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Gambia pounces on prostitutes
A few days before the World Aids Day was
celebrated today, Gambian authorities demonstrated their intolerance
towards the high spate of prostitution in the Muslim country. The
tourism industry in The Gambia has attracted government-licensed
prostitutes from the entire region. Gambian security forces were deployed
to crack down on prostitutes in brothels and hotels in the urban areas
in the early hours of the morning a few days ago. During the operation,
over 80 prostitutes, 31 of who are Gambians were arrested and
incarcerated in prison.
According to informed sources, the arrested prostitutes included
nationals of Senegal, Guinea-Bissau and Sierra Leone. The arrest was
said to be well-timed because it happened when prostitutes - otherwise
called commercial sex workers - were just about to start their night
business.
While arrested Gambians were said to be incarcerated in the state
central prison in Mile II, non-Gambians were detained at an immigration
post in Jeshwang, about 10 kilometres from Banjul, the capital.
It was speculated that non-Gambian arrested prostitutes were to be
deported, which used to be the case in The Gambia earlier. This however
was flatly denied by immigration officials.
"None of the arrested women were deported," the official spokesperson
at the Immigration Department, Officer Commanding Lamin Jatta bluntly
said. "As we continue on our investigations, the suspects have been
granted bail."
Crack-downs on prostitutes have been a common phenomenon in The Gambia.
With a 95 percent Muslim population, religious scholars have always
used the podium to instigate attacks on brothels that harbour
prostitutes in the country.
Right activists have always blamed The Gambia for commercialising sex trade but at the same time keep harassing sex workers.
"The government issued them with licenses, health certificates and
asked them to access medical services regularly, so why does the same
government harass commercial sex workers," argued an activist in The
Gambia.
At a recent conference in The Gambia, prostitutes scolded their
colleagues for patronising men who refused to wear condom after they
abandoned them. "If my clients want skin-to-skin, I will not hesitate
to entertain them," was the reply of one prostitute, who careless of
contracting HIV/AIDS.
A 1998 study in The Gambia discovered that six prostitutes had become
resistant to HIV/AIDS. This has been doubted by researchers, who are
yet to find the reasons.
Gambian prostitutes not only are harassed by authorities. Some years
back, a group of Gambian youths went wild and set fire to a number of
brothels in the urban areas. In Brikama, a densely populated town
located 30 kilometres from the capital, a radio announcement called on
the youths by a council of elders to "flog girls" who wear
below-the-knee-skirts. This led to several deaths.
The Gambia is a conservative society where elders want to safeguard the
tradition and culture to their chest. They don't hesitate to be at war
with anything that is on the contrary.
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