Word: honge
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...Whether or not a serial killer is on the loose, the murders are part of a disturbing trend. Hong Kong, a city of 6.9 million, saw 36 murders last year, twice as many as in 2007. Six of the 36 were sex workers. In a particularly gruesome incident in May, 2008, a 16-year-old girl involved in sex trade was decapitated, flayed, chopped into pieces, and dumped at a local market where meat was sold. "We are very frightened of this dangerous situation," says Jade, a 40-year-old Hong Kong prostitute who declined to give her last name...
...Some policymakers, activists and scholars say these are crimes of opportunity - and that the law may be helping to create that opportunity. Prostitution is a shadow profession in Hong Kong. It is technically legal, but traditional brothels are classified as illegal "vice establishments." Landlords who rent a single premise to more than one sex worker can face jail time. This means sex workers are forced to operate mainly as one-woman businesses out of their homes. There are approximately 1,600 one-woman brothels in Hong Kong, according to the Hong Kong police. Operating in isolation and without protection, these...
...Simon Young, director of the Center for Comparative and Public Law at Hong Kong University, says the current laws were designed to cut down on organized crime and pimping - it's illegal for anyone except a sex worker to profit from the services rendered. But the code "is out of touch with reality," Young says. "A clearer law must flow from a policy change that recognizes the existing law hurts many innocent people...
...There appears to be little agreement just what this change should be. Young suggests licensing prostitutes so the industry "is more controlled, regulated and safe." Hong Kong lawmaker Margaret Ng is calling for changes so that more than one prostitute can operate out of the same apartment. That way, workers can watch out for each other. "We need to aim our efforts against organized crime instead of exposing sex workers to danger, especially when it's a danger to their lives," says Ng. "But I get the feeling that most people in the government don't have...
...Teng, a Hong Kong sex-workers' support organization, has tried to help prostitutes by subsidizing the installation costs of surveillance cameras and alarms in workers' apartments. Zi Teng also organizes self-help groups in basic self-defense skills. But Elaine Lam, Zi Teng's director, argues such measures might be less necessary if prostitution were completely legalized. Sex workers currently are stigmatized by society, which can make them a target for violent crimes, Lam says. "We have many cases where sex workers say they open their door for a client and they are attacked and stabbed because they are seen...