[Published: Sunday April 05 2020]
Thai sex workers forced to the street
BANGKOK 5 Apr (ANA) - A shutdown to contain the coronavirus has killed Thailand's party scene and forced sex workers out of bars and onto desolate streets.
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.(ANA)
FA/ANA/5 April 2020-----
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