The Situation of Sex Workers in Norway During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Astrid Renland, PION, 4 May 2020
The Covid-19 pandemic has hit people engaged with sex work in Norway extremely hard both due to the lack of income and other financial problems, as well as the shutting down of health and social services for people selling sex. Whilst the government has established and provided crisis support for industry, businesses, workers, freelancers, self-employed people and so on, sex workers have not been offered any help. Except for the offer from some municipalities to cover their expenses to leave the country.
In the last months, PION has established a crisis fund helping sex workers with money for food and basic needs while the health and social service providers support those who are in need with food and other help via digital contacts.
In addition, sex workers must deal with the COVID-19 pandemic in an already hostile and repressive political environment caused by the increasing criminalisation and conflation of sex work, migration and human trafficking in the first decade of 2000 which led to the ban on purchasing sex in 2009.
Legal situation
It is legal to sell sex but the purchase of sex (penal code 316) and organising of sex work are criminalised. However, in the policing of sex work those selling sex are the main targets in the attempt to crack down on pimps, traffickers and clients. The so-called pimping paragraph (penal code 315) criminalises sex workers both through the ban on advertising and the risk of being charged with pimping if they work indoors.
According to the Tax Act, income from sex work is subject to tax and value added tax (VAT), while under the Immigration Act sex work is not defined as work and there is no need for a work permit to sell sex in Norway.
Sex workers in Norway
The market of sex workers is highly diverse both when it comes to gender, sexual identity and nationality. The mobility in the market is high both across borders and within the country. Many sex workers are migrants, only living in Norway for sex work. Some stay for a few weeks and others for three months, which is the limit for staying under the EEA-agreement (The Agreement on the European Economic Area). Most migrant sex workers have residence status in EU member states but there are also people from non-western countries using their working permit in one EU member state to work in other Schengen countries. The latter are very vulnerable both when it comes to exploitation by criminals and the risk of being deported by the police.
Policing
On 12 March Norway was put under lockdown. The Directorate of Health announced that sex work was regarded as a forbidden activity under the COVID-19 Regulations with a penalty is of fine or imprisonment for up to six months. This information was sent to PION, social and health services for sex workers, and the police.
Shortly after the regulation was announced, PION received a message from a female sex worker worried about a warning she had received from the police. In an SMS, the police informed her that it is forbidden to sell sex and that sex workers must delete their ads and leave the country immediately or be expelled. It was the Police Immigration Unit in Agder district who has sent an SMS to everybody who looked like they did not belong in Norway. Other Police Districts had informed sex workers with ads on advertising sites that it is forbidden to sell sex during the pandemic in a less threatening way.
We find the policing of sex work very problematic. The police are not doing preventive health work and informing sex workers about the temporary ban on selling sex and where to get help and support; they are simply enforcing crime and migration control.
The lack of financial support means that many sex workers are forced to sell sex with the risk of being infected with the coronavirus. Sex workers are telling us of increased violence and pressure from clients to offer them services they are not comfortable with and that they are afraid of getting punished for selling sex if they report violence to the police.
Stigma
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted our everyday lives and the virus is causing severe sickness and death to many. Many people are facing unemployment and an uncertain future. We are encouraged to pull together: stay home, keep a distance, help each other and praise the health workers and all the other workers keeping society working.
As Ida Kock writes, some groups are not a part of the community. People living on the margins of society, such as sex workers, migrants and drug users are among those most at risk of infection because they often lack possibilities to protect their health. Yet these groups are excluded from the community and are unable to access the available safeguards such as social benefits and other crises packages.
Sex workers are regarded as people who are not willing to sacrifice their income to protect society, i.e. they are not a part of the community pulling together. This is a dangerous situation. We know that this will lead to increasing the stigma towards sex workers and that stigma does not only form social attitudes, it also creates barriers for sex workers to take a test if they have symptoms or feel sick.
Health
In the last month, PION has distributed almost NOK 70,000 (around 6,800 USD) in emergency aid to individual sex workers. Our crisis help is like the proverbial drop in the ocean compared to the amount needed for subsistence.
Last week the government started a slow reopening of society and the ban of selling sex was revoked. However, it is not only whether sex work is allowed or not. Selling sex is intimate by its very nature, and sex workers are at heightened risk of contracting the virus if they keep working.
It is hard to understand that the government forces sex workers to expose themselves to the risk of getting infected. We know that the exclusion of groups is counterproductive when it comes to infection control, but it looks like all the lessons learned from HIV prevention work have been totally forgotten.