American immigration laws have long restricted the entry of former and active sex workers into the country, but it wasn’t until this summer that the consequences of that became clear to sex worker activists. On the 15th of June 2010, a distinguished researcher and advocate for sex workers’ rights was stopped from entering the United States to attend a meeting of the Technical Advisory Group for the Commission on HIV and the Law. American immigration authorities decided that she presented a “high-risk” for prostitution and human trafficking.

American immigration laws have long restricted the entry of former and active sex workers into the country, but it wasn’t until this summer that the consequences of that became clear to sex worker activists. On the 15th of June 2010, a distinguished researcher and advocate for sex workers’ rights was stopped from entering the United States to attend a meeting of the Technical Advisory Group for the Commission on HIV and the Law. American immigration authorities decided that she presented a “high-risk” for prostitution and human trafficking.

How is that possible? Well, according to US Immigration there are 6 grounds on which people can be excluded from entering the United States based on crime. One of these is prostitution and commercialized vice. According to a briefing paper by the Global Network of Sex Work Projects, you do not even need to be convicted of prostitution to be considered inadmissible!

“A person coming to the US to engage in prostitution, or who has engaged in prostitution within ten years of their application for entry, is inadmissible, as are those who have made financial profit from prostitution. No criminal conviction is required, and the bar applies even to nationals of countries where prostitution is legal. Those who have been forced into prostitution are not inadmissible.”

Ruth Morgan Thomas, Coordinator of the Global Network of Sex Work Project (NSWP) is no stranger to immigration restrictions. In 1994, she became the first sex worker to openly challenge Japan’s immigration restriction against sex workers in order to participate in the 10th World AIDS Conference in Yokohama. At the time, she received the support of International AIDS Society (IAS), the organizers of the International AIDS Conferences and the World Health Organization. Now she is leading the NSWP campaign calling on the removal of American travel restrictions.

“The NSWP has been working on this since 15 June when our colleague was prevented from entering US and we began to research the travel restrictions. We have raised the issue with Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of UNAIDS, met with the US delegation at the UNAIDS 26th board meeting, held discussions with IAS representatives, and in the UNAIDS Advisory Group on HIV and Sex Work in June. We submitted a briefing paper to IAS as the organizers of the International AIDS Conferences.”
The US member groups of NSWP have partnered with the American Centre for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE) to mount a campaign. Their open letter addresses how travel restrictions against sex workers and drug users will further marginalize communities who need to be front and center to the response to AIDS.

The open letter is available here.