Back Road sex workers worried about western colleagues

The neon lights along Port Henderson Road in Portmore, St Catherine, still glow at nights, but for two sex workers, the atmosphere hasn't felt normal since Hurricane Melissa.

What used to be a familiar routine now feels heavy because they can't reach the women they once worked beside who moved towards the storm battered west. Tanya* and Crystal* say several of their closest colleagues moved from the popular strip, commonly known as 'Back Road' to St James and Westmoreland over the years, hoping for better earnings in Mt Salem and sections of Savanna-la-Mar. But since Melissa battered the western end of the island, every call to those women go straight to voicemail.

"They are particularly worried about one of the women, Lisa*, who left Back Road some weeks before Melissa arrived because she heard Montego Bay paid better. She was saving to send her son to private school.

"A she used to keep wi updated the most," Tanya said. "Every night after work we would video wi 'sister' dem from the west. Dem call and laugh, even if a five-minute check-in. But Lisa phone go dead the night before Melissa hit and from that mi nuh hear from her", she said.

Their fear is grounded in reality. Several western communities where their friends lived suffered severe flooding, landslides, and prolonged telecoms outages.

"Mi hope is just a dead phone," Tanya told THE STAR. "But mi fear is say dem lose more than that."

Despite the growing concern, the women say they cannot travel to search for their colleagues. Many Back Road sex workers operate under strict instructions from handlers or "managers" who control their movements.

"People think we can just jump pon a bus and go," Crystal said. "But it nuh work so. Some a di girls have people who run dem work. You cya just disappear. You have rules and hours. If you move wrong, it cause pure problems."

"Some man nuh joke wid dem money. If you gone two, three days and nuh bring in nothing, a big problem," she added. Their only option is to wait for one of their colleagues to call - a wait that becomes heavier each day. Crystal said she believes that people often overlook the reality that sex workers are among the most vulnerable when disasters strike.

"People judge wi fast, but we are mothers, sisters, hustlers," she said. "If storm lick down anybody house, dem deserve help, no matter what dem do fi earn."

The women want relief teams to check the informal corners of western communities where many sex workers quietly rent rooms or short-term spaces.

"Wi not asking for special treatment, just fairness," said Tanya. "Check di likkle boarding spots, di back rooms, di places weh people overlook. Because is deh so plenty a di girls did deh and nobody nuh checking for them."

They said they lean on each other because, in this line of work, their strongest sense of family comes from the women working beside them.

"Back Road never give we family, so we build it. Sister is just what we call the ones who hold we up."

*Names changed to protect identities