According to Zero Hedge, Venezuela’s socialist economic crisis is forcing many women to take up sex work in neighboring Columbia to make enough money to support their families.
Gabriel Sánchez, owner of the Show Malilo night club and brothel, said that many of the women who work for him come from professional backgrounds. “We’ve got lots of teachers, some doctors, many professional women and one petroleum engineer,” he said. “All of them showed up with their degrees in hand”. At his club, they work for $25 an hour.
The crisis in Venezuela has seen hyperinflation, food shortages and poverty, forcing thousands of people to flee the country.
Dayana, a 30-year old mother of four, is one of them. She lost her job as the manager of a food-processing plant when the government seized it, then headed to Columbia in search of work. Without a work permit, she ended up working in the sex trade.
“If you had told me four years ago that I would be here, doing this, I wouldn’t have believed you”, she said.
Although many sex workers are seeking legitimacy in the eyes of the public, sometimes through organizations like Thailand’s Empower Sex Workers Foundation, one issue remains: are these prostitutes being ‘economically coerced’ into the profession or is this a voluntary vocational choice?
Evidence of involvement in prostitution is grounds for denial of a US fiancée visa in Thailand, according to US immigration attorneys Chaninat & Leeds
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