Sex workers and Elephants are out of work in Thailand as Corona Virus stopped Thai tourism

Bars, night clubs, massage parlours closed and tourists blocked from entering Thailand

From Bangkok to Pattaya everything is closed, forcing sex workers on street, an estimated 300,000 sex workers out of a job, pressing some onto the streets where the risks are sharpened by the Corona Virus.

They still have to pay rent and many of them have to support their family and children back home.

The Empower Foundation, an advocacy group for the Thailand sex workers, says entertainment venues make nearly 7 billion dollars a year, many of them selling sex in some form.

Women are suffering the most from the virus measures, it says. Many are mothers and their family’s main income earner, forced into sex work by lack of opportunities or low salaries.

More than 4000 elephants in Thailand are facing hunger and starvation, as there are no tourist to feed them.

They are the biggest victims of the coronavirus.

captive elephants in Thailand could be facing starvation as the global COVID-19 pandemic has all but wiped out the nation’s tourism industry — a large portion of the Asian country’s economy.

“If there is no support forthcoming to keep them safe, these elephants, some of whom are pregnant, will either starve to death or may be put on the streets to beg,” Lek Chailert, founder of the Save Elephant Foundation, told the BBC. “It’s a very bleak outlook unless some financial help is received immediately.”

The elephants in captivity in Thailand are largely maintained for tourists.

But they’re not cheap to keep. Pachyderms can eat more than 200 kilos of food a day, a tough task with no money coming in. The problem is compounded by the fact that Thailand is now in the midst of its dry season, making it harder to find food.

Read the original article at TravelTourism.news