’’. A number of thesex workers raised the issue of a new reluctance to carrycondoms to share around, because of the consequencesof getting caught with them:Before we used to carry heaps of condoms eh, youcan carry four or five condoms with you. But nowI’ve heard that a person is only allowed to take onecondom. This has to, you know, broaden the risk. Fora person to be caught with an extra condom [means]you are caught in the act. (Bree)girls and new sex workers who are not so readilyidentifiable, in the belief that it will reduce their own riskof being apprehended as a client. Carrie claimed thatclients ‘are looking for Indian teenage girls especially’.Both clients and sex workers are seeking out new pick-upvenues and arrangements.Renee states that when sex workers are forced toabandon their usual working places because the policeare chasing them away, ‘we go home without money’.Desperation for cash reduces sex workers’ negotiatingpower and empowers the client. As some explain:Most of us are finding it really hard, so it’s not likehow it used to be with the agreement of price. It wasalways the girl giving her price. Now it’s them, theclient. (Angie)I just go out in the day time and at night I relax, notlike before. It’s difficult, there’s plenty of new girlsand the clients are giving less money. (Renee)Sex workers like Magda (an 18-year-old transgender)claim that the criminalisation of clients has caused,‘fluctuating clients, client problems, and decrease inthe payment’. This includes a loss of regular clientsdue to fear of arrest. As Samantha says, ‘the clients arescared too. And this has affected, I know, most of thesex-workers’. This is particularly true of those clients forwhom being arrested would mean shame to themselvesand their families:If we are seen carrying condoms we could bemarked as prostitute. We have to be very smart withthe law on why, on the grounds why are we carryingcondoms. It’s really hard for some of us who take outcondoms, go and distribute condoms on the streets–and then being taken by the law and punished andbe penalised for that. (Magda)Changes in client practiceOne of the major changes to the laws on sex workcontained the ‘Prostitution offences’ section of theCrimes Decree, is the criminalisation of the client. In Fiji,this increased risk to clients has reduced sex workers’negotiating power – it has meant fewer regular clients,more competition amongst the sex workers for clients,and therefore also a lower fee and less income. Sexworkers say that the approach taken by the militaryin Lautoka deters clients from using the services ofany publicly identifiable and identified sex workers inparticular. Some claim that clients now prefer youngerThey’re a bit reluctant now because they arethreatened by the thought of being caught by themilitary. Mostly the clients are either office holdersor they know people, they are known, and they havefamilies of their own and their families do not knowthat they come out to seek sex services. (Mary-Alice)Sex workers contend that law enforcement personnelcannot identify the younger workers and those who arenew to the trade, especially those who work from newsites, or are not yet widely recognised by the communityas a sex worker, and therefore these sex workers aremore attractive to clients. This situation increasescompetition between the older, more experienced sexworkers and the younger or new ones. New and youngersex workers are also reluctant to be associated with moreexperienced and recognisable sex workers. This deterssome sex workers from engaging in advocacy work. Theevidence that military are targeting publicly identifiablesex workers in Lautoka deters young or new sex workersfrom associating with sex worker advocates, andSex WoRKeRS and HIV PreveNTIon in Fiji - After The Fiji Crimes Decree 200919
Page 1 and 2: Sex Workers and HIVPrevention in Fi
Page 3 and 4: Table of CONTENTSINTRODUCTION......
Page 5 and 6: iNTRODUCTIONOn 1 February 2010, the
Page 7 and 8: The Risky Business: Sex Work and HI
Page 9 and 10: Media representation of sex workund
Page 11 and 12: Arrest and prosecution dataIntervie
Page 13 and 14: ResultsThe resultant sex worker int
Page 15 and 16: and tell them to go home, the sex w
Page 17: Monday morning we were taken for th
Page 21 and 22: From the sex workers’ point of vi
Page 23 and 24: Sex worker communityThe targeting a
Page 25 and 26: iskier for them. This may make the
Page 27 and 28: References†. Harcourt C, Egger S
Page 32: International HIV Research GroupSam

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