Dangerous sex

‘‘A 24-year-old Chinese former prostitute with permanent residency who did not want to be named, estimated about 40 per cent of all sex workers in New Zealand were on temporary visas’’ (‘‘Illegal prostitutes terrified’’, Sunday Business, March 18).

I’m happy to be named and confirm this is happening and ask the big question on behalf of other legal sex workers in New Zealand – why are these illegal prostitutes not being stopped?

The working girl said prostitutes working on temporary visas knew it was illegal, but they were not afraid. They know Immigration New Zealand is not as powerful as it looks.

The fact they know they’re doing it illegally and they don’t care is disrespectful to the legal workers and disrespectful to Immigration. These illegal immigrants are being coerced by brothel managers to offer unprotected oral sex to New Zealand clients, putting those individuals and the people they see afterwards at risk of infection.

These places need to be shut down under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 and the Prostitution Reform Act 2003 (‘‘A person who provides or receives commercial sexual services must take all other reasonable steps to minimise the risk of acquiring or transmitting sexually transmissible infections’’).

Many legal sex workers have had enough and don’t understand the point of legislation if authorities do nothing.

Lisa Lewis, Hamilton