‘Easy target at a time of crisis’
With brothels and guest houses closed, sex workers in countries such as Kenya, Uganda, Senegal and Botswana, are being compelled to work alone, risking their personal safety on the streets, in clients’ residences or even in their own homes.
Keswa has recorded 80 incidences of violence against sex workers by clients, neighbours and police in the first of the month of the pandemic compared to a monthly average of 25 incidents before Covid-19 hit Kenya in mid-March, she added.
Already criminalised, stigmatised, and blamed for the high prevalence of AIDS in Africa, sex workers have also become more susceptible to punitive measures by police enforcing Covid-19 regulations in many countries.
Grace Kamau, regional coordinator for the African Sex Workers Alliance, said police in countries such as Uganda, Kenya Ivory Coast, Malawi, Zimbabwe and South Africa, were raiding brothels and bars, assaulting and arresting sex workers.
A survey of 884 sex workers in Kenya conducted by Keswa found more than 65 per cent of respondents could not get condoms and medication for HIV, such as anti-retroviral drugs, due to price hikes on public transport linked to COVID-19 restrictions.
