When the Thai government ordered the closure of entertainment venues in the country in March, it didn’t just signal an end to pulsating music and rounds of drinks shared with friends. It also signalled the start of difficult times for an estimated 145 000 sex workers living in Thailand.

Initially, Service Workers in Groups (SWING), a Thai national organization providing HIV services and advocating for sex workers’ rights, received requests from sex workers for the most basic of needs—food. As requests began flooding in, it became clear that without a source of income many sex workers were unable to cover the cost of daily expenses, housing and medicine.

“When the COVID-19 outbreak began, nobody was talking about sex workers, and no measures were in place to help them,” said Surang Janyam, Director of SWING.

Spurred by growing concerns about how the outbreak has impacted the lives of sex workers, SWING, in collaboration with Planned Parenthood Association Thailand and Dannok Health and Development Community Volunteers, with support from UNAIDS, launched a community-led rapid assessment of 255 sex workers from Bangkok, Pattaya and Dannok and community-based organizations throughout the country.

The outbreak has had a severe socioeconomic impact on the lives of sex workers, further exacerbated by the lack of social protection measures. According to the findings from the rapid assessment, 91% of respondents became unemployed or lost their source of income following the start of the COVID-19 outbreak. Three quarters of the respondents could not make enough money to cover daily expenses and 66% could no longer cover the cost of housing. Read more via UNAIDS