bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

One-woman-brothel rule faulted
Legislators have called for an overhaul of laws that criminalise the sharing of an apartment by two or more sex workers.
At a Legislative Council security panel meeting yesterday, they urged the administration to consider decriminalising the sharing of premises by two sex workers as a 'vice establishment'.
Under current law, the act of prostitution itself, as well as the use of an apartment by a single person for the business, is legal.
However, the sharing of an apartment by two prostitutes is illegal, because it could be defined as a 'vice establishment'. It is also illegal for landlords to rent premises to be used for prostitution - a law that is overlooked in the case of flats used by single sex workers.
Legislator Margaret Ng Ngoi-yee said the current law was not well founded.
'Even if two sex workers are sharing the same premises, it does not necessarily mean that it is a vice establishment,' Ms Ng said.
The police should do more to investigate crime-group prostitution instead of forcing legal sex workers to be on their own, she said.
Unionist lawmaker Lee Cheuk-yan said the issue of one-woman brothels could be a 'labour safety issue' in light of the series of murders and robberies of  prostitutes.
Police chief superintendent Ng Sai-kuen said there were more than 1,500 one-woman brothels in Hong Kong, about 80 per cent of which were legal.
The other 20 per cent or so were illegal because they may involve under-aged prostitution, illegal immigrants, mainland prostitutes or crime groups, police said.
Apollonia Liu Lee Ho-kei, principal assistant security secretary, said the existing arrangement  struck a reasonable balance among various factors, including the concerns of prostitutes and anti-vice efforts.
But legislator Emily Lau Wai-hing, of The Frontier, said: 'The sex industry is the most ancient industry in human history ... one should not look at sex workers as though they have to be set apart from  others.'
Ms Lau asked that the  Security Bureau take the initiative in reviewing the laws in collaboration with relevant government departments - but that was rejected by Mrs Liu.
Mr Ng stressed that the police were responsible for the safety of all members of the  public, including  prostitutes.
But Elaine Lam Yee-ling, spokeswoman for the sex workers' group Zi Teng, said the safety problem  would not be solved unless laws regarding prostitution were changed.
'Even if we have three- or four-woman brothels, sex workers could still be easy targets for violent attacks because most victims are reluctant to go to the police,' Ms Lam said.
'As long as some aspects of prostitution are illegal, the situation  is not going to change.'



Let prostitutes share flats, lawmakers say