Thailand's Sex Workers Don't Want To Be 'Rescued'

[webfact]

WOMAN ISSUE
Sex 'trade', not 'traffic'
SUBHATRA BHUMIPRABHAS
SPECIAL TO THE NATION

Thailand's sex workers are off the streets, in safe workplaces. They don't want to be 'rescued'

BANGKOK: -- Being a sex worker these days isn't what it used to be, at least for those whose rights are backed up by the Empower Foundation. Much has improved - no more pimps or mamasans, and fewer punches thrown their way. Being "rescued", though, causes them all sorts of problems.

Most people remain unaware of the dramatic new context in the flesh trade, Empower director Chantawipa Apisuk said at the recent release of a report, "Hit & Run: Sex Workers' Research on Anti-trafficking in Thailand".

"We have now reached a point in history where there are more women in the Thai sex industry being abused by anti-trafficking practices than there are women exploited by traffickers," she said.

The government and the agencies that abet its efforts to "help" prostitutes have, in many ways, gone too far in enforcing the Prevention and Suppression of Human Trafficking Act.

The modern sex worker has work tools apart from makeup and condoms, said Chantawipa, who founded Empower in 1985 to safeguard their rights. They have cell phones and the Internet. Rather than greedy pimps, their support network is centred on a trusted tuk-tuk driver or the local motorcycle-taxi guy who takes them around and protects them.

These people have designated workplaces - restaurants, massage parlours, go-go bars, beer bars or karaoke clubs. Their work might also entail dancing for or drinking beer with the customers.

More than 20,000 sex workers make use of Empower's contact points in 11 provinces in the North, Northeast and Central region, including several on the Burmese border.

Empower has seen the industry develop continuously through three decades and 10 governments. Sex work is now widely regarded as a quasi-legitimate profession, with its own form of employers and self-employed workers.

Inevitably, though, prostitution remains a crime in the eyes of many, and those plying the trade are treated accordingly.

But the kindlier view, that they are victims of human trafficking, isn't a great deal of help either, Chantawipa said. Legislation aimed at stopping the trafficking of people has had a serious adverse effect.

The "Hit & Run" report is an effort to assess the state of the profession. More than 200 sex workers helped the foundation conduct a survey over the course of 12 months, in bars, restaurants and brothels across the county and even into Burma and Laos.

"We trained them in legal rights," Chantawipa said, although some were already university graduates and several even had law degrees. "We call them our 'high-heeled human-rights defenders'."

It's a play on the term "barefoot lawyer" - a solicitor who cares about justice rather than fees - explains Liz Hilton. She's worked with the foundation for nearly 20 years and helped coordinated the project and the associated Rapid Action Training for Sex Workers.

"The first round of training was done in 12-month blocks in 2008 and 2009. There were 23 sex workers - men, women and transgender people."

The survey determined that more than 50,000 sex workers have been involved with Empower since it started, including migrants mainly from Laos, Burma, China and Cambodia.

Migration, it was noted, is part of the "culture" of sex work, and the brokers involved in transporting people are generally seen as helpful. Most don't charge exorbitant rates for their service.

One of the "high-heeled rights defenders", Sasumi from Mae Sai in Chiang Rai, said she often helps fellow sex workers with legal matters when they're arrested. She's been in the business since she was 20. She's now 27. "I've seen a lot of improvement in the workplaces," she said.

"We're better off there than taking a risk waiting around on the street. If better choices are available, then naturally we choose them."

Nang from Mukdahan, who also helped with the survey, said few women arrested under the anti-trafficking legislation know what it is. "They're just going to work, they think, so why are they being arrested?"

Mala moved to Mae Sot because she couldn't earn enough money there for her family. Muay moved across the border to Mae Sai, convinced that whatever Thailand offered had to be better than what she left. Picked up under the anti-trafficking law, they both got sent back.

"We came to build new lives for our families, not to be sent home empty-handed and ashamed," explained Dang Moo, another Burmese sex worker in Mae Sot.

Kiaw from Laos pleaded for understanding among the Thai public and authorities that sex workers prefer not to break any laws. "We aren't criminals. We're just honest people trying to build better lives." The women might build a house for their parents or put a kid brother through school.

But the anti-trafficking law regards sex workers as victims, so those who enforce it believe they are "rescuing" the prostitutes. That just makes things worse, say the sex workers.

"Before I was arrested I was working happily, had no debt, and was free to move around the city," said Nok, a Burmese. "Now I'm in debt, I'm scared most of the time, and it's not safe to move around. How can they call this 'help'?"

Once "rescued" and after a period of detainment, the foreign workers are deported (only to return at the first chance) and the Thais usually have to undergo vocational training.

"Thai society still looks at sex workers in the old context," Chantawipa said, and even the government's "modern" view of sex workers as victims is outdated. The aim now is to get the government and other concerned parties to stop using the word "victim", to stop putting trafficking and sex work in the same category.

Riddled with loopholes, the anti-trafficking law meanwhile is undercutting women's efforts in other areas, Chantawipa said. It confuses the organisations opposed to trafficking about sex workers' true status - are they criminals or the victims of criminals?

NEW CONTEXT

Empower's survey has determined that:

- Today's sex worker provides enough income to take good care of the family.

- Their workplace - usually an evening entertainment venue - has regulations, covering work schedule and monthly salary paid according to skill level. Thus, sex workers are employees.

- Gone, for the most part, are the days of random arrest, regular violence, pimps, the prostitution mafia and the "green harvest", when girls are recruited upcountry. In their place are helpful "older brothers" - the motorcycle-taxi or tuk-tuk driver, the bar manager.

- Sex workers now have hi-tech tools like smart phones and the Internet, and they're also skilled at using them.

Nighlife's tapestry

Empower launched its research project last month with a one-day exhibition at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, displaying the "Mida Tapestry", sewn by migrant sex workers as a way to document and show the impact police raids have on their lives. It carries a second message in that the detained sex workers are regularly forced or offered sewing lessons as a cure-all for social ills.



-- The Nation 2012-03-06

[Ulysses G.]

Legalize it!

[Reasonableman]

monthly salary paid according to skill level.

You mean they have training programs and performance agreements, too? It appears much has changed. I'll never look at Pattaya walking street in the same way again.

[antipodesant]

Thailand's economy would go into a meltdown if this 'trade' was shut down.

Forget the fact that it is illegal 'but so what'

Just think, with 2 million girls 'and more than a few guys' on the game (probably a conservative estimate) how families would survive.

It would be a re-enactment of the film 'On The Beach'

Universities, schools, tourism would all close and families would implode.

It would not be pretty.

[Reasonableman]

It's not exactly pretty right now.

[supersombat]

So Empower seeks to end the exploitation of horny men?

[pcruzer]

no way to control 1 of man's 7 deadly sins.....LUST

except to make them eunuchs!!!

[maxman71]

How many sex workers in Thailand pay taxes on their income, which in many cases is much higher than their highly educated "straight job" counterparts...Answer: ZILCH, nada, none, zero.

[rotary]

Most of these points I have already confirmed via my personalized in depth research over a long period of time

[RaoulDuke]

Its not like they really have any viable alternatives. As long as you have wealth inequality, you will have the sex trade, which is why it thrives in all corners of the world (just like wealth inequality). As long as they can cut down on trafficking, slavery, and child prostitutes, then at least it is a step in the right direction. No woman wants to work in the sex trade, but given the alternative, many do not have much of a choice. I just hope all of you who purchase their services remember this, and try and treat them like humans. They have had a very difficult life and if they do not harbor at least some sort of resentment for their clients, it means they are already truly dead inside.

[david555]

How many sex workers in Thailand pay taxes on their income, which in many cases is much higher than their highly educated "straight job" counterparts...Answer: ZILCH, nada, none, zero.

but where the money goes it Will be spend an let economy take profit from it, likewise the black money every where on world is the "second circuit ," or Grey one , legal or not it works like a "safety valve " on the peoples economy , i repairs what the normal fails or short in it AND this count not only for the sex trade

[MaxYakov]

How many sex workers in Thailand pay taxes on their income, which in many cases is much higher than their highly educated "straight job" counterparts...Answer: ZILCH, nada, none, zero.

Agree. And that's not likely to change any more than the traffic laws are going to be enforced and for the same reason.

Edited March 6, 2012 by MaxYakov

[trihent]

Its not like they really have any viable alternatives. As long as you have wealth inequality, you will have the sex trade, which is why it thrives in all corners of the world (just like wealth inequality).,,,,,,

Wrong as long as people want sex there will be the sex trade. Wanting and having sex IS human nature after all.

No woman wants to work in the sex trade, but given the alternative, many do not have much of a choice. I just hope all of you who purchase their services remember this, and try and treat them like humans. They have had a very difficult life and if they do not harbor at least some sort of resentment for their clients, it means they are already truly dead inside.

As the article clearly states there are women that want to work in the trade and within thier philosophies many are not dead inside. Also in my 17 yrs here in Thailand quite alot of the Bar Girls I've met are looking for long term partners and most of the breakups (or alot anyhow) are caused by cultural diffrences or the expats themselves. (If relationships failed in their own countries how can they believe they would succeed here?)

Legalize it.

[chooka]

I guess this is a thing of the past in Pattaya..

[BuffaloRescue]

Sounds about right

In all my years living in up-country Thailand, and speaking Thai fairly well I have NEVER heared of anyone being trafficked from Thailand to another country against their will. Ive never heared of people getting tricked into prostituion, going to Japan or other countries and disappearing etc.

Is it all a load of BS? Surely there must be cases but i suspect this is hugely exaggerated

[onthemoon]

"Human Trafficking is a crime against humanity. It involves an act of recruiting, transporting, transfering, harbouring or receiving a person through a use of force, coercion or other means, for the purpose of exploiting them." (From: UNODC). This is clearly not the case with most sex workers.

In Germany, prostitution is legal. Human trafficking is not. This article mixed up both.

Again in Germany, you need a work permit to work. If your nationality requires a work permit to work in Germany and you get caught working in prostitution, you will be arrested for working without a work permit. The same would apply for Burmese workers in Thailand.

And yes, the sex workers have a choice. Many factories in Thailand complain that it is difficult to find workers.

[whybother]

SOME sex workers don't want to be rescued. I'm sure there are tens of thousands out there that are being exploited / extorted / forced and would love to be rescued.

[Payboy]

Thailand's Sex Workers Don't Want To Be 'Rescued'Sex 'trade', not 'traffic'

Amen.

[ydraw]

And yes, the sex workers have a choice. Many factories in Thailand complain that it is difficult to find workers.

Factories aren't paying 30,000 baht a month though, are they? The sex workers made a choice, they chose to work in a higher paying profession. I don't see how you can begrudge anyone that.

[jalansanitwong]

Like most people, i am fed up with hearing about these poor little innocent girls being trafficked for sex. What absolute rubbish.

Virtually every girl in the prostitution business in Thailand is doing it for the easy money.Who wants to work for 100 baht a day in the rice paddys and chilli fields when you can give an old German pensioner oral sex for 20 minutes for 500 baht.

If youre lucky maybe marriage is on the cards. Take farangs money and assets and dump him. Happens every day here.

There is a Briton on this forum today wanting to remit 10 million baht here for a house....unbelievable.

Edited March 6, 2012 by jalansanitwong

[belg]

5555

hookers have internet, yes, so they can milk 5 - 10 boyfriends to send them 1000$ per month so they can 'stop' working, the bad thing is, the 4 - 9 other boyfriends do not know that there are other suitors

[maidu]

SOME sex workers don't want to be rescued. I'm sure there are tens of thousands out there that are being exploited / extorted / forced and would love to be rescued.

Perhaps there is a small % who would like to be 'rescued' - yet perhaps there are a greater % of indentured maids, clearing 20 baht a day, forced to work 24/7 for rich Chinese -Thai families who would also like to be 'rescued.' Sex workers, with few exceptions, can walk away if they choose. The #1 reason for sex worker harassment is Christian aid groups motivated by their western puritanical superiority complexes. I had a Christian group wanting to rent my large house. They were planning to do 'improvements' to it - which would have turned it in to a fortress to keep 'rescued sex workers' from having visitors and/or breaking out. I said 'no' to the house rental proposal.

[Baerboxer]

"Human Trafficking is a crime against humanity. It involves an act of recruiting, transporting, transfering, harbouring or receiving a person through a use of force, coercion or other means, for the purpose of exploiting them." (From: UNODC). This is clearly not the case with most sex workers.

In Germany, prostitution is legal. Human trafficking is not. This article mixed up both.

Again in Germany, you need a work permit to work. If your nationality requires a work permit to work in Germany and you get caught working in prostitution, you will be arrested for working without a work permit. The same would apply for Burmese workers in Thailand.

And yes, the sex workers have a choice. Many factories in Thailand complain that it is difficult to find workers.

People always have choices. But, a lot of ladies choose the sex trade because it offers more income than the other factory, hotel or office alternatives. This seems to be true in many countries. But, in Asia, daughters are expected to contribute to the family wealth. I've seen this in Thailand, China and the Philippines where families are quite happy for their daughters to work in some form of 'adult entertainment", and are happy to receive the income. A lot of the girls are on the look out for a husband. Many have several boyfriends on the go, all sending them money each month, whilst they still ply their trade, until finally marrying one. I have seen many examples of this in the UK - but, for whatever reason the marriages seem to work. There has also been cases of trafficked girls being rescued by the police in the UK. These girls were brought into the UK under false promises of work and then forced into prostitution. A lot of this was girls from Eastern Europe falling prey to organised criminal gangs. I remember one case from the East of the UK involving girls from Asia,

[sfbandung]

Regulation is the answer. From regulation comes protection. And as several people have pointed out, why would a pretty girl work in a factory for 10 hours a day for 200bt, when she can earn many times that for a few hours "work" a week? As long as they are protected from exploitative bar owners and violent Johns, then where is the problem?

[BlackArtemis]

I have no interest in the scene, but it should be legalized. A system that tests the girls on a regular basis and taxes the industry. I don't know if having set places for it would work or not, I feel bad for the families who have to walk by some brothels to get to the night market in Chiang Mai, but I care more about the fact that girls who are known to have HIV continue to work in some places.

[onthemoon]

SOME sex workers don't want to be rescued. I'm sure there are tens of thousands out there that are being exploited / extorted / forced and would love to be rescued.

I am sure that there are some sex workers that are forced to work in the trade. Like in every country. I doubt that they are in the majority. I believe Empower in this case.

Of course, pimping and any kind of forced labour should continue to be outlawed.

[moe666]

For many Thai ladies because of education, training and family pressure working in the sex trade is the only option. But to assume that they are all making 30,000baht a month is a bit over the top. Due to appearance, personality, and drive many of the woman in the bars working the sex trade only make what ever the bar pays them for a monthly salary. Not all of the woman are 18 to 20 something young girls but woman in their 30s and 40s supporting elderly parents or a child attending school.

[onthemoon]

And yes, the sex workers have a choice. Many factories in Thailand complain that it is difficult to find workers.

Factories aren't paying 30,000 baht a month though, are they? The sex workers made a choice, they chose to work in a higher paying profession. I don't see how you can begrudge anyone that.

That's what I said.

[Gillespie]

You see that, you bloated, pink-faced former insurance salesman from Basingstoke, your flabby arse perched on a Nana bar stool? You're not really a pitiful, deluded failure, desperately trying to resuscitate your youth with a cocktail of Singha, ersatz Viagra and your meagre pension! You're performing a social service! I'd pat you on the back, but I left my hand sanitizer at home.

[kerryk]

SOME sex workers don't want to be rescued. I'm sure there are tens of thousands out there that are being exploited / extorted / forced and would love to be rescued.

Why are you sure? All that I see or read about is the opposite.