(Trinidad Express) Decriminalising sex work in Trinidad and Tobago will lead to a dent in human trafficking, says former health minister Fuad Khan.
“If you look at the papers over the last couple of years, you would see more and more advertisements for massages, personal escort services, they are just sex work by a different name.
“If you decriminalise it, you prevent the police from going after certain areas and demanding their pound of flesh; in other words, you are protecting the persons who want to do it and you’re also going to allow those people who are trafficked to go the police and report or have persons assist them in reporting, it is a double-win situation,” he said.
Khan said on his Facebook page yesterday that there is a difference between prostitution and human trafficking, adding that the decriminalisation of the industry would help T&T.
“Devant (Maharaj) and Vasant (Bharath) have said that women approached them, that is prostitution, that is not trafficking,” he said.
He was referring to a claim by former government minister Dr Devant Maharaj that United National Congress (UNC) officials were involved in prostitution and human trafficking, and Bharath, who said he was approached by women.
Khan, a colleague of both Maharaj and Bharath in the Kamla Persad-Bissessar government, said he was never approached by any women, and he was not aware of any investigations into any UNC member.
“I am very glad that (PM Dr Keith) Rowley has brought it up and also that Kamla has pushed back because now we can continue the conversation of decriminalising sex workers, so they will not be taken advantage of by policemen, and we can also decrease the human trafficking so people can report it to the police rather than having the fear of being charged for prostitution,” he said.
He recalled that he attended a regional meeting where there was discussion on decriminalising sex work.
“A lot of women choose to be sex workers and as a result of that, they are not trafficked. We have to take our heads out of the ground and talk about decriminalisation of sex work to prevent human trafficking,” he said.
He said “trafficked” women would not be able to go to Maharaj and Bharath to solicit sex.
Khan noted that places such as the Netherlands, New Zealand, Austria and Denmark, among many other nations, have legalised sex work.
“They have decriminalised it and it’s a profession like anything else,” he said.
He said both the UNC and People’s National Movement (PNM) blaming each other with respect to human trafficking is like a “ping-pong ball going back and forth but reaching absolutely nowhere”.
