Law changes delayed after MP urges sex worker protections

Draft changes to a law outlawing prostitution have been sent back to committee after an upper house MP objected and argued that the law should be amended to protect, rather than punish, sex workers.

Yangon Region parliamentarian U Phone Myint Aung urged MPs to look past ingrained cultural aversion to sex work and acknowledge that efforts to stop prostitution would inevitably fail. Instead, lawmakers should seek to protect sex workers, who are marginalised and vulnerable under the current laws.

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