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Gangs force sex trade on underage girls

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Underage Maori and Pacific Island sex workers are caught up in illegal prostitution in Auckland, the head of a prostitute support service says.

Debbie Baker, from Streetreach, which encourages women to leave prostitution, told Police News that 14 to 16-year-old girls were being pushed into prostitution by gangs to pay off debts.

They were so scared of the gangs they would never admit the connection to police, she said.

Baker gave examples of one girl who was forced to have sex at Black Power pads around the country to pay off drug debts, and another who was taken from Tauranga to Auckland to work in a brothel.

The girl was locked in a room and Baker said she never saw any of the money for the whole time she worked there.

It was very difficult for police to uncover the gang’s influence because girls were too scared to acknowledge it.

“This fear is often far stronger than the fear they feel for police or other government agencies, as they are often threatened or stood-over, making it even harder for police and other authorities to prove what’s going on,” Baker said.

Acting area commander for Manurewa Inspector Richard Wilkie said police in South Auckland were doing all they could to address the problem of underage prostitution.

There were regular stings of popular hangouts like Northcrest and Hunter’s Corner and as a result he said they were picking up fewer people than in previous months.

Wilkie said police intelligence suggested gangs were the main force behind the illegal trade.

“You can see so-and-so is connected to Black Power, King Cobras, etc, but you will never get them to admit it. However, we know that most prostitutes have either a gang connection or are whanau based, which, on average, is gang orientated anyway,” he said.

The Prostitution Law Review Committee estimated in 2004 that approximately 200 young people under the age of 18 were working as prostitutes.

People trafficking legislation is currently under Government review.

Source:

Gangs force sex trade on underage girls. By Rob Kidd

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/7657305/Gangs-force-sex-trade-on-underage-girls

Calls for legislative support to combat the “uninhibited” spread of street prostitution

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Auckland Mayor Len Brown calls for legislative support to combat the “uninhibited” spread of street prostitution.

Prostitutes wrecking public property. Sex workers have wrecked more than 40 parking signs in the last 18 months by using them to solicit clients, a tell-all-book on South Auckland street workers claims.

The Otara-Papatoetoe Local Board released the book detailing business owners and residents dealings with street prostitutes today in their fight to ban them from working near homes, schools and sports grounds.

In the book, Donna Lee, the manager of the Hunters Corner and central Papatoetoe business districts, claims sex workers, among other things, are damaging public property

“Prostitutes use these (street sign poles) as dancing poles,” she claims.

“The poles are part of their soliciting equipment and they often snap them. Some of the prostitutes are big, strong people.”

Lee said she didn’t receive complaints from business people anymore because they’ve “given up on getting any help” and simply go about cleaning up their properties which involved picking up condoms, drugs and faeces.

“We quite literally deal with human waste every day.”

The book begins with a foreword from Mayor Len Brown who calls for legislative support to combat the “uninhibited” spread of street prostitution.

“There is no doubt that the street sex trade is enjoying its unrestricted use of public space and is possibly the only industry in New Zealand to enjoy such status,” Brown writes.

“Other industries must comply with licences or special authority of some kind. The street sector of prostitution faces no such constraints.”

Auckland Council Regulation of Prostitution in Specified Places Bill is currently before parliament. It aims to give councils the ability to ban prostitutes from working in certain areas.

In the book Otara-Papatoetoe board Chairman John McCracken writes, “we are beyond moral outrage. We just ask for some reasonable control of this industry.”

An unnamed accountant recalled an incident in February where a transvestite rammed a supermarket trolley into a woman’s car at 8am, before lying across the bonnet of her car. A month later a school-bus full of children observed a transvestite changing her dress.

A shop owner said up to 20-30 prostitutes worked outside his shop some nights. He said they shoplifted from his store, begged his customers for money and defecated behind his shop.

Sharon Maxey was forced to move her Lace and Craft shop from Manurewa because of problems with sex workers. She decided to move after after an elderly male was threatened with a knife by a transvestite outside her shop.

Graham Mullins, Town Manager Otahuhu Mainstreet Association, said the town’s CCTV security cameras had captured “appalling behaviour”.

He said like anyone selling goods, prostitutes should require permits.

Source

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/7287833/Prostitutes-wrecking-public-property

Fairfax NZ News  16 July 2012

Street prostitution bill moves forward

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South Auckland local politicians are set to release a booklet outlining why a by-law giving them power to restrict street prostitution should be passed.

The politicians want to pass a law which gives Auckland Council the power to remove street prostitution in mixed residential areas like Manurewa, Otahuhu and Hunter’s Corner in Papatoetoe.

The campaign takes another step on Monday with the release of the booklet, which is aimed at convincing MPs and the public of the merits of their case.

Prostitution was legalised in 2002 but although councils had some power to enact by-laws restricting it, Otara-Papatoetoe Local Board chairman John McCracken says it would likely be successfully challenged in court as a breach of human rights.

An earlier bill was defeated 73-46 at its second reading in 2006 but Mr McCracken says there are major differences in the new bill.

“The previous bill was effectively a blanket ban on street prostitution within the former Manukau area. In hindsight that was too severe,” he told NZ Newswire.

“This bill is not giving council the ability to blank out the entire area or make Auckland street prostitution-free. It is very specific.”

He said they were especially trying to protect the rights of residents in areas like Hunter’s Corner.

“Where the circuit is that they operate now we’ve probably got 15 or 20 residences that are directly affected every single night of the week,” Mr McCracken said.

“We’ve got a pensioner village right there now.”

Auckland Council agreed to pick the bill up once Manukau Council was subsumed by the Super City and Mayor Len Brown will be among those at the launch of the booklet.

Former Manurewa MP George Hawkins, the original sponsor of the bill, said last year that soundings from the previous parliament said there was little chance it would be passed.

Source:

http://news.msn.co.nz/nationalnews/8499391/street-prostitution-bill-moves-forward

Sunday July 15, 2012 by AAP

NZ Newswire

NZ Newswire

‘Sin Precinct’ warning over Chows’ brothel plan

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A 15-STOREY brothel complex in the heart of downtown Auckland would lead to an explosion of sexually transmitted diseases, child sex-slavery, moral bankruptcy, drug warfare and a curse on everyone in New Zealand, according to some of the submissions to Auckland Council on the proposal.

Of the 200 submissions on a proposed development called the Penthouse Club, across the road from SkyCity, almost every one was against the project. There was only one submission which even conditionally supported it.

The majority were concerned with issues of morality, criminality and health… [Read more…]

Bill to ban street prostitution – registered charities disagree on bill

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A bill aimed at clearing prostitutes off the streets in trouble spots around Auckland is stirring up debate among supporters and opponents.

Family First NZ, a registered charity with the Charities Commission headed by Trevor Garrett, has been urging families around New Zealand to make submissions supporting the zoning bill to the select committee, before the deadline passes on February 29, 2012. But ECPAT Child ALERT, also a registered charity with the Charities Commission, has been opposing the bill because it believes it would not solve the problem.

The Bill, which passed its first reading last September was drafted by the Manakau City Council in response to constant complaints from the community and retailers about negative activities of prostitutes in areas such as Hunter’s Corner and Manurewa.

The Auckland council has now picked up the bill, which bans street prostitutes in specified places in the city and gives police powers of arrest.

Family First NZ has been campaigning for a ban on street prostution and also residential brothels to be eventually extended to cover all areas of New Zealand.

For full article see: Cleaning up the streets: Is banning street prostitution the answer?

by Lavinia Ngatoke

Challenge Weekly. February 27, 2012. Vol. 70 Issue 6, p. 1.