SEX WORKERS IN MACAU

By Kendy Yim, Ziteng project researcher

Usually sex workers wait for clients on the streets near hotels. After reaching agreements with clients on the deal, they take the clients to their rooms. No third party is involved in their transactions. As they stay in Macau only for a short period, they work very hard. Except during their menstrual periods, they work everyday. Some sex workers even use medicine to delay their periods to prevent them disrupting opportunities to earn money.

All the sex workers we interviewed stayed in hotels. Usually they wake up around noon, and wait for clients in hotel lobbies. Sometimes, they go back to their rooms to rest for a while. Their main working times were from 9:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m.

In Macau some hotels rent out rooms for sex workers. The interviewees usually stay in small hotels. Each person rents one room if she has enough money. Sometimes, in order to save money, two women share a room. The hotels are only responsible for renting out the rooms. They do not provide clients or provide condoms like guesthouses in Hong Kong or show them how to escape when there is a police raid.

Occupational Health and Safety Measures

All interviewees except one said firmly that as sex workers, they asked clients to use condoms because they had to protect their own health and their boyfriends'.

However, most of the sex workers do not have regular health checks. Before they left China, they needed a document to prove that they were healthy, but the associated medical check does not include testing for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Besides such routine health checks, only two interviewees had other health checks to screen for STDs.

They explained that it was because of "lack of time", "not willing to spend money" and "feeling no need" that they did not go for a check. This shows that they are not fully aware of the risks, perhaps because most of them do not plan to engage in sex work for a long time.

Violence from Clients

Usually the interviewees tried their best to avoid dealing with drunken clients. However, sometimes clients are annoyed by refusals and the result is dangerous.

"Last time I was in Macau. A client had drunk a lot. I refused to do business with him. I was afraid that he would hit me. He scolded me, saying that I was embarrassing him. Then some people from the hotel and other girls helped me to drive him away. Soon afterwards, I flew away to a Southeast Asian country. Therefore, I was not so afraid."

Besides violence, the interviewees were also threatened by the possibility of being robbed as they were alone with clients in their rooms. They thought that the only thing they could do was to be as cautious as possible.

"I have not had such a dangerous experience. But I heard a story about another girl. She earned a few hundred thousands dollars in a few years. Then she was robbed in a hotel in Macau and suffocated to death by a pillow. I am afraid that this may happen to me. When you get into the room, you are alone. I can only try to be as cautious as possible. For example, when I stay overnight with a client, I am afraid to fall asleep. My money may be stolen. After I earned money here, I asked people I trusted to take it back to my hometown. I don't want to be robbed and get nothing.

Unfair Treatment by Law Enforcement and Judicial Systems Police Arrest

When sex workers wait for clients on the streets, they worry about the police, including checking identity documents and attacks on the sex industry.

In December 1999, Macau will revert to China. Macau police have carried out a large-scale crackdown on the sex industry since mid 1999. In the past, police officers usually checked identity documents outside small hotels or in hotel lobbies. Now police officers often go into the rooms of women who are suspected of doing sex work to check identity documents. In this way, the police can disrupt their work and scare away clients.

Sometimes, the police take street sex workers back to police stations without giving any reason after checking their identity documents. In the police stations, police officers did not follow the formal interrogation procedures or explain to them the reasons for arrest. They were ordered to stand in the police station for a few hours, or to leave Macau. During the survey, the Macau government co-operated with the police bureau of Zhuhai [Chinese city next to Macau] to attack the sex industry. The Macau government gave a list of women who were suspected sex workers to the Zhuhai police. The Zhuhai police then refused applications from these people to go to Macau (3 August 1999, Apple Daily). The Chinese government also stopped issuing visas to Macau periodically to control the number of people going there, aiming at suppressing street sex workers from China.

Because the Macau police mobilised a large number of police to check identity documents of people from China, some interviewees avoided going out. They ordered take-away meals from nearby restaurants to be delivered to their rooms. Sometimes they went to buy fruits near their hotels, but they were afraid of being checked by police officers. As a result, the fruit shops nearby the hotels began to use small carts to sell fruits to them immediately outside their hotels.

Lack of Understanding about Laws

Interviewees said that when they were arrested, the police often did not follow the normal procedure of recording their testimonies and initiating prosecutions against them. The police abused their power and ordered the sex workers to stand in police stations for a few hours. They were not allowed to sit down. The police did not talk to them or explain procedures, and at last let them return to hotels.

About half of the interviewees had similar experiences.

"I arrived in Macau in June. I was taken to the police station three times. Every time I was punished by being forced to stand for four to six hours. They did not say anything to me, just punished me by making me stand up."

The interviewees felt powerless to seek justice for what the police had done to them, as they thought that they had done something wrong.

"The police do not need a reason. They know clearly what you are doing. When a policeman asks you to accompany him back to the police station, you cannot refuse to go."

"No explanation! They did not talk to me, and only allowed me to leave when they said so."

"No one talked to me. They would not tell me what it was about. Either we were punished by standing or sent back to China. It depended on luck." Since August 1999, Macau's police stepped up its sex industry crackdown. The police went into the hotel rooms of sex workers to arrest them, even though they had no evidence and the sex workers were not working. Then the police sent them back to China. At the same time, the Macau government gave the information about these sex workers to the Chinese government in order to prevent them from entering Macau again.

Lack of Knowledge about Social Services

The interviewees' experiences showed that they were not protected by the law when they were in Macau. They not only faced unreasonable arrests by the police, they were also not informed about their legal rights under the law, such as the right to know the reason for arrest, and the right to refuse to sign the testimony in police stations. As sex workers did not know about the situation in Macau, they did not think of seeking assistance. They had not thought of or heard about any social services for them. They did not know that there were groups concerned about sex workers. They also did not think about the possibility of such groups existing in China. As a result, when they faced problems, they were not aware of the Social Services that provided assistance for them.

Lack of Assistance

Because of the social stigma of sex work, most sex workers do not tell their families back home about their work in Hong Kong or Macau. They tell them they are working in southern coastal cities or visiting friends there. As a result, when they have problems or receive unfair treatment, they cannot tell their families. Their only emotional support is from their friends from the same village, or boyfriends. As a result, some interviewees continue to get together again with their pimps from time to time, even though they know that the relationship with pimps will not be long-term.

Society's suppression of sex workers and stripping of legal rights have the effect of further pushing them into the hands of pimps, or putting them in an isolated and helpless position. This is extremely unfair for the sex workers who have failed to find work in the city because of unequal economic development. They simply want to support their families, and seek a brighter future for themselves.