Minister of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs Kirk Humphrey is not backing down from his stance that sex workers need protection and that he intended to push for them to get it.
Over the weekend, as he lamented last Friday’s murder of one of his constituents, 44-year-old Guyanese sex worker Caroline Baird in Bush Hill, the St Michael South MP said measures would be put in place to protect women in the sex industry.
In Parliament on Tuesday, he doubled down on his position, making no apologies for his views.
Saying that he was appalled and saddened at how women were generally treated in Barbados, especially those who engage in prostitution, Humphrey contended that sex workers were simply doing what they needed to do to feed their families and should be protected while doing so.
“I am appalled that women are telling me when they go on the streets for whatever reason that men feel they have a right to come to take away their money and take away their dignity. That is wrong, and we have to be able to protect all women regardless of the business they are in, regardless of the jobs they pursue, or if it is that they are just taking a stroll,” he said.
“Nobody can tell me any different. That is how I feel. I feel strongly about it and I also now have the legitimacy of saying I am the Minister responsible for gender and for women’s affairs, and these things are things to me that matter.
“So, yes, I feel that we must do something to keep the people on Bush Hill safe,” he added.
Baird, who had resided at Dalkeith Hill, St Michael, was fatally shot behind the Grand Stand of the Garrison Savannah, in the area of Bush Hill in the same parish, following a struggle with some people in a vehicle.
Speaking in Parliament, Humphrey said a whole-of-society approach was needed to address the concerns of sex workers.
His comments came during debate on a resolution for Parliament to approve the guarantee by the Government of about $2 million of an approximately $12 million loan to be granted to the University of the West Indies (UWI), Cave Hill Campus from the Caribbean Development Bank for the purpose of financing the Regional Digital Transformation Project.
“I feel bad that one of my constituents got murdered in my constituency and I have to hear people now go on social media and say all kinds of disparaging things about people. I ask myself, ‘in my community, I wonder how back in the day women with 17 children [and] no employment [managed].
“The reality is, sometimes women do things that they would never tell their children. And today, people are trading in all kinds of transactions to be able to feed their children. Is it worse because it is happening in Bush Hill? Am I not to feel bad for my constituent? Should not the University of the West Indies cater to these same people and their children?” Minister Humphrey questioned.
Singling out the charitable organisation Jabez House for its work in helping sex workers change their lives, Humphrey reported that some of them had been able to “get scholarships and went on to finish schooling”.
“If people took the time to be curious and to hear the stories of some of these people who are doing things to feed their children, to make sure that their children do not do the things they are now doing, tell me in what universe could it be wrong to want to protect these women? They are not selling services to themselves.
“We also have to be cognisant that for years . . . [Barbados] Family Planning was offering services to these ladies on the streets for years and if you start to pull back the assistance that Government has always been giving, then you run the risk of increasing all kinds of diseases and so on,” Minister Humphrey added.
Barbados TODAY reported on Monday that President of the Global Adult Industry Association Charles Charlie Spice Lewis had offered assistance to authorities in developing a regulatory framework for the protection of sex workers that includes finding safer places for them to operate.
