Exposed and unprotected: Sex worker vulnerabilities during the COVID-19 health emergency in Mozambique

ABSTRACT

Measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 have been shown to disproportionately affect the marginalised groups in our societies. We studied the impacts of national restrictions on young adult sex workers in Mozambique, and actions at individual, governmental and civil society level to mitigate against these impacts. The country case study was part of a multi-country qualitative research, including fifty-four semi-structured interviews with female sex workers (N = 38), outreach workers (N = 10) in Maputo and Quelimane, and informants with key positions in national COVID coordination bodies, the Ministry of Health and civil society organisations (N = 7). While restrictions impacted all sex worker participants, the COVID crisis was found to deepen existing class differences and further incite violence against the most visible and economically vulnerable category of street-based sex workers. Parallel enforcement of morals against this group of ‘urban undesirables’ resulted in bodily harm and further degradation of the female sex worker under the guise of COVID emergency decrees, while restrictions weakened protection from peers and outreach workers against abuse by the police and other perpetrators. The State needs to act against unlawful police action and include impact mitigation strategies in its public health response to COVID in order to protect the most vulnerable.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• sex work
• government response
• Mozambique
• intersectionality

Acknowledgements

This research forms part of a larger project on strengthening legal and policy environments for reducing HIV risk and improving sexual and reproductive health for young key populations in Southern Africa. The authors would like to thank colleagues involved in this larger project, and in particular, Tamaryn Crankshaw and Jim Whitman for their comments on an earlier version of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data for this study has not been deposited in a public repository due to the nature of this research, and the necessity to safeguard the anonymity of its participants.

Notes

1 https://thenewshawks.com/president-nyusi-sadc-double-troika-summit-speech/.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of The Netherlands as part of their regional HIV/AIDS and SRHR programme in Southern Africa [grant number 00091626]. The funder had no role in the design of the study, data collection and analysis, the decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the funder.