Sex work ban backfires
Immigration NZ is stopping a growing number of migrant workers trying to work illegally in the sex industry.
But those supporting the country’s sex workers say the policy is creating dangers for the very people Immigration NZ should be trying to protect.
Last year, 271 people were prevented from boarding flights here or refused entry on arrival because of suspicions they intended doing sex work; 151 were stopped in 2018.
Immigration NZ’s general manager for verification and compliance, Stephen Vaughan, said the sex industry was potentially a high risk area for trafficking, and the agency was educating employers, facilitators of service and workers so they understood their rights and legal obligations.
Immigration NZ has also deported migrants found working here illegally but said it did not collate the statistics in an easily reportable format.
Under the Prostitution Reform Act, foreign nationals on temporary visitor, student, or work visas are barred from the sex industry.
The NZ Prostitutes Collective and the Human Rights Commission want the act amended, saying the current law is putting migrant sex workers at risk because they won’t report exploitation for fear of deportation.
Late last year, the Government launched public consultation on proposals to prevent exploitation of temporary migrant workers in all industries.
In its submission, the Human Rights Commission said the prohibition on temporary visa holders from sex work meant vulnerable migrants were reluctant to report exploitative employers, criminals who preyed on them, or to seek medical treatment.
That has been backed up by a Kingston University London research project looking at migration, sex work and trafficking in Australia, New Zealand, the United States and France.
New Zealand researcher Calum Bennachie has almost completed 50 interviews of migrant sex workers for the study and his findings show current decriminalising legislation should be extended to protect their labour and human rights.
He has talked to female, male and transgender migrants who were sometimes also working in other industries where exploitation was rife, such as hospitality, and their status as illegal sex workers constantly put them at risk. ‘‘Clients try to blackmail the worker into providing [sexual] services for free by threatening to call Immigration NZ on them.’’
That essentially amounted to rape but workers were too scared to report it to police, Bennachie said. About five of the workers were deported. One was a student forced to leave two weeks before her final university exams.
She resorted to sex work out of financial desperation, initially thinking it was permissible under the 20 hours a week work limit on foreign students.
Another woman refused to seek medical treatment because she was scared the doctor would inform Immigration NZ, and eventually she needed hospital treatment.
Prostitutes Collective founder Dame Catherine Healy said exploitation of sex workers was part of the wider issue of migrant worker exploitation. ‘‘Yes, we need to repeal the legislation; no, it won’t fix everything,’’ she said.