The government has no plans to change legislation that prohibits migrants from working in the sex industry. Photo: RNZ / Todd Niall
The government says it has no plans to amend the legislation that prohibits migrants from working in the sex industry, despite recommendations made by the United Nations.
In a 2018 report, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) recommended the government amend Section 19 of the Prostitution Reform Act 2003, which prohibits non-citizens or residents to engage in the sex industry.
The Committee said Section 19 "may have a negative impact on migrant women" and that "migrant women engaged in prostitution may be exposed to exploitation and are at risk of trafficking, owing to the ban on engaging in prostitution imposed on migrants, which prevents them from reporting abuse for fear of deportation".
In its latest Periodic Report to CEDAW, submitted in July, the Ministry for Women said there was no current work underway to reform the Act.
"The Prostitution Reform Act 2003 (PRA) aims to reduce harm and decriminalise prostitution - while not endorsing or morally sanctioning prostitution or its use - and safeguards the human rights of sex workers," the report said.
"Additionally, it aims to protect the vulnerable by requiring that only citizens or certain residence-class visa holders can provide commercial sexual services - or manage or invest in the provision of commercial sexual services."
The report said the current legislation removed incentive for vulnerable people to enter the country to work as sex workers.
"For reasons of their socio-economic status, lack of English proficiency, or lack of understanding of the New Zealand legal environment, for example."
The government agreed that migrants working in the sex industry needed "meaningful consideration."
"This is a complex area, involving immigration settings and will need to be balanced against other priorities."
"While there is no current work underway to reform this aspect of the Act, it could be considered as part of a future review."
In the report, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment said that Section 19 was introduced as an anti-trafficking initiative, to protect migrant women from exploitation.
"In late 2019, Immigration New Zealand (INZ) took a proactive approach to better understand issues within the sex industry as part of wider work on combating exploitation.
"While temporary migrants are unable to work in the sex industry, migrant workers have the same employment rights as all other workers in New Zealand," it said on the report.
Government response disappointing but not surprising - sex worker and activist
Pandora Black. Photo: Supplied / Pandora Black
Sex worker and activist Pandora Black was the one who started a petition against Section 19 of the 2003 Prostitution Reform Act in October 2022.
She collected over 1300 signatures and her petition was submitted to the CEDAW as a case to be reviewed by the New Zealand government.
Although a citizen, she decided to fight for those too scared to speak up.
She said the Ministry's decision was disappointing, but not surprising.
"If I've learned anything from my involvement in this cause and industry activism in general, it's that very few of those who represent us, whether that be on a national or global scale, have enough of a spine to enact meaningful change or show real empathy for the most marginalised in our community.
"Twenty years on from the passing of the PRA were only just starting to really tackle the stigma of sex work, and I feel like we're expected to just be happy with our lot, that we should accept blatant segregation based in the same old patronising nonsense that sex workers and people from certain parts of the world are incapable of speaking for ourselves."
She said connecting sex work with human traffic was a medieval idea.
"This is primarily an issue of migrant and labour rights, but certain people cannot get over this medieval idea that this work is inherently abusive and exploitative but no other job under a capitalist system is for some reason.
"I'm tired of it personally."
She said the government's decision of not amending the legislation showed a lack of care.
"In the report they highlight the success of recent reforms regarding the rights of other migrant workers, there's simply no reason other than the same old prejudice and assumptions to deny one specific demographic of workers rights when all of the evidence shows that basic human and labour rights is the way forward.
"In what universe arresting and deporting people, leaving them with a record of this, which will likely hinder future employment, housing, and travel opportunities, is supposed to save someone from a bad situation?
"The amendment of the PRA alone to allow for sex work on an open work visa really isn't the huge effort and complicated situation we've been told."
Black said without swift action, sex workers could be put in harms way.
"We will continue to see not only migrant sex workers, but also sex workers of certain national and ethnic origins who are actually residents, being assaulted, robbed, coerced, and exploited, only to face either increasing isolation or suffer at the hands of police and immigration, and the continued racist/xenophobic enforcement of it.
"I'm certainly not alone in having concerns over how marginalised communities will fare under a coalition increasingly pandering to small but loud groups of bigots.
'It's really clear that something needs to happen' - Massey University academic
Massey University lecturer Gwyn Easterbrook-Smith. Photo: Supplied
Lecturer at Massey University Gwyn Easterbrook-Smith have researched the sex industry for years and were the author of the book Producing the Acceptable Sex Worker.
They said New Zealand's decision on not looking into amending the legislation was frustrating.
"I just find this lack of action so disappointing.
"They've heard this from sex workers, they've heard this from academics, they've heard this from the UN. It's really clear that something needs to happen."
Easterbrook-Smith said sex work should be treated as any other type of work.
"Migrant workers do have the right to work in any other industry, it should not be different in the sex industry, I think that that's something that people often forget.
"It's a line of work like any other and it should be treated as such."
The reasons why people engage in sex work were diverse, they said.
"There are lots of different reasons people get into it, we are in the middle of cost-of-living crisis, so you often hear migrant sex workers saying they've started doing this work because it was one of the only ways to meet the living costs.
"Making it illegal for migrants to engage in sex work doesn't stop them from doing it - it just makes it easier for clubs and clients to threaten and take advantage of [migrant sex workers]."
'It's just awful' - Immigration lawyer
Data released by Immigration New Zealand (INZ) showed between 26 April 2022 and 26 April 2023, there were 30 non-New Zealanders, majority Brazilians, declined entry at the border because it was suspected that their intent was to work in the sex industry on a temporary visa.
INZ General Manager Richard Owen said the agency undertook compliance work to identify and refuse entry to foreign sex workers seeking to enter New Zealand.
"Temporary migrants, who breach their visa conditions by working in the New Zealand sex industry, are vulnerable to exploitation by unscrupulous employers and clients.
"We manage these matters on a case-by-case basis, with all relevant options applicable to the migrant taken into consideration. However, in some cases the outcome may be deportation."
Owen said there were no current operations focused on non-New Zealanders intending to work in the sex industry while on a temporary visa.
"However, we actively screen for various types of non-compliant behaviour like this on an ongoing basis."
Immigration Law Specialist Alastair McClymont said stopping migrants from working in the sex industry was not preventing it from happening.
"I don't think that anyone has been dissuaded from entering into the industry because of the legislation.
"There's always been this industry where businesses are actively recruiting people from overseas who are able to enter into the country without actually applying for the visas."
He said the search process that many women had to go through in New Zealand airports was degrading.
"I come across clients who maybe fit the [sex worker] profile at the airport, perhaps based on nationality and age, and they have their suitcases searched and they get asked about their types of clothing, why are their lingerie is too sexy, all of these types of things.
"Imagine a young woman coming into the country, for whatever reason, and having all their personal belongings searched and gone through, and then accusations being made that they came here to provide commercial sexual services.
"I mean, it's just awful," McClymont said.