Women in Colombia's sex industry left behind by coronavirus aid

BOGOTÁ — Six weeks into a nationwide lockdown in Colombia, Maryury Riascos is running out of options. Ever since she lost her job and her home amid the coronavirus pandemic, she has criss-crossed the city every day seeking aid, with her young son in tow.

She needs temporary housing, groceries, and a subsidized income to weather the rest of the quarantine, but a confusing application process has made it difficult for Riascos to access any of the federal COVID-19 aid.

Like many other countries in Latin America, a region vulnerable to the pandemic due to poor healthcare systems and widespread poverty, Colombia adopted drastic measures to contain the the spread of COVID-19 early. On March 24, Colombia instated a nationwide lockdown that has been extended four times and is now expected to end on May 31. With more than 21,000 confirmed cases and 750 deaths, the quarantine could be prolonged for weeks, if not months.

For 28-year-old Riascos, the pandemic has upended the little stability she had secured over the past 10 years making USD $4 a day as a sex worker. The fear of contagion spooked most clients. After the lockdown swept everyone off the streets, Riascos was left unemployed, and then homeless.

Out of desperation, she joined other sex workers in a protest outside Congress two weeks after the quarantine started, hoping to receive a bag of groceries. But she said neither the groceries nor the rent subsidies Bogotá officials promised that day ever arrived. Right now, she’s surviving by staying with friends and gathering leftover produce found in markets.

“I have a seven-year-old who asks me for things that I can’t give him,” said Riascos. “The most frustrating part is that I can’t work and bring him back food. We need help.”

For sex workers like Riascos, the uncertainty is terrifying. Many working in the country live day to day; they have little savings, if any, to survive long periods of unemployment. Although the sex industry has moved online in richer nations, sex workers in Colombia — many of whom don’t have money to spend on internet or webcam equipment — have struggled to do the same.

While government subsidies have benefited sex workers signed up to welfare programs, advocacy groups point out that many women who support their families through sex work have fallen through the cracks. The Medellín-based sex worker collective Putamente Poderosas told Women Under Siege that various factors have obstructed access to the millions of dollars the federal government has allocated for people on welfare and with low incomes.

“Some sex workers live in parts of the city that have yet to be covered by public authorities; others aren’t registered in any of the government databases that would allow them to receive benefits; and still others are unaware of the government services offered during the pandemic to help them economically, as well as physically and psychologically,” told Women Under Siege via WhatsApp.

Sex workers that aren’t registered in welfare programs have been told by local authorities to sign up online despite the fact that many don’t have internet access, the collective added.

Even though sex workers are especially vulnerable to the health and economic emergency provoked by the pandemic, advocates said that federal authorities and most local city governments have failed to design a plan that meets their specific needs. Organizations called on officials to outline “biosecurity protocols” for sex workers during the pandemic, given that the close physical contact inherent in the profession makes them more likely to contract and transmit the virus. Activists also said economic aid and improved healthcare access is urgently needed due to the dire conditions in which many sex workers live. And while sex work is legal in Colombia, the failure of Congress to pass a sex workers’ bill has meant these independent workers deal with police violence as well as strained access to healthcare or retirement benefits.

The sex industry also consists of various at-risk populations, such as trans women, single mothers, Venezuelan migrants, victims of armed conflict, and the elderly. A Bogotá study from 2018 indicated that 92 percent of sex workers in the city chose the profession because of economic need, and almost 33 percent of them were migrants. Fidelia Suárez, president of the Sex Workers’ Union, told Women Under Siege there may be up to 4 million sex workers in Colombia, and 1 million in Bogotá alone — in a city of nearly 8 million. Almost all are women, and the majority are the breadwinners of their families.

“We’re living in a lamentable situation right now because this irresponsible government has failed to protect us,” said Suárez. “They talk about millions in aid, but where is this aid going? They talk about how thousands of people are benefitted, but that’s not the reality.”

Colombia is not the exception. Around the world, sex workers are struggling to access or are being left out completely from emergency aid programs, according to UNAIDS. What’s worse is that some women are choosing to go back to work out of necessity — despite the health risks this implies.

“When they are excluded from COVID-19 social protection responses, sex workers are faced with putting their safety, their health, and their lives at increased risk just to survive,” UNAIDS stated in a press release.

In Bogotá’s Santa Fe red-light district, women already line the streets in the hope of work. Rosa Paredes, a 30-year-old Venezuelan sex worker who lives in Santa Fe, said sex workers wait up to four hours for a client — usually taxi drivers who are authorized to work outside — and pay inflated prices to rent out a room. In the end, women profit less: making only $2 for every service. While pay varies, women on average made $10 a day before the pandemic, said Paredes.

“We need to work,” said Paredes. “If we don’t work, we don’t eat. If we don’t work, we can’t pay rent.”

Paredes fled the economic crisis in Venezuela two years ago, resorting to sex work to survive. Due to the lockdown, she’s been unable to wire money to her three children she left in her home country, where the outbreak spells a potential catastrophe due to medical shortages and a broken healthcare system.

Paredes hoped the government would offer assistance to Venezuelan sex workers. Bogotá mayor Claudia Lopez has pressured the national government to lead relief efforts for the roughly 1.5 million Venezuelans in the country, telling local media that Migración Colombia, the federal migration authority, needs to “take charge of the migrants.” To Paredes’ dismay, local and national authorities’ responses to the crisis have been to facilitate Venezuelans’ return home. Bogotá has offered bus rides to the border where, Venezuela says, 600 migrants can cross daily. Some 14,000 Venezuelans have returned home as of April 26, according to Migración Colombia.

In a statement given to Women Under Siege, Bogotá’s District Secretary for Women Diana Rodríguez said that the city has prepared a plan to support Colombian sex workers with temporary shelters, food aid, and hotlines to offer them judicial, social, and psychological support. However, there was no mention of aid planned for Venezeulan sex workers. In total, the city program has handed out 590 groceries to sex workers as of April 24, according to the Secretariat’s press office.

Still, activists claim much more needs to be done. The sex workers’ collective Calle 7, which organized a protest on April 3, told local media that its members received a small bag of groceries on the second week of May from Bogotá officials, but that the rent subsidies promised had yet to arrive. Meanwhile, sex workers risk being ejected from their homes despite a nationwide eviction freeze, and in Santa Fe, there are reports of landlords cutting off basic services such as water and electricity to force tenants who can’t pay rent to leave. Sex workers who break quarantine to work also face police violence and fines.

As a result, ordinary citizens have risen to the occasion, creating mutual aid initiatives for sex workers. In Santa Fe, the advocacy group Red Comunitaria Trans to date has handed out 800 groceries, 800 rent subsidies to trans sex workers, and distributed a sum of $400 to cisgender sex workers from two working-class neighborhoods. In Medellín, Putamente Poderosas distributed groceries and rent subsidies to 1,000 sex workers and street vendors.

“It’s a blessing for us to bring food to our children,” said Marta Cecilia Rocha, a 37-year-old Colombian sex worker and nurse, during a recent food handout of rice, lentils and eggs organized by the Sex Workers’ Union.

UNAIDS recommends countries take immediate action to protect sex workers’ rights, including allowing full access to national social protection schemes, effective eviction freezes, and the incorporation of sex worker organizations in nationwide response efforts.

In addition to these measures, Putamente Poderosas said the first step the government should take is to survey sex workers in a nationwide census to identify their needs and protect their rights to healthcare and a dignified living. Officials should also ease access to testing for sex workers; currently, only those who show two or more symptoms, suffer from an acute respiratory illness, be hospitalized and older than 60 years old, or have had possible contact with someone who tested positive can be tested. Suárez said that strong labor regulations are also necessary to safeguard their rights and help them survive when these unexpected emergencies threaten their existence.

“We’re one of the most vulnerable populations, and it’s the government that makes us vulnerable,” said Suárez. “During this pandemic especially, we need maximum protection.”