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Aussies say no to sex workers
15/10/2005 09:56 - (SA)
Sydney - It's not only foreign doctors, plumbers, nurses and welders that Australia needs to hold its position as the developed world's best-performing economy.
There aren't enough prostitutes either and the government only makes things worse by raiding brothels and kicking out overseas sex workers who don't have visas, an industry lobby group said on Friday.
Scarlet Alliance president Janelle Fawkes told an industry gathering in Melbourne that granting 300 visas to working girls from Asia would not only help alleviate a severe shortage but would please both sides of the industry.
Fawkes said legalising the position of overseas recruits by giving them visas would only be recognising the fact that they were not the victims of exploitation but ambitious young workers taking advantage of the arbitrage opportunities in a globalised market place.
"The majority of people who are trafficked into the Australian sex industry are in fact migrant sex workers who ... chose to enter Australia for the perception of improved working conditions," Fawkes said.
The Immigration Department, however, is unlikely to change its policy. A spokesperson said that prostitutes, like would-be fruit pickers, did not qualify for working visas because their level of skill was too low.
Sex worker Alison Murray, who also addressed the conference, said her own experience showed there was a career path in the sex industry and that the notion that all working girls were exploited was wrong.
"I came here as a migrant sex worker myself, 20 years ago from London," Murray said. "No one said I was a sex slave."
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South Africa
