1. COVID-19 and the shifting organisation of sex work markets in Singapore.
- Author
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Tan RKJ, Ho V, Sherqueshaa S, Dee W, Lim JM, Lo JJ, Teo AKJ, O'Hara CA, Ong C, Ching AH, West BS, and Wong ML
- Subjects
- Humans, Pandemics, Singapore epidemiology, Communicable Disease Control, Sex Work, COVID-19 epidemiology
- Abstract
While past studies have sought to capture how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted on the health and sexual lives of sex workers internationally, less attention has been paid to the reorganisation of sex markets as a result of COVID-19. We conducted a sequential exploratory mixed methods study using in-depth interviews, cyber ethnography and surveyor-administered structured surveys among sex workers. We report two key findings on how the pandemic has impacted sex markets in Singapore. First, the organisation of sex markets shifted as a result of lockdown and associated movement control measures. This shift was characterised by the out-migration of sex workers, the reduction in supply and demand for in-person sex work, and a shift towards online spaces. Second, we found that sex workers experienced greater economic hardship as a result of such changes. Given the potential shifts in sex markets as a result of the pandemic, we adopt a World Health Organisation Health Workplace Framework and Model to identify interventions to improve the occupational safety and health of sex workers in a post-COVID-19 era.
- Published
- 2022
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