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Sex trade of Papua
New Guinea
Many women, a number
of them young girls, moonlight as sex workers to survive the day
to day existence in the city, writes ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ
I was enjoying a drink at my usual
corner in my favorite club late one Friday night when a bulky
Papua New Guinean approached me and asked if I was alone.
I said "yes" and then he followed it up, asking if I was "gay" and
I said "nah ".
Jabbing me with his selling line, he lowered his head close to
mine and whispered:
"Want somebody to give you company? You can take her home."
Curious, I asked where that "somebody" was. He thrust his lips
outwards, towards a group of Papua New Guinean girls on the dance
floor gyrating to hard-rock music blaring from the two giant
speakers on either side of the band stage.
Then the man, or rather, the pimp, described and pointed her out
among the group, "That's her"
Instantly, I presumed the man was lying. The girl he referred to
was quite familiar to me. She was one of the drink servers at the
club and was now enjoying her night off with girlfriends.
In fact, she's my favorite among the waitresses working at the
club.
But then I could be wrong in branding him a liar and his
revelation that this girl, just 18, is moonlighting as a sex
worker shocked me a bit. To please the broker, I told him "I'll
think about it". Because until now, I have never believed that she
was what the stranger said she was.
This kind of encounter between a sex broker and potential client
has apparently become common in Port Moresby, and other places
across PNG.
For instance, the case of Kyla (not her real name) represents what
actually happens in many parts of the country.
In an interview with Help Resources, a non-government organisation
based in Port Moresby doing a study on the commercialisation of
sex in PNG, she narrated:
"I am orphaned and live with an aunt who has six children. My
aunt's husband is a labourer earning about 80 kina (US$26) a
fortnight.
"I don't know how I got involved in selling sex. My friends
(schoolgirls) were already selling sex. I started at 12. My
boyfriend forced me, and then paid me. At that time, I needed the
money to buy clothes and food for myself. That was the reason why
I come out at night and stay in dark corners.
"There were about two local boys about 16 and a man about 40 whom
I had sex with for money.
"With the boys, I got paid K10 (US$3.22) each time. With the man,
I got paid about 20-50 kina. I need the money badly to buy food,
soap, clothes, medicines and to help myself survive.
"I knew the danger of contracting HIV and the shame in my
community, but all I care about is my basic needs today. I want to
be like my other girlfriends. Nobody cares about my future.
"I give money to my auntie and my other girlfriends and to my
cousin who is my best friend. She also shares money with me she
earned from doing it. She gets hers and goes to hotels. I often
help other people as I have plenty of money."
Due to poverty, family breakdown and violence, weakening moral and
spiritual values, lack of concern and negligence of government
agencies that are supposed to protect children and young women,
peer pressure, inadequate social services and poor role models,
prostitution, particularly that of a child, is emerging as the
primary form of commercial sexual exploitation in the country.
But the girl at the club (I will call her "Daisy") the pimp had
tried to tempt me with doesn't come from a poor family or a broken
one. Daisy told me her mom is a government worker and her dad a
city cop.
A school drop-out after Grade 12, she works as waitress six nights
a week at this night club to earn money to buy things that would
help boost her self-esteem - mobile phone, new jeans, nice
dresses, cosmetics and many more that her parents could not
afford.
The club is frequented by white men, Asians - including Filipinos
- and Papua New Guineans, especially on Friday nights when there's
a fundraising dance catering for locals.
But one thing for sure, I had no personal knowledge of what Daisy
does after work, which usually ends at 2am, an eight-hour job that
earns her at least K8 (US$2.50) a night. But of course, once in a
while she also earns tips - sometime generous ones - from some
customers, including me.
But what could have caused her to ply the sex trade on occasion,
assuming the pimp was telling the truth, is something that could
be blamed on peer pressure and a lot more complicated factors.
As PNG gets exposed to a lot of new things that used to be foreign
to the locals 20 years ago like cable TV, video players-recorders,
mobile phones, RTW, cosmetics and various women accessories, women
magazines, online and porn VCDs, young and women in their prime
alike, especially the unemployed or the low-income government and
private firm employees, have become thirsty for at least one or
two of such items, particularly the girlie stuff they would be
proud to show off to their peers.
However, due to the meager wage their employers pay them (usually
one kina per hour (US$0.33), the chance of acquiring these costly,
imported luxuries is just like something asking for the moon.
However, many have found a way to go around their material lack by
selling sex.
According to Help Resources, there seemed to be unregulated
expatriate-run business premises involved in the blatant practice
of institutionalised sexual exploitation of children and young
women as could be found in most hotels, night clubs and
guesthouses of Port Moresby's growing entertainment sector and in
Lae city in the northern shore of PNG.
The situational analysis of commercial sex exploitation in the
country was commissioned by the PNG Children's Foundation, Inc
with assistance from PACE (People Against Child Exploitation) and
Unicef.
The study has shown that more and more teen-age girls and young
women are operating out of the mushrooming brothels in the
National Capital District, ranging from guesthouses in residential
areas, foreign-owned establishments openly advertising day-rooms
only, hotels, clubs, and restaurants and large hotels that
advertise live-in jobs for young women.
In live-in situations, the girls do not have pimps although other
male and female employees actively and knowingly facilitate sex
deals as routine part of their job.
In larger hotels, security guards, receptionists and waiters are
often involved, sometimes offering to potential clients their
female co-workers and sometimes the regular sex workers who
congregate in nightclub bars.
The study has noted that the club owners profit immensely from
alcohol sales, and the bar girls or Guest Relation Officers (GROs)
are often paid per bottle top, or per drink, rather than receiving
regular wages. Some girls get paid just for the service of
drinking with men (up to 50 kina [US$16]) plus generous tips if
they had been "very accommodating".
There's also some kind of sex slavery in the National Capital
District where trafficked sex workers from villages are held
against their will and are made to sell sex only to foreigners.
Key informants had revealed to HELP Resource that the sex slaves
are financially exploited because they do not have direct control
or access to money earned.
Just like other business that involves people-to-people
interaction, the city sex workers have brokers to find for them
some deals.
In fact, less than half of the girls interviewed by Help Resources
have exclusive or regular pimps. However, in three cases where the
pimps had been mentioned, usually men of 25 to 35 years of age
were reported as commonly controlling groups of five to six girls.
They move around the city bars, disco houses and streets together
in their teams or "squads" and doing so gives them confidence and
sense of safety and security. (While having beer at a famous,
smoke-polluted disco house in Gordon, I was approach by a man who
told me, "my sister would like to chat with you ... you can buy
her a drink ... if you want, you can take her home ... she's very
good ...". I couldn't believe what I heard, but I knew what was
going on.)
In other cases, girls told of men who accompanied them as "street
husbands" who get paid for their escort services but also took a
share of their takes.
A week after my encounter with the nocturnal broker, I was back in
my usual corner at the club listening to the music of the Filipino
band when Daisy sidled to me and asked for my drink order.
Tonight, she was stunning in her black, curve-hugging dress of
which the hemline hanged temptingly above her knees with a third
of her modest breasts shyly peeking out but accentuating a deep
cleavage. This time, she did not restrain her long, wavy Papuan
hair and instead, let it loose to cover the round of her bare
shoulders and back. Had I not known this girl, I would be thinking
of her as somebody I would feel very uneasy being with.
She said she was knocking off before midnight to join her
girlfriends at a popular disco house nearby.
"Can you give me a lift ...?" she said. "You can have some fun
with us ... you look so bored tonight."
"Give me another drink ..." I told her, "and get yourself a
tequila ..."
 
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