Subject: AFP: Scared but desperate, Thai sex workers forced to the street
JackTheBat
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Post at 5-4-2020 15:36  Profile Blog P.M. 
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AFP: Scared but desperate, Thai sex workers forced to the street

Scared but desperate, Thai sex workers forced to the street
PUBLISHED: 5 APR 2020 AT 11:45
WRITER: AFP
https://www.afp.com/en/news/3954 ... -street-doc-1qd9zo1

A shutdown to contain the coronavirus has killed Thailand's party scene and forced sex workers like Pim out of bars and onto desolate streets. She's scared but desperately needs customers to pay her rent.

Red-light districts from Bangkok to Pattaya have gone quiet with night clubs and massage parlours closed and tourists blocked from entering the country.

That has left an estimated 300,000 sex workers out of a job, pressing some onto the streets where the risks are sharpened by the pandemic.

"I'm afraid of the virus but I need to find customers so I can pay for my room and food," Pim, a 32-year-old transgender sex worker, told AFP in an area of Bangkok where previously bawdy neon-lit bars and brothels have gone dark.

Since Friday Thais have been under a 10 pm to 4 am curfew. Bars and eat-in restaurants closed several days earlier.

Many of Bangkok's sex workers had jobs in the relative safety of bars, working for tips and willing to go home with customers.

When their workplaces suddenly closed most returned home to wait out the crisis.

Others like Pim went to work the streets.

The government says it is ready to enforce a 24-hour curfew if necessary to control a virus that has infected more than 2,000 people and killed 20, according to official figures.

Pim is paying a heavy price for the movement restrictions -- she has not had a customer for 10 days and the bills are stacking up.

Her friend Alice, another transgender sex worker, has also been forced to move from a go-go bar to the roadside.

"I used to make decent money, sometimes 10,000-20,000 baht a week," Alice says.

"But when businesses shut down my income stopped too. We are doing this because we're poor. If we can't pay our hotel they will kick us out."

The occasional tourist loiters near clusters of sex workers, before a furtive negotiation and a quick march to a nearby hotel, one of the few still open on Bangkok's main tourist drag.

The already high risks of sex work have rocketed as the virus spreads.

Sex workers have flocked back to homes across the country in anticipation of several weeks of virtual lockdown before Thailand's night economy comes back to life.

There are fears the malaise could last for months, yanking billions of tourist dollars from the economy and leaving those working in the informal sector destitute.

They include sex workers -- an illegal but widely accepted part of Thailand's nightlife.

There are concerns that a Thai government emergency scheme to give 5,000 baht to millions of newly jobless over the next three months will exclude sex workers because they cannot prove formal employment.

The Empower Foundation, an advocacy group for the kingdom's sex workers, says entertainment venues make around 211 billion baht a year, many of them selling sex in some form.

Women are suffering the most from the virus measures, it says. Many are mothers and their family's main income earner, forced into sex work by lack of opportunities or low graduate salaries.

The group has written an open letter to the government urging it to "find a way to provide assistance to all workers who have lost their earnings".

As the 10pm curfew looms, Pim and Alice prepare for a final forlorn patrol for customers.

"I think the government has been really slow. They don't care about people like us who work in the sex industry," Alice said.

"We're more afraid of having nothing to eat than the virus."

Recent Ratings
obe   2-3-2021 15:10  Acceptance  +10   Sad
anabikumi   6-4-2020 13:46  Acceptance  +2   Thanks for sharing.
trust_00   6-4-2020 11:55  Acceptance  +2   Hard for those that lost their income regardless of what they do
ramont   6-4-2020 09:10  Acceptance  +10   I can imagine there are 25,000 new ThaiFriendly profiles added in the past few weeks
austin821   6-4-2020 05:54  Acceptance  +6   Thanks Jack.
jeffzeke   6-4-2020 04:08  Acceptance  +10   Sad to hear of such news.
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Weelock
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Post at 6-4-2020 01:36  Profile P.M. 
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QUOTE:
Originally posted by JackTheBat at 5-4-2020 15:36
Scared but desperate, Thai sex workers forced to the street
PUBLISHED: 5 APR 2020 AT 11:45
WRITER: AFP
https://www.afp.com/en/news/3954 ... -street-doc-1qd9zo1

A s ...

The same thing is happening other parts of the world. See link for Germany.

The majority makes very decent money worldwide. Compared to the average person, 3 to 5 times more.  The problem is most will send the money back home. In Thailand 10,000 to 20,000 a week is like 333 to 666 USD.  The worldwide people working at the factories, restaurants, hotels and other places will have a problem, making far less.



Sex workers stranded in Germany as coronavirus shuts brothels

By Joseph Nasr
ReutersApril 3, 2020, 5:05 AM EDT

https://www.yahoo.com/news/sex-w ... irus-080552453.html

[ Last edited by  Weelock at 6-4-2020 04:54 ]

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anabikumi   6-4-2020 13:46  Acceptance  +2   Thanks for sharing.
trust_00   6-4-2020 11:56  Acceptance  +2   Sucks for them
jeffzeke   6-4-2020 04:08  Acceptance  +10   Sad to hear. Thanks for sharing.
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codehardcore
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Post at 7-4-2020 05:03  Profile P.M. 
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Very sad story. I wonder how it would affect the prices when everything reopens. Hope prices go down but sometimes businesses raise the prices to make up for loss revenue.
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Weelock
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Post at 7-4-2020 05:52  Profile P.M. 
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QUOTE:
Originally posted by codehardcore at 7-4-2020 05:03
Very sad story. I wonder how it would affect the prices when everything reopens. Hope prices go down but sometimes businesses raise the prices to make up for loss revenue.

It's basically supply and demand. Then if it is legal or not. What country you are or LE looks the other way.

Economically, one month closer is nothing for a shutdown.  The lock down could continue for 4 to 10 months if the virus continues to spread, then it will really hurt.


I remember when SARS hit, guys were very reluctant to go out for sex.  There was a 10% change of dying from SARS compared to 3%.  The girls will to work, were usually less pretty, needed money, when SARS happened.

[ Last edited by  Weelock at 7-4-2020 10:55 ]
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zebra
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Post at 7-4-2020 10:33  Profile P.M. 
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Reply #3 codehardcore's post

I have mixed feelings when I read your post. I respect your opinion, but a part of me felt sad to see someone hope the price will go down after reading about the plight of sex workers. They are extremely vulnerable to things like this. The suddenness of this epidemics has left most of them totally unprepared. Some of them are at the point of famine. I know, we are not social workers, free market etc. Just hope to see more empathy in this world.

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austin821   7-4-2020 14:34  Acceptance  +3   
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