Sex workers in Thailand launch petition to have prostitution decriminalised

Chiang Mai-based group that supports sex workers hopes to gather 10,000 signatures to present to parliament

The group aims to persuade lawmakers that sex workers are often the main breadwinners of their families and need legal protection

Reading Time:2 minutes

Employees waiting for customers outside a massage parlour in Pattaya. Photo: AFP

Published: 8:00am, 23 Sep 2020Updated: 11:18pm, 23 Sep 2020

Sex workers in Thailand have launched a petition calling for prostitution to be decriminalised and urging authorities to remove all penalties for selling sex.

Empower Foundation, a Chiang Mai-based group that supports sex workers, said it hoped to collect 10,000 signatures and present the petition to parliament to help persuade lawmakers to consider changing the country’s prostitution law.

“The law punishes sex workers – 80 per cent of whom are mothers and the main breadwinner for the whole family,” Mai Junta, a representative from Empower, said Tuesday. “It turns us into criminals.”

More than 1,000 people have signed the petition since it was started on Saturday.

Thailand is predominantly Buddhist and deeply conservative, but is home to an extensive sex industry, largely catering to Thai men.

Hordes of tourists also flock to the bright lights of go-go bars and massage parlours in the Thai capital Bangkok, and the country’s main tourist towns.