Activists from the Collective of Sex Workers and Supporters (COSWAS) yesterday demonstrated in front of the Taipei City Hall to decry what group members called the Taipei Police Department’s “flawed policy implementation” for using a sting operation to arrest a prostitute for soliciting on the Internet, for which she could face a three-year prison term or a NT$1 million (US$29,579) fine.
Citing a 2011 amendment to the Social Order Maintenance Act (社會秩序維護法), which stipulates that with the exception of places frequented by minors, local governments may delimit zones within commercial districts or recreational areas where prostitution is legal, group members called on the municipal government to take the lead in legalizing prostitution.
Hsiao Yi-ting (蕭怡婷) said that authorities should not target prostitutes, who are often financially disadvantaged workers.
She said that during Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je’s (柯文哲) first year in office, police officers arrested 1,500 prostitutes for sex offenses, and that at this rate, Ko’s administration would arrest 4,500 more prostitutes before the end of his term.
The city government’s inaction and perfunctory attitude toward legalizing prostitution has led some prostitutes to operate relatively unbothered under the guise of massage parlors or nightclubs, which intensifies competition and puts older prostitutes not affiliated with such businesses at a disadvantage, Hsiao said.
Most prostitutes who have to work on the streets have developed a system to avoid causing residents near them trouble; for example, they avoid occupying pedestrian space by waiting for customers in alleys instead of on the sidewalk or under arcades, they try not to litter and they decline to serve married men, Hsiao said.
A prostitute who uses the pseudonym “Miko” said she was prosecuted last month for trying to solicit a police officer pretending to be a boy under the age of 16 on the Internet.
She said it was the first time that she had been arrested in a sting after almost 30 years in the business, and that she found it difficult to understand it, as she had not committed any major offenses.
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