An update to the brothel blog of a few days ago.
In addition to her
photographs and the comments to them, Ms Soncini has published an article on brothels in Anguilla. I
invite you to read it by clicking on the link.
Then, click on the tab in the left-hand margin, “English Version of
Published Article.” It is very
instructional.
Since I
published my article on brothels in Anguilla, I have been getting
feedback. One Jamaican lady in the bank
line with me this morning mentioned that Pam Webster brought up the matter of my
article in some recent meeting of the House of Assembly. According to the lady, Victor protested that
(a) most of the article was not true; and
(b) he saw nothing wrong with prostitution, as it existed everywhere and at all
times. I don’t know, I did not hear the
broadcast.
Of course,
my article was not about prostitution. It was about illegal brothels. It is about the failure of the authorities to
prosecute those involved in managing them and profiting from the business. It is about the exploitation in brothels of
these foreign victims by Anguillian men.
A couple
of nights ago, Minister Cora Hodge, phoned me to express her concerns. I learned that the Immigration Department has,
in fact, carried out three raids on illegal brothels, not one, as a result of which
several more women have been deported. (It
was very kind of her to take the time to respond to my concerns, something she
definitely was not obliged to do. I am
very grateful to her.)
My
response to the Minister was that her Ministry had very poor PR if there have
been three raids in all. I have never
heard of any raids on houses of prostitution except for the one raid (which I
got in writing from a senior police officer). The other two raids must be very recent, maybe
even subsequent to the publication of my article. I urged her to have someone write and publish
a press release explaining to the Anguillian public what the Ministry of Home
Affairs has accomplished in dealing with the illegal brothel problem. It is not acceptable to keep sweeping this
matter under the carpet.
The
Minister did not seem to realise that what is really sad about merely deporting
the foreign girls is that the only persons who are made to suffer from the
criminal activity of the men who run the brothels and live off the proceeds are
the female victims themselves. They are
not treated as victims but as criminals and deported. They are doubly punished for their poverty and
helplessness. The men, by contrast, only
have to wait until the replacement girls arrive to continue their connivance at
their exploitation.
Minister
Hodge further advised that the Ministry has found a solution to the large
numbers of these women and girls working in Anguilla. They have introduced a visa requirement for
Venezuelans. They have reduced the visa
time to just one week. What use is that,
I ask? My information is that the
Anguillians involved in this trafficking frequently bring the girls in at night,
illegally, at Sandy Hill and Little Harbour bays, landing them on the beaches. When they enter Anguilla that way, no one asks
them about their visa.
The
brothel activity is not reducing as a result of these three raids. The Jamaican lady mentioned earlier told us that she lives in
Blowing Point, and two new houses have opened up since the hurricane, right
near to her home. She told us that the demand for new girls is
growing such that plane trips to Santo Domingo are now being arranged to bring
back new stock.
My
second problem with this so-called “solution” or “remedial action” is that this
visa requirement only accomplishes two things I can see. One, it ensures there is a steady supply of
fresh girls imported into Anguilla. The
result of this “remedial action” is that the men who frequent these places have
new victims once a week instead of once a month.
Two, all
one week visa policy achieves is an increase in government’s revenue from
granting the inevitably requested visa extensions. This new visa policy makes it look like the
government of Anguilla is knowingly participating in brothel keeping and living
on the proceeds of prostitution.
One
correspondent commented on the original Blog: “Remember when Anguillian men went off to Macoris and other
places, well you know what happened, men being men and being away from their
wives, well, boys will be boys and that sort of behavior resulted in lots of
babies, which came to Anguilla to claim their birthrights, and with them they
brought their culture which includes Bodegas and brothels.”
To which
I responded that we need to be careful not to seem to adopt the usual, false, weasely,
Anguillian, fall-back excuse that all these wrongs are caused by the foreigners
in our midst, especially the “Spanish”, and not by real Anguillians. The truth is that brothel keeping in Anguilla
is principally an affair of native Anguillians. So, the particular family who own the houses
in question may not personally run them. But, they knowingly rent out their premises to
these brothel keepers. They are as much
living off the proceeds of prostitution as Liliana, shown in the Ms Soncini's photo blog. It
is the same with many of the other “Sports Bars” throughout the island. They are owned by native Anguillians who are
happy to live off the proceeds of prostitution while hiring others to do the
dirty work.
My worry
is that a lot of us in Anguilla (mainly the men) are in denial about the consequences
of this growing illegal and unhealthy business on our society. The church is silent in the face of their most
prominent members being participants in this business. The National Council of Women appear to have
had their balls cut off. Members of the
Mothers’ Union can be said to have deteriorated to a state of decrepitude. Seventh Day Adventists appear happy to argue
only about the correct Sabbath Day, while ignoring the pain and suffering their
members bring to these exploited girls and women.
Mind
you, like Victor’s alleged assertion, I have no problem with prostitution. Everyone has a right to sell his or her body
for sex, ONCE they are an informed and consenting adult. But, we know the hazards to health and welfare
that exist where this behaviour is conducted in houses that are not regulated
and licensed. (I will let others more
qualified than me in matters of morality worry about that aspect.) Some of these women are not consenting adults.
Some are under-age. Others have been trafficked, meaning to me,
tricked, beaten, and exploited.
Unlike
with licensed brothels in St Maarten (if they still exist), the workers in
Anguillian whore-houses are not medically examined on a weekly basis. Diseases such as Syphilis, super clap
Gonorrhea, Chlamydia, HPV and Genital Herpes, among others, are being injected
into our families when the men come back home from these houses. Limiting the visa time for these women to one
week is not going to have any impact on the rate at which STIs are introduced
into our society.
Obviously,
because they are illegal, these illegal whore-houses are not examined by the
public health department to ensure the conditions are sanitary. The derelict buildings that are used for this
trade, (as demonstrated in Belinda Soncini’s photo-blog) and the second-hand
mattresses that the customers lie on seemingly in the abandoned villas at Mariners
Hotel at Sandy Ground and elsewhere remain vermin infected. This is an appalling way to treat these women,
as if they are dogs without rights, barely human beings at all.
Because
these houses are illegal, the sex workers are not protected in the event they
are raped, beaten and even killed as happened recently. The result of this free for all is that
children are trafficked to Anguilla as sex workers. Without protection of law, we can expect that
most of their money is taken away from them (not least in paying officials for
protection). Their passports are
confiscated by their pimps and managers, so they cannot escape the island, even
if they are so desperate as to ask directions to the nearest police station.
The
conduct of these Anguillian men who condone this “Sports Bar” business is
disgusting, and would be unacceptable in any civilised country.
This
begs the question: Is Anguilla a civilized country?
