KTD Migration and Migrants, Public Health

How are Asian and migrant workers in spas, holistic centres, massage parlours and the sex industry affected by the COVID-19 pandemic?

Author: Butterfly (Asian and Migrant Sex Workers Support Network)

Published January 2021 by Butterfly, available here.

From the Summary

When COVID-19 was first announced in January 2020, Asian workers received the brunt of discrimination and rampant racism. Asian and migrant women working in massage parlours* and the sex industry also faced increased racism and discrimination, and Asian communities are often blamed for the virus itself. Despite sex workers being experts of addressing the pandemic in its early days, they have been left out of emergency responses and government aid.

This report provides a summary of the results from the 106 participants who responded to the survey, detailing how they are affected by COVID-19 and their challenges with accessing government financial supports. Respondents are based in the Greater Toronto Area and surrounding areas.

KTD Migration and Migrants, Trafficking

Behind the Rescue: How Anti-Trafficking Investigations and Policies Harm Migrant Sex Workers

Authors: Lam, Elene

Behind the Rescue: How Anti-Trafficking Investigations and Policies Harm Migrant Sex Workers

Butterfly Asian Migrant Workers’ Support Network. April 2018.

Abstract:

Behind the Rescue: How Anti-Trafficking Investigations and Policies Harm Migrant Sex Workers details the far-reaching effects of Canadian anti-trafficking investigations and policies on migrant sex workers, their families, and their communities. This report consists of 18 stories told by migrant sex workers to Butterfly. They describe human rights violations migrant sex workers have experienced due to their encounters with Canadian law enforcement agencies.

KTD Migration and Migrants

Briefing Paper: Migrant Sex Workers

Briefing Paper: Migrant Sex Workers

Global Natwork of Sex Worker Projects. 2017.

Description:

This briefing paper explores the human rights barriers that migrant sex workers encounter as a result of their mobility and type of labour. It highlights their lack of access to services, as well as the increased precariousness and exclusion they face due to legal restrictions on cross-border
movement, employment in the sex industry and on sex work itself. This paper also places migrant sex work in the context of international labour migration, as opposed to the paradigm of human trafficking, taking regional and country-level consultations with NSWP member organisations as its starting point.

KTD Labor, Migration and Migrants

Strategic Redirection through Litigation: Forgoing the anti-trafficking framework to address labour abuses experienced by migrant sex workers

Authors: Clancey, A., & Mahon, F. (2020)

Strategic Redirection through Litigation: Forgoing the anti-trafficking framework to address labour abuses experienced by migrant sex workers

Anti-Trafficking Review, (15), 171-175. https://doi.org/10.14197/atr.2012201512.

Abstract:

Response to the ATR debate proposition ‘It is worth undermining the anti-trafficking cause in order to more directly challenge the systems producing everyday abuses within the global economy.’