A shutdown to contain the corona virus has killed Thailand's party scene.
Bangkok, Thailand:
A shutdown to curb the corona virus has killed Thailand's party scene and forced sex workers like Pim out of bars onto deserted streets. She is afraid, but urgently needs customers to pay her rent.
Red-light districts from Bangkok to Pattaya have calmed down, nightclubs and massage parlors have been closed, and tourists have been prevented from entering the country.
This has put an estimated 300,000 sex workers out of work and forced some to take to the streets, where the risks from the pandemic are exacerbated.
"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 in Bangkok where bawdy was previously neon-lit bars and brothels have gone dark.
Since Friday, Thais have been curfew from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. Bars and restaurants are closed a few days beforehand.
Many of Bangkok's sex workers had jobs in the relative security of bars, worked for tips, and were ready to go home with customers.
When their jobs suddenly closed, most of them returned home to wait for the crisis.
Others like Pim took to the streets.
The government says it is ready to impose a 24-hour curfew if necessary to control a virus that has officially infected over 2,000 people and killed 20 people.
Pim pays a high price for the movement restrictions – she hasn't had a customer in 10 days and the bills pile up.
Her friend Alice, another transgender sex worker, was also forced to move from a go-go bar to the side of the road.
"I used to earn $ 300-600 a week sometimes," says Alice.
"But when companies closed my income, my income stopped. We do it because we're poor. If we can't pay our hotel, they'll throw us out."
– High risk –
Occasional tourists frolic near groups of sex workers before stealthily negotiating and quickly marching to a nearby hotel, one of the few remaining open at Bangkok's main tourist attraction.
The already high risks of sex work have skyrocketed with the spread of the virus.
Sex workers have returned to the country's homes in anticipation of several weeks of virtual closure before Thailand's nightlife comes back to life.
There are concerns that malaise could persist for months, tearing billions of tourist dollars out of business and leaving those who work in the informal sector penniless.
These include sex workers – an illegal but widely accepted part of Thai nightlife.
There are concerns that an emergency program by the Thai government to provide millions of unemployed with 5,000 baht ($ 150) over the next three months will exclude sex workers because they have no formal employment.
The Empower Foundation, an advocacy group for the Kingdom's sex workers, says entertainment venues make around $ 6.4 billion annually, many of which sell sex in some form or another.
Women are most affected by the virus measures, it is said. Many are mothers and their family's main income and are forced to do sex work due to lack of opportunities or low salaries for college graduates.
The group has written an open letter to the government asking them "to find a way to help all workers who have lost their income".
When the curfew looms at 10 p.m., Pim and Alice prepare for a last lonely patrol for customers.
"I think the government was very slow. They don't care about people like us who work in the sex industry," said Alice.
"We are more afraid to eat nothing than the virus."
