With little warning the Taipei City Government moved to ban the legalized sex trade eight years ago. Each of the capital's 128 official sex workers was promised a NT$7,750 stipend per annum for the two years following the ban and another payment of NT$7,750 for each immediate family member aged either under 18, or above 65 -- provided there were no other relatives that could offer care.
The first series of social protests by sex workers in Taiwan's history erupted almost immediately. After 19 months of fierce argument the government handed the sex workers a two-year reprieve. During that time, the city initiated a social assistance program to help the prostitutes find alternative employment.
Financial help came in the form of a monthly allowance of NT$15,000 for the two-year grace period, or a NT$600,000 loan to set up a small business.
In 2001, the ban on licensed prostitution went into effect and government agencies withdrew the social assistance programs and the funding that were aiding the workers' transition to new jobs. The prostitutes lost their "special status," and were treated as ordinary labors who had to compete for limited government resources to support their families.
Sixty percent of the prostitutes went underground selling their services illicitly, 20 percent were forced into retirement and another 20 percent now struggle to make a meager living on the margins of society, according to statistics from the Collective of Sex Workers and Supporters (COSWAS) (日日春關懷互助協會).
COSWAS is the only grassroots group that has been involved with the sex workers from the beginning of the ban. Commissioned by the city's Bureau of Labor Affairs between 1999 to 2000, the group began by founding assistance programs for the prostitutes who wanted to find legitimate jobs. One year later, the funding stopped. But COSWAS has continued providing services and has, with its limited resources, set up small businesses together with several former sex workers.
The group has worked with many of the former prostitutes who struggled to make a living by running small shops or nightmarket stands. Most of the ventures failed.
Insurmountable barriers
Why is it so hard for the former sex workers to start afresh? Putting moral issues aside, these former prostitutes are a group of unskilled, middle-aged women whose work was effectively ended by the government and who were then forced to enter the job market during a time of lackluster economic growth.
Zhong jun-zhu (鍾君竺), executive director of COSWAS, has dealt with the former sex workers since he finished college and understands only too well the difficulties faced by these women.
"When the policy [of banning legalized prostitution] came out in 1997, the average age of those women was 40, and most of them had only graduated from elementary school. Most of them can't read or write, or don't know how to do the simplest math problem. Take making a Xerox copy for example, we have to teach them over and over again so they can understand how the machine works," she said. "You just can't image how many basic skills they lack, even for simple tasks. I wouldn't have any problem if the government had well-planned job training programs and career counseling for these women. But the former prostitutes were cut off from the only work they knew how to do and are now pretty much on their own," Zhong added.
The ex-prostitutes' career opportunities do not look rosy, Zhong said. "People don't like to hire them because they are unskilled and slow. From our experience, having a social support network is essential. Those who have families and friends that are able to offer support have a better chance of survival."
According to COSWAS statistics, most of the former licensed sex workers embarked on a life of prostitution for economic reasons and wanted to quit the highly stigmatized occupation if they could have done so.
Behind many of the women, a whole family waits to be fed. Some of the former prostitutes come from poor families laden with debt; some were deserted by husbands after having huge gambling losses dumped on them; and some need to take care of sick relatives. The underprivileged rarely have the freedom to make choices. And for this group of women a lack of choices often means going back to the only thing they know how to do -- selling their bodies.
Going back to the flesh trade
A former licensed sex worker who asked to go by the name Xiao Jing (小晶) is one of the group who turned to illegal prostitution after the ban. Now in her 50s, Xiao Jing became a licensed prostitute in her teens because of huge debts passed on by her deceased father.
At the time Taipei City Government announced the ban her mother was terminally ill and she had to take care of two daughters, one in high school, the other in elementary school.
"If my situation wasn't so bad, why would I have chosen to be a prostitute?" she said, "I needed to pay huge medical bills for my mother, who passed away in 2002. I am also a single mom of two daughters. The money from the government just wasn't enough. I didn't apply for the loan because they [the authorities] needed to check I had the ability to start my own business first before they would give me the money. I don't have any skills to run a small shop and with my financial burdens I can't risk starting a business I know nothing about and which would likely fail. So I choose to work as an illegal prostitute."
When asked about life on the street, Xiao Jing said, "The job is very dangerous and without protection. Back then [when she was a licensed prostitute] if a customer got drunk and created trouble, I could call the police. If he refused to wear a condom, I could ask someone to kick him out. But now if a customer asks to do it without a condom, or even refuses to pay, I can do nothing about it, because they will simply say, `I'll call the police.'" Under current legislation prostitutes are arrested, whereas clients walk free.
As for law enforcement, "don't even get me started on the police," she said. "Back then we were under their protection. But now, we have to give the police money to get them off our backs."
Monthly quotas
"Some of them accept bribes and then tell other police officers to threaten us. The police will sometimes even hire someone to buy sex who will then inform on the prostitute. The police will then come and arrest us to earn points for their monthly quota," Xiao Jing said.
The exploitation doesn't stop there. Illegal prostitutes need to give 40 percent to 50 percent of the money they earn to brothel owners. Xiao Jing said, "the owners say they need money to take care of the police and hire someone to watch the police. So you see, not only do I have to hide from the police, deal with terrible customers and pimps, a large part of my wages is taken away from me."
Xiao Jing said she can only consider leaving the sex trade after paying off her debts and putting her young daughter through high school. "It will take quite a while," she sighed.
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