Sex workers scared of the police - LAC

Written by Patience Nyangove
Thursday, 10 September 2009

SEX workers are afraid of reporting alleged sexual violence against them by some police officers because they do not trust the force, Legal Assistance Centre director, Norman Tjombe said.



Tjombe’s comments come on the back drop of a report by the Open Society Institute which among other things accused the police of raping and sexually assaulting sex workers.

According to the report many sex workers interviewed during the compilation of the report claimed they had been raped and sexually assaulted by some police officers.

The report also alleges trans sex (men who dress as women and women who dress as men) workers have also been allegedly raped by the police.

According to Amor, a trans sex worker from Windhoek, the police first arrest them and demand sex.

“The police arrest us, beat us up and rape us. But you can’t do anything against it. They say you are a sex worker, what were you doing? I saw it happen to several of my sex worker friends: ladies, moffies and lesbians.”

Police spokesperson Angula Amulungu said if the sex workers were indeed raped and sexually assaulted by the police they should go to their nearest police stations and lay criminal charges.

“Some of these allegations don’t hold. These people are Namibians and can even go to the commander if they feel they are not being properly attended to. We have the internal investigation force where these people can also go to report their cases,” Amulungu said.

However, Tjombe said sex work was still illegal in Namibia and sex workers were randomly arrested or generally harassed by the police hence they could not go and report their cases.

“Women, who are not necessarily involved in sex work, also find it difficult to report violence against them to the police. This is because the police have for many years been insensitive to the rights of women, particularly if it is domestic violence,” Tjombe said.

He added that in such circumstances, it was not unreasonable to expect that sex workers, who are mostly women, would be afraid of the police.