Realstars has since several years worked to counteract sexual exploitation in Thai massage salons. As early as 2019 we wrote in a debate article, demanding a retake, but sadly the situation today is not looking any better. In pace with Thai massage salons in Sweden increasing in numbers, more and more Thai woman are falling victims to trafficking or are forced into prostitution because of the great demand on buying sex. Others are forced to figure out ways to keep the sex-buying men away from the salons.
Now Realstars have finally after the limitations due to the pandemic, started to go out and meet the woman that we earlier only have spoken to on the phone. We get confirmation all the time that our work in Växtkraft Thai, a project financed by Allmänna Arvsfonden, is incredibly important. At the same time, the visits as well as the emotions are mixed, just like the vulnerability. The first salon we visited has closed again, the reason being that the owner no longer managed to work in an industry where she often was exposed to men asking about buying sex, also the business has been doing worse during the pandemic.
Process manager Lovisa visits Bangkok Thaimassage
In most of the other salons the woman get noticeably uncomfortable when we ask if they are met by men asking about buying sex, or if they are exposed to groping and the likes. In one salon, a woman was dressed in a way that many sex-buying men request. When we show and share our marking “we don’t welcome sex purchase” and tell them there is help they can get and that we offer support, the woman got teary-eyed. At the same time, she expressed that they don’t need help and that they don’t have any of these problems. But our gut feeling tells us otherwise. In another salon a young woman opens the door, she gets uncomfortable and says she has a client and wants us to leave. Even here there are indicators that gives us the impression that the woman is in prostitution.
Other salons we visited took a clear stand against sex-buyers and have been forced to come up with their own methods to keep the men away.
Patcharee and her colleague at PK Thaimassage with our branding “we don’t welcome sex purchase”
“We need someone to give us support and who talks about the problem, how can we otherwise get out of the exposure?”
One salon says that they had a hard time some years ago, that men “came in and asked for “extra favor’s” undressed in the salon or groped” the female masseurs. But by using Realstars marker “we don’t welcome sex purchase”, having an open and fresh salon and to clearly mark against sex-buyers, the demand has decreased. Despite this, the salon says that these men still show up. Sex-buyers are men of all ages and of different backgrounds, professions and training but with one thing in common: they are willing to pay to commit a sexual offence. She also says that the most vulnerable masseurs, the young Thai woman, are the hardest to reach and to help get out of the situation. She hopes that Realstars can help them as our work has helped her salon and that we together can reduce the exploitation.
This fall we at Realstars continue our work to raise the status of Thai massage salons and to eliminate the widespread and worrying sexual exploitation that has spread in Sweden recently. A massage should be just a massage.
