Sex workers ignoring coronavirus risk

0

News Desk

Around 150 street workers in Bristol are feeling the effects coronavirus has had on the city.

Following Boris Johnson’s announcement that people should ‘stay at home’, there have been fewer and fewer people on the street as days have gone by. Naturally, this has had an impact on those working in the sex industry – particularly street sex workers.

For many women, this is a “last resort”, so there are still women in Bristol currently street sex working.

One25, a Bristol-based charity, specifically supporting street sex-working women, have described the women they work with as “amongst some of the most vulnerable in our city”, but also as “incredible survivors.”

The women face huge challenges, from homelessness, to addiction, to poor health. They also often experience huge levels of trauma which can be a result of childhood abuse but also from the kind of violence they encounter.

A nighttime curfew imposed by the Bolivian president to try to slow the spread of the coronavirus in the Andean country faces opposition from sex workers, who say their already precarious livelihoods are at stake.

In Koltata city in India, the novel coronavirus outbreak has taken a toll on the livelihood of nearly five lakh sex-workers in West Bengal, including those residing at Kolkata’s Sonagachi, the largest red-light district in south Asia. Ever since the outbreak made its presence felt in the state, the flow of customers has dried out.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here