Taipei's legal prostitution ends at midnight

0 Comments | Asian Political News, April 2, 2001

TAIPEI, March 27 Kyodo

Legal prostitution in Taipei will come to an end midnight Tuesday after more than four decades as a two-year grace period for the remaining handful of licensed prostitutes to take up work outside the sex industry expires.

However, while the licensed redlight establishments in the capital's Wanhua and Tatung districts will have to close, those seeking sex for money will still be able to turn to the thousands of illegal prostitutes working out of massage parlors, barber shops and hostess bars.

In a bid to quell criticism that the ban will merely force legal prostitutes underground, Taipei city police Tuesday vowed to relentlessly crack down on the illegal sex industry.

Police officials said any establishment found to serve as a front for prostitution will have its water and electricity supply cut off, while owners of such property will be fined and face criminal charges.

The system of licensed prostitution was originally set up to take care of the sexual needs of the hundreds of thousands of soldiers who fled to Taiwan after the Communist takeover in China in 1949.

Many of those impoverished veterans found it difficult to find wives in Taiwan sparking the government to regulate the sex trade in 1959, mandating regular health checks for licensed prostitutes.

But in 1995 then Taipei Mayor Chen Shui-bian launched a crackdown on the sex industry, gaming parlors and other vices, which culminated in a ban on licensed prostitution in September 1997.

When the ban was enforced, more than 120 legal sex workers, many elderly and with little formal education, took to the streets accusing the city of destroying their livelihood and demanding a gradual phaseout.

The protests sparked the city assembly, which earlier passed the ban, to agree to a two-year grace period and measures including financial incentives to entice the women into retraining for work outside the sex industry.

Chen refused to accept the grace period, but was voted out of office in December 1998. Under new Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou the city assembly again passed a two-year grace period, which took effect March 27, 1998.

At the same time, the city government began to hand out NT$10,000 (about $307) per month to those who wanted to pursue new jobs and an interest-free loan of NT$60,000 for those who wanted to set up their own businesses.

When the grace period began two years ago, 68 licensed prostitutes decided to stay in the sex trade for the time being, but only 42 of them were still working as sex workers Tuesday.

In the past two years, a total of 57 sex workers have participated in the retraining program taking up new jobs such as housekeeping or opening beauty parlors, restaurants and other small businesses, according to the city government.

Over the years, the prostitution issue has sparked heated debate and even feminist and women's groups remain deeply divided over whether prostitution should be legal or not.

Some have suggested that city designate special redlight districts where prostitution is legal and could be closely monitored to prevent the involvement of pimps and crime syndicates.