Prostitution ring blamed for HIV spread on Batam Island
Fadli, The Jakarta Post, Batam, Riau
Thriving prostitution has become a source of the spread of HIV in Batam, a fast growing industrial estate island close to Singapore and a magnet for economic migrants from all over Indonesia.
The Batam local administration has officially stated 112 cases of people with HIV/AIDS (PWAs) in 2002, twenty of which have since passed away.
No comparative figures were available. But the numbers could just be the tip of an iceberg, as officials admitted to being unaware of the true extent of the HIV spread on the island of 520,000 people, said the head of Batam's health office, Puardi Djarius last week.
He said the general assumption was that each PWA could spread the virus to 10 partners or other people with whom he/she had a relationship, meaning the actual number of HIV cases in Batam could be much, much higher.
"This is a matter of individual lifestyle, we can't ban people from changing their partners," Puardi said.
Batam's economy is one of the fastest growing in Indonesia.
Its designation as an industrial island offers various business incentives, which generate thousands of new jobs as investors, mainly from Singapore, set up their plants here.
Thousands of migrants from throughout impoverished areas of Indonesia have since come to the island in search of work. Along with that influx, many of whom are husbands away from their wives, however, also comes a thriving sex industry.
"HIV is spread here mainly by sex workers," said Evianora Azwar of the Family Health Partner Foundation (YMKK).
Batam's health office data showed the island had official data of some 7,000 prostitutes -- those who are legally registered and work in government regulated establishments. However, the actual number could be closer to 20,000, or some 13,000 illegal ones, according to the foundation. Evianora said many sex workers were part of an illegal, organized prostitution ring, and many eventually returned to their home areas in Java or elsewhere often not even knowing they had contracted HIV.
"If this continues I fear Batam could turn into a source of HIV spread for most of western Indonesia."
She added that many of the prostitutes' clients were visiting Singaporeans on the island. They find sex workers in places like karaoke bars, massage parlors and various gambling dens.
She said most sex workers were between the age of 17 and 30, and charged from Rp 280,000 (about US$31) to Rp 500,000 for each "date".
But the ease with which visitors can find commercial sex workers in Batam is not balanced by adequate measures to prevent sexually transmitted diseases, Evianora said.
Registered sex workers were officially subject to medical check-ups once a month, she said, but did not say whether the illegal sex workers did the same.
"Those who are diagnosed with HIV are merely fired by the establishment that employs them and sent back to their home areas (often Java)," she said.
The best way to slow the spread of HIV in Batam, she added, was for the local administration and police to combat illegal prostitution and impose tougher rules on the legal ones.
"The government, in this case, the social office and the police and the local administration need to be aware of this problem."