Nigerian Sex Workers Association calls on the government to decriminalise prostitution as a means to combat HIV

NIGERIAN Sex Workers Association (NSWA) has called on the federal government to decriminalise prostitution and let it operate as a legitimate form of business pointing out that such a move will help arrest the prevalence of HIV.

 

At the moment, Nigeria has one of the highest number of people living with HIV in the world, standing at number two just behind South Africa. A massive 3.3m Nigerians are living with HIV and sex workers believe that to address the problem, the government needs to regulate their industry.

 

According to the NSWA, HIV infection has continued to increase because the government treats prostitution as a crime. It stated that law enforcement agents, especially the police, consequently harassed sex workers and sometimes demand sex without using condoms, which has led to the spread of the virus.

 

NSWA national coordinator Amaka Emeno, made the call at the presentation of  a report titled Understanding the High Risk of Urban Sexual Networks in Nigeria. Ms Emeno played an active role in gathering information for the report, which was compiled by the National Agency for the Control of Aids, the University of Manitoba, the US government and the World Bank.

 

Ms Emeno said: “Sex workers face violence, especially from their clients and law enforcement agents. Sex work is seen as a crime and the police raid streets and brothels to arrest sex workers, where they collect money and if the girl cannot pay money, she will have to give sex to the policemen.

 

"If the law enforcer does not want to use condom, the sex worker has to agree and this is why HIV is on the increase. So, in this study, all the sex workers we interacted with said their biggest trouble was law enforcers.”

 

In addition, she pointed out that several studies had shown that countries where prostitution is not illegal had lower cases of sexually transmitted diseases, while Nigeria, where it is illegal, had one of the highest rates of HIV in the world. Ms Emeno said sex work should be made legal and the government should not saddle sex workers with the responsibility of paying tax.

 

“When I visited Amsterdam in Holland, I was able to visit the red light district where sex workers work because prostitution is legal there and I have also visited New Zealand where they have decriminalised sex work. When you decriminalise it, there will be less exploitation of sex workers and the violence will reduce,” Ms Emeno added.

 

She added that since HIV is a communicable disease and has no cure, sex workers should be given proper treatment and not victimised. According to Ms Emeno, an infected sex worker could directly or indirectly infect as many as 100 people, adding that the government must not hound but partner them.

 

Dr Kayode Ogungbemi the director of strategic knowledge management at the National Agency for the Control of Aids, said sex workers must be taken seriously since married men also patronised them. He added that the message of use of protection must also be taken to mega stores and other places where sexual relationships began.

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