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

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compels them to be more secretive about their identity asa sex worker.The result is that the new sex workers do not get thebenefit of the more experienced workers’ knowledgeabout HIV prevention, access to resources, and othersafety information. As Lynette states: ‘There are plentynew girls coming on the street and we should teach themto use the condom because of the diseases that arecoming nowadays’. Consequently:some of the sex workers that are coming out now arenot using the condoms. (Mary-Alice)Less money – Less negotiation – Less condom useThere was a universal feeling that the price of sex workhad dropped since February 2010, and that this wasrelated specifically to the criminalisation of the client.Sex work in Fiji is driven by economic need, and thereductions in price and income have had an impacton the ability of workers to feed themselves and theirchildren. Miranda stated, ‘Before the Crimes Decree theyused to pay good money but now they are paying less’.This is echoed by Maria:When we go out we really need money, I mean as forme I’m a mum so my expenses are not, I mean whenI go out to look for money it’s not for me, I’ve got mykids to look after and stuff like that so my expensesare quite, you know it increases as well. Before [theCrimes Decree] we used to have really nice clientsbut what I’m saying is that the clients are gettinglesser in numbers.The criminalisation of the client has weakened the sexworkers’ ability to negotiate both price and safety beforegetting into a car with a potential client.[She] picked up this guy and they planned to go to amotel. He drove them past the motel and said that hewas the police and that sex work was illegal and thathe was going to do what he liked with the sex worker.The sex worker had to jump out of the car when itwas slowing down.The sex workers’ reduced capacity to engage innegotiations with clients has implications not just forprice and payment but also for condom use. Sex workershave less opportunity to convince or educate their clientsabout the value of condoms and are under more financialpressure to accede to demand for sex without condoms.There has also been an increase in troublesome or violentclients:[The criminalisaton of the client] has changed theway we negotiate prices because now we get fewerclients. If we’re lucky to have a client tonight then webecome so desperate to the point where whateverthe price is offered we take it, as long as we getsome money by the end of the night…Because thereis not many clients coming in, we take what we canget. Now that they are decreasing in numbers wecannot really be bargaining with them too much.(Maria)There’s been a lot of changes. We have been alsoill-treated by most of the clients cause if we wouldn’tagree on the price that they are giving then theywould just tell us ‘get off’ or you know, I can findanother person. Now they will just say that they cantake us over to the court and to the police and tell thepolice that we were trying to solicit sex to them on theexchange of cash. Some clients nowadays are veryconniving and cunning because of the new Decree.(Angie)Sex WoRKeRS and HIV PreveNTIon in Fiji - After The Fiji Crimes Decree 2009Before when we used to tell the clients our pricethey always say ‘hey that’s too much’ but nowadaysthey say ‘okay just get in’. They don’t want to make itdifficult for us because they know if they’ll get caughtthey will also be arrested, so they don’t wait for toolong. They just come and we get in, then we have totalk again. (Angie)Sex workers are also reluctant to enter into negotiations‘because the client could be under cover police’.According to sex workers in one of the community-basedorganisations, clients also have a new awareness of sexworker vulnerability to prosecution and are using it totheir advantage if they don’t want to pay, or to force sex.The organisation described an incident with one of theirmembers:Impact on NGO responseThe list of ‘Prostitution offences’ contained in the CrimesDecree had an immediate effect on those NGOs involvedin community-based HIV prevention among sex workers.Eighteen months on, this effect is shaping up to be apermanent one.While there was little in the letter of the law that woulddefinitely make those providing condoms and otherresources to sex workers liable to charges of aiding orpromoting prostitution, NGOs have adopted a positionof complete risk aversion. The targeted services andprograms previously provided look to have been lostpermanently.20
From the sex workers’ point of view there have been twomajor changes: cessation of outreach services includingcondom distribution; and the closure of in-house services,drop-in centres and regular meetings. This was summedup by one program manager as the ‘reorientationof services’ away from sex worker specific and HIVprevention, to alternate income generation and workskills training. Consequently, there are now no regularoutreach condom suppliers in the main towns in Fiji. Thesingle NGO that had field workers regularly conductingoutreach said that they ceased these activities becauseof the Decree and the policing of it. Specifically, the NGOpointed to police and military raids on the streets thatthey claimed were putting their condom distributors atrisk of arrest or detainment.Cessation of condom distributionThe end of the only regular targeted sex worker outreachand condom distribution program was the direct resultof an NGO response to the enactment of the Decree,and their reading of the section on ‘Prostitution offences’.Across Fiji a number of the workers in this study claimedthat the supplies of condoms had dried up. Magdadescribed a change from when ‘condoms were inabundance’ to now when she had to come into townduring the day to pick them up because ‘condoms wereno longer distributed’. Others concurred:Before [February 2010] it was easy for them tosupply the condoms to those doing the distribution inthe nightclubs and on the streets, but nowadays it’sdifficult and we have to go somewhere else to buythe condoms. (Mary-Alice)Through this Decree it has made it hard to get yourration of condoms. It has changed the distribution ofcondoms. Like it affects the flow of condoms to us.(Bree)[The NGO] used to give out condoms to us butright now there’s no one coming out, no one comingout with the peer education information to give outcondoms. (Maria)Bree also felt that the NGOs had withdrawn from sexworkers since the Decree, ‘I think certain organisationsignored us when this decree happened. [They would be]Taking too big a risk, being with us’.The lack of access to HIV prevention programs andactivities targeted specifically at sex workers increasesthe vulnerability of new sex workers in particular. Theeffect of the loss of street distribution of condoms,in-house HIV and safety education services, andoutreach educators previously provided by the NGOcan be expected to be compounded by the dearth ofinteraction with advocates and reduced opportunitiesfor engagement with more experienced and condompositivesex workers, described earlier.While the sex worker organisations themselves havenot ceased supplying condoms to their members, theirresources for conducting regular outreach activities arelimited. Even though they make condoms available forpick up in bulk, they express concern that possession ofcondoms in bulk may make their members vulnerable tothe attention of agents of the law. Now they undertake thissupply with caution:When we have a supply we give the supply to oursex worker members and we tell them to be careful…We trust our sex workers to know what to do. Wehave had a lot of discussions on this.Changes in NGO orientationThe Crimes Decree does not ban the distribution ofcondoms, nor are there any provisions which wouldspecifically prohibit peer outreach or HIV programs.However, the major NGO provider of sex worker serviceshas ceased its targeted sex worker programs andactivities, and stopped holding meetings for a sex workersupport group:You know we have really had to change the wholeprogram, which has gone from outreach and condomdistribution and information giving on welfare andhuman rights and all that type of thing. Fundinghas been put over to income generation education.There’s no outreach. (NGO program manager)This was explained on the basis that the sex workerproject was only one of a number of projects undertakenby that NGO. It was further elaborated that as the legalstatus of working with sex workers was uncertain, theNGO did not want to risk jeopardising other programs:We’ve actually targeted sex workers, we’ve reallyfocused on that but with the law getting in the wayour staff have been put at risk, the organisation hasbeen put at risk in terms of supporting illegal acts bygiving them condoms – encouraging them to havesex in the eyes of some. A lot of our programs aredone in conjunction with Government Departments.[This] one group was putting all the other services atrisk. And our field officers were jumping into drainswith the sex workers when the police vehicles drivepast, because they don’t want to be seen.Sex WoRKeRS and HIV PreveNTIon in Fiji - After The Fiji Crimes Decree 200921
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 and 18: Monday morning we were taken for th
Page 19: Before, when there was no Crime Dec
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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