Macau has a single charity organisation whose specialist role is helping female sex workers

The Chi Tang Women Association, a branch of Hong Kong organisation Zi Teng, is the sole volunteer group in Macau that specifically supports sex workers. The other charities that work with sex workers do so only as part of their efforts to prevent the spread of HIV or help the victims of human trafficking.

The association gives out condoms, and free information on health and legal matters. Its staff also perform health check-ups to detect sexually transmitted diseases.

The language barrier and a lack of personnel speaking foreign languages has forced Chi Tang to focus mostly on prostitutes from the mainland. Most Thai, Vietnamese, Mongolian and Russian sex workers are beyond its scope.

Even so, the association has a hard time keeping track of the prostitutes they deal with. “They have tourist visas and are always changing and moving,” says Ann Lee, a member of Chi Tang.

Ms Lee explains that some mainland sex workers eventually get to stay longer by obtaining work permits with the help of relatives or acquaintances in Macau.

Zi Teng has trained volunteers in Macau to work with sex workers and provided support since 2005. The Chi Tang Women Association was registered a year later.

The main problem sex workers complain to Chi Tang about are customers that refuse to wear condoms or that rob, beat or rape them.

“If they are hurt seriously, they call the police and go to the hospital for treatment,” Ms Lee says. If they are not seriously harmed, they will do nothing, because they are afraid the police will send them back to the mainland. “Some policemen come to the room and arrest the sex workers without evidence and for no reason,” Ms Lee adds.

Less protection

In Chi Tang’s experience, many women from poorer provinces in the mainland make their own decision to come to Macau to work in the sex trade. Most arrive already knowing what kind of work they will be doing.

“They earn more in Macau than doing farm work in their hometown, so they want to come here to do sex work,” Ms Lee says.

Chi Tang’s outreach activities take place in hotels, private apartments and in the streets. But there are other places where prostitutes can be found. “They are doing sex work in saunas, massage parlours and casinos. Also, there are girls working in bars, but they are from Mongolia or foreign countries,” Ms Lee explains.

She says sex workers in Macau are less protected than those in Hong Kong. “In Hong Kong, the legislation is different, so sex workers can take to the streets and fight for their rights. In Macau, you cannot do that.”

There are other organisations in Macau working with sex workers but mainly for the purpose of HIV prevention. That is the case with the Macao AIDS Care Association. Created in 2007, the association has a hotline, arranges health tests and, once a month, distributes condoms.

“We choose small hotels or guest houses. We don’t go to saunas or big hotel-casinos because they are controlled by certain management and it’s too hard to contact them,” says the head of the association, Fátima Tsé.

There is another reason for bypassing prostitutes in saunas and hotel-casinos. “Those sex workers have more money, so the chance of them using condoms is higher,” notes Ms Tsé. We’re focusing on the lower-end sex workers. Those that, if the client asks them not to use a condom, might accept.”

The outreach team approaches sex workers from the mainland but non-Chinese-speaking sex workers are usually outside their scope. “We don’t have enough resources or volunteers to reach foreigners,” she says.

Peninsular mentality

Ms Tsé bemoans government inaction on HIV. “The government doesn’t put much effort into prevention and promotion of health. We have very little support,” she says.

Another association that may, on occasion, support prostitutes is the Good Shepherd Sisters. One of the aims of the group is to help the victims of human trafficking, and this may entail helping sex workers. The charity supports women and children that have suffered abuse.

Cecilia Ho Wing Yin, a lecturer for the social work programme at the Macao Polytechnic Institute and a member of the Macao AIDS Care Association, says the government should give a greater amount and variety of support to sex workers, including those that do not speak Chinese.

Ms Ho accuses the government of failing to act because it considers prostitution an occupation only for non-locals, as very few Macau residents work in the sex industry. “This kind of thinking is quite narrow,” she says.

“Although the government wants the NGOs to do lots of things for education [of sex workers], it only provides leaflets; it doesn’t sponsor the staff. It means we need to recruit lots of volunteers.”

Ms Ho stresses it is difficult to persuade her students to work with a group as marginalised as sex workers.

In a written reply to Macau Business, the Social Welfare Bureau acknowledged that it did not provide direct support to sex workers. But the bureau said it did give money to the Macao AIDS Care Association to develop HIV prevention programmes and counsel sex workers, and that it helped victims of human trafficking, including those forced to become sex workers.

By Luciana Leitão