Dozens of sex workers demonstrated to demand that the authorities let them work.
Dozens of sex workers demonstrated this Monday in the center of Mexico City to demand that the authorities let them work and demonstrate for the discrimination they have been victims of during the pandemic.
“What we ask is that cases of violence against women by street vendors who are not letting these women work in the La Merced area – a neighborhood in the center of Mexico City – be addressed,” she told Efe Arlen Palestina, legal representative of the “Elisa Martínez” Women’s Support Street Brigade.
The defender claimed that some 15,200 sex workers have been harassed and attacked to leave the streets “where they have the right to work.”
In addition to the fact that in the Cuauhtémoc mayor’s office, they have been discriminated against in the hotels in the area because they are denied the rent of rooms, they are given them at a higher cost, they are denied antibacterial gel and they sell them the condoms that the Ministry of Health distributes free of charge.
She also denounced that the authorities closed several hotels in the downtown area on the grounds that they found cases of human trafficking, including minors.
“They are against those practices. They all work independently and voluntarily ”, she clarified.
Pandemic has aggravated situation
Palestine explained that the problem of sex workers has worsened especially with the COVID-19 pandemic, because as a result of the health crisis, the number of women working on the street doubled.
“100% of sex work is in the streets, which complicates the situation,” she said.
He said that due to the pandemic, 40% of women who had withdrawn from sex work had to return and announced that if the situation is not resolved they will continue to carry out mobilizations.
“We believe that these women are experiencing strong acts of discrimination and non-recognition of their rights. We are going to continue taking to the streets and we will ask that the Government intervene in the conflict, because we all have the right to work on the street and to coexist ”, she concluded
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