Prostitution in Timor-Leste
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Prostitution in Timor-Leste (formerly East Timor) is legal,{{cite web|title=The Legal Status of Prostitution by Country|url=http://chartsbin.com/view/snb|website=ChartsBin}} but soliciting and third party involvement for profit or to facilitate prostitution is forbidden.{{cite web|title=Sex Work Law - Countries|url=http://spl.ids.ac.uk/sexworklaw/countries|website=Sexuality, Poverty and Law|access-date=22 January 2018|language=en}} Prostitution has become a problem since the country gained independence from Indonesia in 2002,{{cite news|title= UN under fire for turning a blind eye to peacekeepers' misconduct |work=The Sydney Morning Herald|url= http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/un-under-fire-for-turning-a-blind-eye-to-peacekeepers-misconduct/2007/05/06/1178390145310.html|access-date=11 April 2012}} especially in the capital, Dili.{{cite web|last1=Cruz|first1=Joana da|title=Taibesi Market Prostitution Operation Uncovered|url=https://www.independente.tl/en/city/taibesi-market-prostitution-operation-uncovered|website=Jornal Independente - English Portal News|access-date=22 January 2018|language=pt-br|date=24 January 2017}} There are estimated to be 1,688 sex workers in the country.{{cite web |title=Sex workers: Population size estimate - Number, 2016 |url=http://www.aidsinfoonline.org/gam/stock/shared/dv/PivotData_2018_7_22_636678151733621264.htm |website=www.aidsinfoonline.org |publisher=UNAIDS |access-date=21 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190604174922/http://www.aidsinfoonline.org/gam/stock/shared/dv/PivotData_2018_7_22_636678151733621264.htm |archive-date=4 June 2019 |url-status=dead }}
Law enforcement is weak, but there are occasional clampdowns.{{cite news|title= Foreigners arrested in E Timor prostitution swoop |work=ABC News|url= http://www.abc.net.au/news/2008-01-17/foreigners-arrested-in-e-timor-prostitution-swoop/1014594|access-date=11 April 2012}} Foreign sex workers are usually targeted, and are often deported. Public order laws are also used against prostitutes.
Many of the local prostitutes have entered the sex trade due to poverty and lack of other employment.{{cite web|title=Prostitution in Dili, East Timor|url=http://www.easttimorlawandjusticebulletin.com/2009/07/prostitution-in-dili-east-timor.html|website=East Timor Law and Justice Bulletin|access-date=22 January 2018|date=11 July 2009}} Foreign prostitutes, especially from Indonesia, China and the Philippines, enter the country on 90-day tourists visas.
Sex trafficking and Child prostitution are problems in the country.{{cite web|last1=Smith|first1=Camden|title=Surge in child sex tours|url=http://www.etan.org/et2004/january/04-10/09surgei.htm|publisher=Northern Territory News (Australia)|access-date=22 January 2018|date=9 January 2004}}
UN peacekeeping force
Prior to its departure in 2012,{{cite web|title=UN ends East Timor peace mission|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-20873267|website=BBC News|access-date=22 January 2018|date=31 December 2012}} the UN peacekeeping force's UNPOL division assisted the police, including taking part in prostitution raids. However, despite a zero-tolerance policy towards UN personnel using prostitutes, the UN personnel were also a large client group of the prostitutes.{{cite web|last1=Bowcott|first1=Owen|title=Report reveals shame of UN peacekeepers|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/mar/25/unitednations|website=the Guardian|access-date=22 January 2018|date=25 March 2005}} It was alleged they frequented brothels, including those using trafficked women.{{cite web|title=Claim UN officers customers in East Timor sex slave brothels|url=http://goasiapacific.com/location/asia/GAPLocAsiaStories_898377.htm|website=Easr Timor Today|access-date=22 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030910102830/http://goasiapacific.com/location/asia/GAPLocAsiaStories_898377.htm|archive-date=10 September 2003}} UN vehicles were used to pick up street prostitutes.
There were also allegations that a ship chartered by the UN was being used to traffic children for prostitution in the country.{{cite web|last1=Tanonoka Joseph|first1=Whande|title=Peacekeepers as Predators: UN Sex Crimes|url=http://www.sundaystandard.info/peacekeepers-predators-un-sex-crimes|website=Sunday Standard|access-date=26 April 2018|date=29 January 2007}}
Sex trafficking
{{Main|Sex trafficking in Timor-Leste}}
Timor-Leste is a source and destination country for women, and children subjected to sex trafficking. Timorese women, girls, and occasionally young men and boys from rural areas are led to the capital with the promise of better employment or education prospects and are subjected to sex trafficking; there are reports of official complicity in these practices. Foreign women, including those from Cambodia, China, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam, are vulnerable to sex trafficking in Timor-Leste. Transnational traffickers may be members of Indonesian or Chinese organised crime syndicates, and they appear to rotate foreign victims of sex trafficking in and out of the country for the length of a 90-day tourist visa in order to avoid raising suspicions or calling attention to the crime through visa overstay violations. Police accept bribes from establishments involved in trafficking or from traffickers attempting to cross borders illegally, and in prior years have been identified as clients of commercial sex venues investigated for suspected trafficking.{{cite web|title=Timor-Leste 2017 Trafficking in Persons Report|url=https://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/countries/2017/271298.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170703181532/https://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/countries/2017/271298.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=3 July 2017|website=U.S. Department of State|access-date=22 January 2018}}{{PD-notice}}
According to immigration officials, police, and media sources, foreign women in prostitution, many of whom were possible victims of sex trafficking, were sometimes detained en masse during law enforcement raids and then deported without proper screening, or as a result of arresting officers’ inability to derive pertinent information from the women due to their having been coached to provide identical accounts. For this reason, PNTL officers claimed they were not able to obtain sufficient evidence to prosecute the owners of a karaoke bar who may have subjected 67 foreign women to sex trafficking during the reporting period. The PNTL reported karaoke bar owners confiscated the passports of foreign workers and only surrendered them if the police ordered the foreign workers’ deportation.
The United States Department of State Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons ranks Timor-Leste as a 'Tier 2' country.