A survey of sex workers has revealed that police officers are the main sexual and physical abusers of prostitutes, The Herald Online reported on Thursday.
”Our experience indicates that the highest levels of violence against sex workers come from the police and law-enforcement sectors,” said researcher Nicole Fick. ”But there is not a lot they are able to do about the threat of harassment and violence from the police in the current situation where sex work is illegal.”
Fick compiled the research for the Sex Worker Education and Advocacy Taskforce (Sweat).
The study dealt with 48 complaints reviewed by the organisation between 2000 and 2004. Additional interviews were conducted last year.
Eastern and Southern Cape police said they are not aware of any problems or intimidation of prostitutes by police.
Fick, however, concluded that the rights of prostitutes arrested and detained were not upheld and in some cases police were engaging in criminal acts themselves.
She said 30% of the women who made statements to Sweat had told of being forced to have sex with police officers, or knew of other sex workers who had been forced to have sex.
One woman’s statement read: ”Sometimes they [police] ask for sexual favours in the cells (one policeman will come to the cell and choose who he would like to have sex with, so that he can free them all) and if that sex worker doesn’t want to do that, they all had to sleep there [in the police cell].”
Fick said of the 48 complaints reviewed by the organisation, 21 included complaints of being physically assaulted or sprayed with pepper aerosol by police.
A number of the women also complained about racial slurs.
”They also spoke of the fact that the police required sex workers’ clients to pay ‘fines’ and that they threatened to expose clients to their wives or families if they refused to pay the fine,” Fick said. — Sapa