When Sydney massage parlours reopen, unlicensed sex workers will have an income for the first time in months
- The 11-week closure of massage parlours ordered to limit the spread of coronavirus has been hard on the women who staff them, since they are not paid a salary
- Advocacy groups and researchers point out ways the women, many of them Asian migrants, are exploited in an industry rife with unlicensed operators
When the sun sets in Sydney on June 13, the bright lights of Pitt Street in the central business district will shine for the first time since the city was locked down in March.
Signs advertising “massage” will light up as a short-time hotel and several massage parlours reopen for business under the Australian government’s three-step policy for easing coronavirus restrictions.
It’s been a long few months Down Under. Jules Kim, 45, a Korean-born sex worker and chief executive of Scarlet Alliance, a sex worker advocacy organisation, points out that some sex workers in Australia are not eligible for the federal government’s pandemic salary subsidies, so many have had no income for months.
“Lot of migrants who have been contributing to the community and the workforce are ineligible for support,” she adds.
We’ve never met a woman in the sex industry with a contract – it is very much a ‘cash-in-hand’ environment
In an industry literally reliant on the personal touch, and whose offerings often run to sexual services, massage parlours can be hotbeds of viral infection, respiratory illness and sexually transmitted disease.
To limit the spread of the coronavirus, the New South Wales state government ordered certain types of business, including massage parlours, to close from midnight on March 25.
