A third of Auckland's prostitutes are Chinese. Candice, a petite Chinese girl, fusses over a customer as she pours him a cup of oolong tea wearing nothing more than a see-through blood-red coloured camisole and knee-high fake leather boots.
But behind her smile and calm appearance, the year-old sex worker on Auckland's North Shore confesses to be living on the edge. Candice is one of the many illegal prostitutes who arrive in New Zealand either on a visitor or student visa to work in the sex industry. The arrival of illegal Chinese sex workers have driven an industry that has been decriminalised back underground, says the New Zealand Prostitutes Collective. Although prostitution was decriminalised in , it is illegal for those on a temporary visa, such as students and tourists, to work in the sex industry.
The collective does not record if a prostitute is working illegally, but Miss Healey said Chinese now make up nearly a third of the sex workers in Auckland - outnumbering Maori and Pacific Islanders, and behind only Pakeha. Last year Immigration New Zealand, which only investigates when a complaint is received, found at least eight foreign sex workers working illegally.
Miss Pickering said because of the large number of Chinese sex workers here, it was now an "integral part" of its operations to have many of its information and education brochures translated into Chinese. A Chinese-speaking staff member had been employed by the collective, but she died suddenly from an illness earlier this year, and a replacement was being sought. Miss Pickering said about a third of the brothels and massage parlours in Auckland are run by Chinese operators.
One of them told the Herald it was common to let sex workers "freelance" at his brothel in the CBD. We do not employ them or pay them a commission, their customers are their paymasters," explained one central city operator.
