Achmad Faisal, Surabaya – Deputy Governor Saifullah Yusuf has proposed that the Surabaya municipal administration close down and quarantine the Dolly red-light district to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

He said the number of sex workers living with STIs in East Java was increasing. "However, before closing it down, the municipal administration needs to prepare a well-planned strategy to prevent it from creating polemics," Saifullah said in Surabaya on Tuesday.

He said the provincial administration must help sex workers and pimps from the red-light district find work in other professions. "That way they won't depend on the red-light district for making money," he said.

Quoting a Health Ministry regulation on quarantine, he said sex workers in the district should be put into isolation because more than half of them were living with STIs.

Data at the Surabaya Health Agency shows that 900 of the 1,287 commercial sex workers operating in Dolly, which is the biggest red-light district in Southeast Asia, are living with STIs.

Responding to the deputy governor's call, the Surabaya administration said it was not responsible for closing down the district because it had never officially opened it. "Just go ahead if the provincial administration wants to close it down. It's impossible for the municipal administration to do so,"

Eko Hariyanto, in charge of social affairs, said, adding that the district contributed greatly to the city's economy. "We supervise and empower people to prevent them from clinging on to this disgraceful profession," he said.

A local community healthcare group has recorded 16 new cases of HIV in the Dolly district and Jarak, another red-light district in the city, so far this year. The combined number of people living with HIV/AIDS at both red-light districts has risen to 95 in 2009 from 46 in 2006.

Separately, the East Java AIDS Commission recorded 3,030 cases of AIDS in September 2009 in the province. The figure shot up to 3,234 the following month, meaning the province has the second-highest number of cases in the country after Greater Jakarta.