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  1. #1
    Thailand Expat Saint Willy's Avatar
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    Sex workers have long been disapproved of in Thailand. Now they are calling for their

    Sex workers have long been disapproved of in Thailand. Now they are calling for their billion-dollar industry to be recognised


    It is hard to imagine, but Pattaya's near-deserted "Walking Street" used to teem with revellers, as pulsating music filled the air and neon lights flashed until the early hours.

    Before the pandemic, the coastal city south-east of Bangkok was a buzzing party scene, and was once described by the Lonely Planet travel guidebook as "an eye-popping sensory explosion".
    Today, bar stools sit atop dusty tables, the odd light bulb flickers and "For Rent" signs hang on bars, nightclubs and restaurants up and down the infamous red light district.
    Crowds of tourists from all over the world have vanished – the only people around are a few locals heading home before the COVID-19 curfew kicks in.
    For 42-year-old sex worker Dao, Pattaya has never looked this depressing.
    "Pattaya was a 'never sleep city'. There used to be so many people here, there was almost no space to stand," Dao told the ABC.
    "Now it is so quiet, it is lonely and quiet."


    All entertainment venues in Thailand have been shut for most of the last two years.(ABC News: Mark Dobbin)Pattaya offers a glimpse of what is happening in other cities around Thailand, where bustling red-light districts in Bangkok, Phuket, and Chiang Mai were shuttered during the pandemic too.
    The steady stream of business for sex workers away from the go-go clubs and beer bars also dried up.
    Thailand reopened to fully vaccinated foreign travellers from more than 60 low-risk countries, including Australia, on November 1. But bars and entertainment venues are still closed because the government is concerned about the virus spreading in them.
    Sex workers worry it will be years before their industry recovers.
    A billion-dollar industry that operates in the shadows

    Dao is one of approximately 50,000 sex workers who made a living in Pattaya before COVID-19 hit. Experts suggest at least four times that number were operating across Thailand.
    The mother-of-five now earns less in a week than she did in an hour.
    "It is barely enough. I've had to spend from my savings money and it is almost finished, almost gone," she said.
    "My main goal is to work … to give my children an education, so I need a safety net."


    Dao says it has been "lonely and quiet" in Pattaya since foreigners stopped holidaying there.(ABC News: Mark Dobbin)Sex workers support charity Service Workers in Group [SWING] helped Dao set up a street food stall, and she still meets the occasional local client.
    But it is still not enough to get by.
    "I'd rather work as a sex worker as I did before the pandemic," Dao said.
    SWING president and Thammasat University political science professor Chalidaporn Songsamphan said before the pandemic Thailand’s sex industry contributed about $8 billion a year to the country’s economy.
    "The Thai economy had been relying on the tourism industry for quite some time," Professor Chalidaporn told the ABC.
    "Tourism had been the major source of income for the whole economy, and sex work was a large part of this tourism."
    Despite this, sex workers have been forced to work in the shadows because prostitution is technically illegal.


    Dao says her savings are "almost gone" after she lost work in the pandemic.(ABC News: Mark Dobbin)Penalties include fines ranging from $40 to $1,600, or even a jail sentence of up to two years.
    With COVID-19 having decimated the tourism-reliant economy, some sex workers believe the time is right to push the government to recognise an industry that may be crucial to the recovery.
    'Tiny spare parts that nobody cares about'

    At a protest earlier this year, a group of men and women wielding high heels and underwear gathered outside the national government's headquarters to demand their labour be recognised and regulated.
    "We're Thai people and we generate income for the country. Please accept the reality that prostitution exists and it does have value and dignity just like other professions," one protester told the media.


    Thai sex workers have protested to demand their labour be recognised and regulated by the government.(Supplied: Empower Foundation)The pandemic has only made working in the industry harder.
    Sex workers are unable to access any of the government's unemployment benefits, which were offered to other professions shut down by COVID-19.
    "The experiences of sex workers during this pandemic showed us that this ambiguous status of sex workers obstructs them from getting help from the Thai bureaucracy, from the Thai state," Professor Chalidaporn said.
    "So maybe this is a good time to actually think about this decriminalisation of sex work, because the criminal status of sex work here has hurt so many people in this society for quite some time.
    "They cannot negotiate, they cannot bargain with anyone at all, and they have been exploited by so many groups of people because of the status of sex work as a crime."
    Dao said she would really like to see her industry legalised, but she believes the government sees sex workers as "just tiny spare parts that nobody cares about and nobody supports".
    She said that in Pattaya, at least, they drove the pre-COVID economy.


    Most of the shops in Pattaya's Walking Street are closed, with some advertised for rent or lease as the pandemic continues.(ABC News: Mark Dobbin)"All foreigners came here for women like me, there were no tourists who came here to see temples or just for sight-seeing," she said.
    As their clients disappeared and the pandemic persisted, sex workers have been forced to find other sources of income.
    What does the future hold for Thai sex workers?

    Thirty-six year old Pattaya sex worker Om has moved online.
    The mother of three said she did not want to catch the coronavirus, so she has been meeting clients via a mobile phone app.
    "I'm afraid to go out to meet them as I don't know who they've been meeting with, so online is the best," she said.
    "We make an agreement: 'If I show you this, you have to pay me that amount.'"


    Om, like many others, says she would like sex work to be legalised "so we don't need to be hiding".(ABC News: Mark Dobbin)The money is only a tenth of what Om used to earn, which has made it difficult for her to support her children, who live in another province.
    "Before the pandemic everything was fine, it was easy to make money and I did not have problems sending money home," she said.
    "I wish COVID would go away so things could go back to [normal]."
    Om said she would like sex work to be legalised "so we don't need to be hiding".
    But Professor Chalidaporn said successive governments had not made moves to legalise sex work because the issue had not "caught the attention of the Thai public".
    "If you are going to talk about sex work you cannot just talk about decriminalisation of sex work itself, or just talk about some groups of sex workers, you have to discuss the root cause of what we call sex outside marriage," she said.
    "It is going to be quite painful and difficult for many groups of people, so that's why they are not willing to discuss [it], they just ignore this issue of sex work."
    A long road to recovery

    Thailand has slowly been reopening to fully vaccinated foreign visitors from low-risk countries since July, with most coming in through a special no-quarantine program on the island of Phuket.
    With hotel quarantine scrapped or reduced from this month in other parts of the country, things are looking up for the tourism sector.
    But Professor Chalidaporn does not expect the sex industry to bounce back quickly.


    With the pandemic disrupting her usual work, Dao has set up a street food stall.(ABC News: Mark Dobbin)"If we are lucky it might take a year at least, not just for the sex industry but the whole tourism industry in Thailand to recover," she said.
    "And the problem is, how are people who have been in this industry going to survive if there is another round, another wave of the pandemic?"
    With no financial assistance from the government, many sex workers have been relying on charity – either money sent from past clients who live overseas, or food handouts from SWING and other organisations.
    The Australian embassy in Thailand recently donated 500 "survival bags" of food, medicine and personal hygiene equipment to SWING to give to sex workers and other Pattaya locals doing it tough.
    The ABC followed SWING staff and Australian ambassador Allan McKinnon as they handed the bags out to desperate people in long queues that stretched for several hundred metres along Pattaya's main beach front.
    It was welcome assistance but it was just a drop in the ocean – hundreds of people missed out.
    “It’s going to be difficult for all of them to recover from the pandemic, that’s for sure,” Professor Chalidaporn said.


    Long queues for food have formed on Pattaya's main beach.(ABC News: Mazoe Ford)

    Sex workers have long been disapproved of in Thailand. Now they are calling for their billion-dollar industry to be recognised - ABC News
    Warning: Be cautious if you are a fragile pink

  2. #2
    Thailand Expat tomcat's Avatar
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    ...who disapproves of them? Certainly not Isaan families whose homes, farms and youth education were paid for by horny men...

  3. #3
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    It is sadly ironic that because of the poor provincial educational system and low paying job market, a lot of young girls walk into this line of work which is probably what gets a vast majority of the tourists here, spending money and making the elites $. Then they are shamed or ignored by the very people they are making wealthy.
    Last edited by Bonecollector; 13-11-2021 at 07:23 PM.

  4. #4
    Hangin' Around cyrille's Avatar
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    You need to check 'ironic' in a dictionary.

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by cyrille View Post
    You need to check 'ironic' in a dictionary.
    I got distracted and didn't finish my post. I am pretty sure it makes sense now.

  6. #6
    Thailand Expat helge's Avatar
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    It does

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by tomcat View Post
    ...who disapproves of them? Certainly not Isaan families whose homes, farms and youth education were paid for by horny men...
    There is definitely no disputing that many lives are improved and I, nor anyone, has the right to tell anyone how they make their living. However, it can be very soul destroying and many girls are left with permanent scares both physically and mentally. I definitely think technology has somewhat changed everything. Now girls can just create IG, Facebook etc accounts and are more moving towards looking for long term partners or sugar daddies from the comfort of a bedroom.

  8. #8
    Thailand Expat tomcat's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bonecollector View Post
    many girls are left with permanent scares both physically and mentally.
    ...I imagine a number of clients experienced the same thing when discovering the taped bits...

  9. #9
    Hangin' Around cyrille's Avatar
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    Have to admire someone mapping the trends so keenly.

  10. #10
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by tomcat View Post
    ...I imagine a number of clients experienced the same thing when discovering the taped bits...
    rat-a-tat-*ching*

  11. #11
    Thailand Expat
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    Quote Originally Posted by cyrille View Post
    Have to admire someone mapping the trends so keenly.
    I concentrate on the important things in life.

  12. #12
    5 4 Knoll
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    With tourism in the the doldrums and Amazing Thailand past it's sell by date

    How about Fuckers welcome all comers?

  13. #13
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    How can the government lgalise a behaviour that does not exist?

    If it is legalized, the professionals can pay for health checks and taxes, but not education for their children.

    Legal status is still the better solution, even if it drives prices up.

  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by tomcat View Post
    ...who disapproves of them? Certainly not Isaan families whose homes, farms and youth education were paid for by horny men...
    Really, funny you reinforcing the stereo type there like a good little Bangkokian.

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by Switch View Post
    How can the government lgalise a behaviour that does not exist?

    If it is legalized, the professionals can pay for health checks and taxes, but not education for their children.

    Legal status is still the better solution, even if it drives prices up.
    whats needed is the gov.to MAKE them that make the kids .then fyk off and leave them to granny who's daughter has to fyk off to make money to keep them.

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