Local Sex Workers/Advocacy

Serial killings of four sex workers
About a month ago, four sex workers, working at one-woman-brothel, were killed. Two killers were arrested. One is a Pakistan man, who killed three women, and the other is a local Hong Kong man, who is a copycat killer. He killed the fourth women

As long as we heard from the television news that the second women was killed, we immediately worked with members from JJJ Association, the group we helped sex workers to set up in 2006, to contact as many one-woman-brothels as possible. We also tried to ask for the police for more description and information about the murder. However, the police were hesitant to provide any information for us, and we received the call from the friends of the third women on the same day, asking us to help them find their missing friend. Unfortunately, the third women were still killed. The next day, we hosted a press conference with several sex workers, condemned the police for their ineffective law enforcement causing the death of three sex workers. At the time when we were hosting the press conference, we received a call from another sex worker, telling us that her friend was attacked and killed. Eventually, four sex workers were killed in three days. We quickly tried our best to contact every one-woman-brothel. We urged them to foster the linkage with other counterparts, as this is one very effective way for sex workers to protect themselves. If they are robbed or hurt, other counterparts can immediately provide support, or call for help. At the same time, we strongly hope that the police can better their law enforcement.

JJJ Association statement regarding to the serial killings of sex workers

JJJ Association is the group formed by sex workers, who would like to provide further support for the counterparts. Three of us were robbed and killed. Many of us are extremely worried. As a sex workers group, we have the following response: Just like everyone of you, we work in the sex industry for our family and children. We are not stealing or robbing anything, but we are always discriminated. Whenever we are in trouble, we not only have no support from the neighbour or the community, we also receive no help from the police. Different from most of you, the police seldom seriously take the initiative to offer us help. Some police officers even verbally assault us at the police station. Eventually, we dare not call the police for help, indirectly ‘encourage’ the robbers or murderers to continue harming us. Though we are still marginalized in the society, and many people do not accept us, we well understand that we at least have to unite ourselves and strengthen our mutual communication if we want to continue our work. We appeal to every sisters working at one-woman brothel or other sectors. If you were robbed or hurt in the past 6 months, or you have any relevant information, please contact Zi Teng and the police immediately. We think that the serial killer not only challenges the police, also publicly discriminates against us. We would like to tell you that “You can never escape from the responsibility. You will pay for this”. You will soon be brought to jail. We are ready to cooperate with the police, but we strongly urge the police to improve the current 999 system. We hope that we can call for the police in a comfortable and secure way, without any discrimination or insult. We also hope that the police can well protect our identity when we call for help. In this case, we can cooperate with the police without any worry, provide useful information for the police to arrest the serial killer. According to the current law, sex workers can only work alone in the flat. This undoubtedly exposes us to dangers and risks, that robbers and killers can always target us. We strongly urge the Government to reform current law, so that we can work with another sex worker or a third party, better care each other. For further enquiries or information, please contact Zi Teng.

Presently, sex workers working at one-woman brothel can only work alone in the flat according to the law. Anyone developing business relationship with sex workers, even they are only washing towels for sex workers, may easily be charged with ‘living off the earnings of prostitutes’. Sex workers cannot even hire someone to protect them. If they co-work at the same flat, they will be charged with ‘permitting premises or vessel to be kept as a vice establishment’. They cannot take care and support each other effectively. Sex workers eventually have to face the dangers and risks alone, that robbers and killers can freely take advantage of them. Most of all, even they are in trouble or danger, they cannot receive help and concern from the police. Some police officers even verbally assault sex workers who seek for the police help. Sex workers are thus reluctant to call the police. To urge the police to better their law enforcement on sex workers, and to try developing effective safety measures for sex workers with the police, after knowing that the Police Commissioner publicly announced his wish to discuss more with sex workers and concerned groups on the safety issue, we marched to the Police Headquarters.

Yet, the Commissioner did not keep his promise but only let his subordinate, a chief superintendent, meet with us. During the meeting, the police representatives showed little interests in our suggestions. Neither did they show any interest in how we can better communicate and exchange crime information with each other. Even we told them how we effectively worked with some police districts in the past to solve the cases, the representatives paid very little attention. The chief superintendent only said that they would not take operation against sex workers who provide their information for police help. Also, he would severely punish the police officers who poorly treat or insult sex workers.

However, as long as the meeting was over, we immediately received calls from sex workers in different districts that police went to their working place and asked them for personal information. Some police even forced and threatened the women to provide the information. We tried to call the police representatives we met at the meeting, but no one picked up our call. Apparently, the police lied to sex workers and us. What they said at the meeting was untrue. What the police mean by ‘concern’ and ‘protection through close contact’ is actually harassment and eradication.

Because of the serial killings, the public has more interests and concern on sex workers. In particular, the press is more interested in sex workers. This is supposed to be good news to us, as we may then have more opportunities to tell more people the voices and stories of sex workers. However, the press was too enthusiastic to expose sex worker’ privacy. Not only they reported the background of the four victims, they also tried to visit and interview the deceased’s family. Besides, they went to sex workers’ working place to do the interviews, seriously violated sex workers’ privacy. Some even reported in details how sex workers protect themselves, indirectly showing the safety measures to robbers and other criminals, locating sex workers to further risks and dangers. We thus launched a petition, urging the public and press to stop exposing sex workers’ identity. It is great that we quickly collected more than 230 signatures from Hong Kong public and overseas groups in one week. Also, more than 50 people came to the memorial ceremony we organized to mourn for the four victims. We strongly feel that there is more support from the society on sex workers.

Zi Teng petition urging the press to respect sex workers’ privacy and our view on sex work law

Starting from the first murder of a sex worker to our discovering of more victims, the focus has gradually changed from homicide of sex worker to how the government and the society can help sex workers to reduce their risks, and then further shift to the discussion of reformation of law and policy. Zi Teng did not participate in each discussion of the above. We were even absent from some of the discussions, but many journalists, groups and individuals did feel very enthusiastic to quote out of context. During the whole development of the incident, Zi Teng has only one focus, i.e., to console sex workers not to worry and continue to work without worries and risks. Our concern is the “rice-bowl” and the security of sex workers, which are the top priorities for us to consider during this period. We basically have no time for all those discussions above. Following the arrest of the first suspect and according to the media that the police have important intelligence to search for another suspect, we would like to take the opportunity to clarify and state our big picture view on the discussions that went on for these few days. “Two-women brothel”/”Multiple-women brothel”/Sex workers employ bodyguard? A few days ago, Zi Teng appealed the general public to jointly sign the “JJJ Association” statement, in which sex workers request to ‘reform current law, so that we can work with another sex worker or a third party, better care each other.’ Zi Teng also urged in the statement dated March 17 the government to ‘reform current sex work law, so that sex workers can work or share the same flat with a third party.’ Some media interpreted the above statement as consent of Zi Teng in supporting the idea of “Two-women brothel”/”Multiple-women brothel”, or employing bodyguard. However, what we put forward is pinpointing to this particular incident. Due to legal restriction, sex worker can only work alone and resulted in getting murdered. If there is one more person in the premises and sex workers can watch each other’s back, this tragedy may not happen. Zi Teng always believes that only sex workers can draft or advise the best law/policy regarding their occupation. That is why we consistently encourage sex worker to stand up for their rights and voice out their wants. We swear to ourselves that we will walk together with sex workers no matter when there is reporter interviewing them, march on the street or interview with the Legislative Councilors. If there is no participation of sex workers, we would rather turn down interviews, not to march on the street or even postpone the meeting with Legco members. All because sex workers are the leading role of all these and Zi Teng is only a supporting party. In order to motivate sex workers to fight for their own rights, we strive to establish strong connection with sex workers and let them know their positions and rights. It appears to us that what we have been doing is effective, or else we will not know sex workers are victimized, or sex workers themselves will not ask us for help when there is a problem, or we will not receive more than a hundred phone calls asking for help after the serial killings. Some sex workers even complain that the long-established 24 hours hotline is always busy and can hardly get in touch with us. No matter it is “Two-women brothel/Multiple-women brothel”, or employing bodyguard, they are just a few proposals out of many to ensure the security of sex workers and the list can go on and on. We have never suggested that those proposals are the best and only option. Neither have we ever raised them to the public. If the society still has the prejudice and discrimination against sex workers and do not consider sex work as a kind of work, all these proposals are vain talking. They only arouse severe criticism and create nuisance to the sex workers. Establishing close relationship with sex workers and putting their welfares as our top priority are the basic concept since the setup of Zi Teng. We have not done anything to hurt sex workers but fighting hard to stop this to happen. As long as the social discrimination towards sex workers has not been improved, we will not expose sex workers to the media without second thought. What we regret is that in this incident (same as similar incidents in the past), for gimmick and personal benefit, different medias come to sex workers’ workplace to film them and expose them in all kinds of media. They have offended the sex workers and made them live under fear, worrying that their identities may be exposed and in turn made their families bear unnecessary pressure and nuisance. We sincerely urge that everybody can well treat sex workers and not to take personal benefit by sacrificing or offending theirs. We also hope that everybody can work together to improve the living conditions of sex workers so that they will not be offended unnecessarily. We appeal to all the medias, groups and individuals to sign and support this petition and promise to: stop all actions that will harm sex workers, especially all the tactics applied to expose the identity and violate the privacy of any sex worker. Zi Teng 20th Mar 2008

Though the two killers are now arrested, sex workers are not yet freed from the risks and dangers. To reduce their vulnerability to risks and dangers, apart from helping them to maintain contact with other sex workers, and pushing the police to protect sex workers more, we also try to work out two other ways for sex workers to protect themselves. One is the installation of the panic alarm, which sex workers can quickly call for help in case of emergency. In order to reduce their financial burden to install the panic alarm, we launched a fundraising campaign with the public since the end of March, hope to collect funds for sex workers’ panic alarm. Glad that quite a number of people supported this campaign, and we will regularly update the progress of fundraising and installation of panic alarm to the press and on our website to let the public understand more it.

The other way for sex workers to protect themselves is to make good use of the votes to vote for those who really care for sex workers’ rights and safety. In order to let more sex workers understand the power of votes, Zi Teng and JJJ Association has launched the ‘voter registration campaign’. We not only push sex workers to register as voter, we also ask every sex worker to push her family and people she knows to do the voter registration and give vote to those caring for sex workers’ rights. Besides, we try to mobilize everyone related to the sex industry, and those caring about sex workers’ rights, such as clients, volunteers, flat owners, to do the registration. With sex workers’ votes, those caring for sex workers’ rights can then sit on the policy/law-making level and provide further support for sex workers.

However, the most effective way to ensure sex workers’ safety is sure to be the well enforcement of law by the police. Though the police did openly promise to carry out better safety measures for sex workers since the serial killings, say, exchanging more crime information with sex workers and us, setting up special hotlines for sex workers, such measures are not as effective as promised. For instance, the police do not provide more characteristics of the suspects, that sex workers can never understand how the suspects look like, sex workers are never informed of the number of the special hotlines. Instead of concerning and protecting sex workers, the police often harass and disturb sex workers. For example, they often force sex workers to provide their landlords’ contact, they check every client’s identity and visit sex workers three times a day, which are measures scaring most clients away.

In order to pressure more the police to improve the law enforcement, we took both issues of law enforcement and sex workers’ safety to the Legislative Council. JJJ Association and several local concern groups such as the Civil Human Rights Front, the Hong Kong Women Christian Council, the Association Concerning Sexual Violence, also attended the meeting. We criticized the police for their ineffective safety measures and not handling the cases reported by sex workers. We also urged them to carry out substantial measures to protect sex workers, say, producing materials and posters to let the public know that victimizing sex workers also leads to punishment or imprisonment, setting up measures to avoid police officers from mishandling sex workers’ cases, re-training police cadets and officers how to well communicate with sex workers. In particular, we strongly urged the police to stop insulting those sex workers who report cases to the police. Even though we are not sure if the police really take our suggestions, Ng Kam-wing, the Chief Superintendent speaking on behalf the Police Force, did state at the Legco meeting that the special hotlines would widely distributed to sex workers. He also stated that the police would meet with sex workers and the concern groups every 3-6 months to better exchange the crime information. In regards to our demand of re-training police cadets and officers, he said that the Police Academy has started to study the police attitudes towards sex workers and will later compile the findings into its training kits. We sincerely hope that the police will keep their promise, and improve their law enforcement.

Recommendations to the Police in enhancing the personal security of sex workers

Ziteng’s Recommendations to the Police in Enhancing the Personal Security of Sex-worker Enhancing the Protection to Sex-worker To set up hotline in each district such that sex-worker can get assistant as soon as possible as well as providing crime information (Although the police has publicly said that the issue is followed up by a special assigned team, still we did not receive any information about the hotline) To exchange information about criminals and their offences among Ziteng and JJJ Association To set up regular meeting with sex-worker concern organizations to discuss issues like measures in protecting the personal security of sex-worker and reviews in mutual communication of both sides such that improvement can be made on both areas To improve the handling technique and procedure for sex-worker to report a crime No matter how serious the crime is, when a sex-worker meets a customer who deny payment, has his condom removed in the process, pays counterfeit banknote, sexually molests or blackmails her, a police officer should handle the sex-worker’s report with respect and professional manner like taking details note on the information provided by the reporter. To stop asking for irrelevant information about the case like landlord’s information and channels in publicizing, etc. No matter she is a information provider or victim, the police should not expose personal information of the sex-worker like name and age, etc. To protect the privacy effectively avoiding sex-worker being filmed by the media and has her identity exposed. To allow sex-worker to have her statement made on scene is one of the examples that can help. To set up measures in avoiding a police officer reject in handling cases reported by a sex-worker To provide training to all ranks of police officers including frontline policemen and cadets To educate police officers in all rank to respect sex-workers and the technique in communicating with sex-worker in order to eliminate the discrimination of sex-workers and other marginalized groups in the society To educate police officers in all rank the mentality and technique in handling cases related to sex-workers in order to increase their vigilance and sensitivity towards those cases Measures in Crime Prevention To enhance the promotion of crime awareness to sex-workers. For example, to include crimes which are particularly targeted to sex-workers in the weekly “Police Report” television programme and to print posters appealing the sex-workers to raise their awareness, etc To publicize that offending sex-workers can be seriously sentenced in order to deter criminals, like promoting through “Police Report” To patrol more frequently in areas where crimes took place by the CID instead of uniform officers such that customers might be deterred and thus affecting the business of sex-workers Stop any abuse of power towards sex-workers To stop getting information from sex-worker by compulsion. When a police officer is asking for information, he should initiate in telling the sex-worker that they have the rights to provide it voluntarily. The police should declare the usage of information in black and white and guarantee that the information will not be used by another division for the purpose of police raids in prostitution. To stop any behaviours that are abusing the police power towards a sex-worker To review the policy in police raids in prostitution, particularly in attacking websites for advertising, arresting those who wash the towels and landlords where there are no victims in such cases. They should review the policy such that resources will not be wasted To review completely the legislation related to sex-work, developing a decriminalization model and detaching sex-work from the criminal ordinance. Like prosecuting landlord of “Tenant etc. permitting premises or vessel to be used for prostitution” (Criminal Ordinance Chapter 200 Section 145), “Tenant etc. permitting premises or vessel to be kept as a vice establishment” (Criminal Ordinances Chapter 200 Section 144), etc To improve the system in handling complaints to the police by setting up an independent division or department to handle the complaints

In fact, the serial killings did cast much influence on sex workers. On one hand, we are glad that sex workers are more united and willing to support each other. Moreover, they are more enthusiastic to provide us information about the client misbehavior, or police misconduct. Most of all, many of them understand more about rights, particularly the voting rights, that they strongly feel that they need to use their votes to vote for the most supportive and appropriate legislative councilor. On the other hand, many sex workers are scared by the killings, that they are more alert to suspicious clients and visitors. As long as they can be more aware of self-protection, we believe that they definitely will be less exposed to risks and dangers.

Networking: UNISON and Labor Day Protest
Because of the serial killings incident, we are more linked with Unison, a group concerning ethnic minorities’ rights and interests. After the arrest of the suspects for the murders of Yuen Long and Tai Po sex workers, the Hong Kong society has made use of these unfortunate events to become another moral criticism toward sex workers and racial minorities, reflecting there is serious discrimination to these two minority groups in our society. At the same time, the law enforcing departments do not protect the rights of the persons involved and their family members according to the law. Thus, we made a joints statement with Unison, appealing to the Hong Kong public, police and press to respect and care for the social marginalized, stop all discriminative and prejudicial judgment on the social marginalized groups.

Zi Teng Joint Declaration with UNISON about the Marginalization of Sex workers and Racial Minorities

After the arrest of the suspects for the murders of Yuen Long and Tai Po sex workers, the Hong Kong society has made use of these unfortunate events to become another moral criticism toward sex workers and racial minorities, reflecting there is serious discrimination to these two minority groups in our society. At the same time, we have discovered that law enforcing departments do not protect the rights of the persons involved and their family members according to the law. With respect to the discriminating opinions and the protection of the rights of the people involved, we hereby declare that: The media should keep their professional practice and not to exaggerate events in their report and also de-identify the sex workers, suspects and their family members. For example, the homicide of Yuen Long and Tai Po’s sex workers are considered as individual cases. They are not connected with any racial issue and their family members. To report with exaggeration and gimmick, violating the privacy of others can only deepen the misunderstanding and discrimination of sex workers and the racial minorities and hurt the innocent family members even further. Media should not make an issue out of context like raising the doubt about whether sex workers will violate the Legislation Against Discrimination, if enacted by the government, and be arrested when they reject any south Asia customers during an interview with a sex worker. There is no connection between against racial discrimination and this tragedy here. This kind of question can only mislead the readers and the ones being interviewed about this legislation and obstruct an opening and caring attitude for the society to discuss the pros and cons of it, resulting in a loss for the society. When there is no verdict from the court, media should not have announced the verdict before the proceeding and should avoid using words like “Maniac”, etc. Negative type of gimmick may mislead the general public to severely criticize the suspects and also push the police, who are already famous for abusing their power, to further violate the rights of the suspects during the interrogation. This will obstruct the suspects to have a fair proceeding. During the investigation of the case, the police and the court should hold an equal attitude among different races and should not discriminate. The suspects are not allowed to contact any lawyer and not provided any translator initially. It is disappointing to see suspects with Hong Kong citizenship have their basic civilian rights being robbed by a government organization and the court which suppose to protect them. In fact, there are frequent unfair court cases among the sex workers and racial minorities. We will like to take this opportunity to request the higher officials in the government to review the police department thoroughly and not to turn a blind eye to any discriminating attitude toward sex workers and racial minorities and practices that violate the rights of a citizen. We are disappointed by the loose practice of protecting private information by the police. The background of the persons involved and their family members can only be used as evidence in the court but the media can report it with such a detail that made us believe there is a loophole in securing information used in court by the police. We request the police to investigate seriously this issue and protect the privacy of the persons involved and their family members in any case. The general public should maintain an objective attitude to the persons involved and their family members. Criticize without enough information and understanding can only mislead others understanding of this incident. We should also respect and care the feelings of those involved in our discussion. The society should assist minorities in solving the problem of insecure living conditions as the law has put sex workers working in a highly dangerous situation, we request the police to devise effective policy in further protecting sex workers. Protect the working rights of any individual. Also, we hope that the society can tolerate cultural disparity, to protect the rights of different people other than themselves and discriminate no more. Finally, we urge all the minorities to help and take care of each other, to fight collectively for their rights with the same spirit. Ziteng and Hong Kong Unison 24th Mar 2008 Contact: Ziteng (Sex worker concern group) 2332 7182 Elaine Lam ziteng@hkstar.com.hk Hong Kong Unison (Minorities concern group) 2789 3246 Fermi Wong info@unison.org.hk

Moreover, Zi Teng and several sex workers, volunteers and supporters joined the Labor Day protest organized by HKCTU (Confederation of trade unions). We marched from the Victoria Park in Causeway Bay to the Government Headquarters in Central. On the way, we cried out loudly the slogan of the host to support the legislation of minimum wage and collective bargaining of workers. We also cried out our slogans, like "Sex Work is Work", "Concern sex workers' occupational safety and health".

In addition, we have submitted the shadow report on the Convention Against Torture to the United Nations. We listed in the report how the Hong Kong police abuse and humiliate sex workers in different ways, say, strip-search sex workers for several times in 12 hours, force sex workers to sign on the testimonial

Migrant Sex Workers in Hong Kong

Trafficking

Gender equality

Education of clients
The men’s group we set up has gradually increased in its size.

There are now more than 25 members in the group. The group will meet once a month. Recently, members have formed a core group to better coordinate the activities and development of the men’s group. They have also laid down their short-term goal and long-term goal. While they would like to teach more men how to respect sex workers and women in long run, they are also aiming to increase men’s awareness in legal and human rights in short run. Presently, they are working on a book about clients. Through this book, they hope that the public can understand more about clients, destigmatize clients and their habit of buying sexual service.

As long as the men’s group continues to develop, we sincerely believe that they can bring much positive influence on men in Hong Kong, better clients’ attitudes towards sex workers and women. If you would like to know more or join our men’s group, please feel free to contact us.

Public education

Good relationship with neighbor
In Hong Kong, one-woman-brothels are often found in the residential buildings. If sex workers do not behave properly, say, leaving the garbage outside their flat, making much noise in the flat, the residents living next door may feel very uneasy to their neighbor. The residents may then complain against sex workers to the Owners’ Corporation, who will then cooperate with the police and make sex workers move away from the building. Sometimes, it may not be the fault of sex workers but the clients. Some clients may visit the wrong flat and disturb the residential household. Some clients may even leave rubbish or urinate in the corridor. These behaviors will only double the hatred and uneasiness of the residents against sex workers.

To facilitate the communication and mutual understanding between sex workers and their neighbor, we have published a booklet for those working at one-woman-brothel, teaching them how to get along with their neighbor and the community. We also remind them of how to educate the clients to behave properly and respect the residents. In addition, we are now working on another booklet, which aims to let the residents understand more about sex workers, and to better deal with clients’ misbehavior.

At this stage, it seems that it is very worthy for us to persist bettering the relationship between sex workers and residents. Residents in some districts did call us to help and teach them how to get along with sex workers and clients. When we described our work on bettering neighbor relationship and distributed the booklet at the Yau-Tsim-Mong District Council meeting, many councilors showed their appreciation and support to what we had done. In fact, quite a large number of sex worker work in Yau Ma Tei, Tsimshatsui and Mongkok. Yet, as most residents are unaware of the situation of sex workers, they often complain to the District Councilors against the misbehavior of sex workers and clients. Many councilors could not find a solution to the complaints in the past, but cooperated with the police to raid against sex workers. However, after letting the councilors know that we can help them to settle the disputes between sex workers and residents, many of them did express their interests to work more with us. Some of them even concluded that they could provide us bigger support.

As long as we have more opportunities and support to facilitate the communication between sex workers and residents, we strongly believe that the residents will less discriminate against sex workers.

List of Donors (January/2008 – March/2008)

We apologize for any omissions!!