More than 100 sex workers and their supporters staged a protest on Thursday morning near the Presidential Office to express their opposition to President Chen Shui-bians （陳水扁） continued policy of outlawing prostitution.

Chen banned licensed prostitution in August 1997 during his tenure as as mayor of Taipei City.

At one point, the protesters engaged in a scuffle with police while trying to burn a portrait of Chen and a large wire net that demonstrators said represented the hard lives of the general public. The fire was immediately put out by the police, but the increasingly chaotic protest continued.

"People are dying, and Chen does not pay attention to the peoples needs," protesters shouted at the scene.

The demonstrators were mainly affiliated with the Collective of Sex Workers and Supporters, a non-profit organization formed in August 1997 when Chen imposed a ban on prostitution. Protesters accused Chen of not drawing up a comprehensive plan to take care of sex workers who were left without work.

According to the CSWS, several prostitutes who had previously held legal licenses were forced to commit suicide due to financial difficulties after the ban. They said that the governments crackdown on prostitution led to serious financial problems for many sex workers, but over the past 10 years, their voices have been ignored by the relevant authorities.

The group of protesters demanded that the officials who advocated the abolition of licensed prostitution come forward and apologize, but the crowd was forced to disperse because they had not applied to use the compound for their rally.

Sister Kuan, an outspoken sex worker, told reporters that although licensed prostitution has ceased, she would like to continue her campaign as a spokesperson to try to ensure the safety of sex workers lives and property. She said that supporters of sex workers are calling on the Taipei City government to set up a special zone where prostitutes can continue to work. But so far their appeal has not gained any positive response from the city government, she said.

A total of 128 licenses were taken away from prostitutes when licensed prostitution was abolished, according to the Center For the Study of Sexuality and Difference under the Department of English at National Central University. The center said that most of the legal prostitutes were middle-aged or older, mostly illiterate or with only elementary school level educations, earning moderate incomes, and who had worked most of their lives as prostitutes.