Photojournalism: Thailand's Sex Workers: SW-ASJ11

{quote}M{quote}(yellow bra) dances at her bar in a red light district in Pattaya , Thailand M., 37, used to work in an office, but she earned more as a topless dancer in one of Pattaya's go-go bars, and by taking on sex work. Before the pandemic she was saving money to buy more farmland for her family and dreaming of her own rubber tree plantation. Now, she says, {quote}It's all upside down. Covid.{quote} She wired 3,000 baht ($100) she earned in the previous two weeks back to her mother and son, leaving her with 100 baht ($3.30), relying on the hope of making some money that night. If it went on like this, she would have to move back to the province and help her mother tend their small plot of rubber trees.With entry into Thailand still restricted, and relatively few tourists able to enter, a good living has turned into a bad one for the country's sex workers.

"M"(yellow bra) dances at her bar in a red light district in Pattaya , Thailand

M., 37, used to work in an office, but she earned more as a topless dancer in one of Pattaya's go-go bars, and by taking on sex work. Before the pandemic she was saving money to buy more farmland for her family and dreaming of her own rubber tree plantation. Now, she says, "It's all upside down. Covid." She wired 3,000 baht ($100) she earned in the previous two weeks back to her mother and son, leaving her with 100 baht ($3.30), relying on the hope of making some money that night. If it went on like this, she would have to move back to the province and help her mother tend their small plot of rubber trees.

With entry into Thailand still restricted, and relatively few tourists able to enter, a good living has turned into a bad one for the country's sex workers.