Sex workers denounce harassment, robbery and abuse by police officers

Harassment, robbery, mistreatment, rape, and unjustified arrests are part of the alleged actions of National Police agents against several sex workers in the country.

This is part of a rebuke by the Organization of Sex Workers in the Dominican Republic (Otrasex), an entity that demands respect for human rights by the Police.

With banners in hand, some 30 ladies who provide sexual services staged the protest in front of the National Police Palace, where they said, in addition, that the uninformed do not spare any ages from harassment and violence, a practice that, according to them, has been going on for some time.

“We from September 2020 to August 2021 quantified the cases of violence, and there are 86% have been assaulted,” explained one of the spokeswomen of Otrasex, who said that violence has also been extrapolated to sexual abuse and rape. In this sense, they demanded a stop to the “macho government” and the discrimination and stigma they are subjected to. They assured that they would not rest until their rights were fulfilled.

Sex workers complain about police abuses.

According to a document read by the spokeswoman, in the Dominican Republic during the last year, 182 cases of violations of the rights of sex workers were registered, of which 171 were in Greater Santo Domingo.

The Police received them.

After the rebuke to the press, a commission of the Police, headed by Colonel Yanet Jimenez, in charge of the Department of Violence of the institution, and the spokeswoman Ana Jimenez Cruceta, received the representatives of Otrasex.

Manuel María Mercedes, president of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, was also on-site to ensure that the ladies were treated lawfully and humanely.