Massage parlors are a tricky business even when prostitution is legal - New York Post

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They came to Australia to make money in massage parlors, but have ended up using their hands for “extras” for $15 and offering the “full service” for $120.

Thai massage parlors, offering more than a chance to get the knots out of your back, are being targeted — and the crackdown is proving detrimental to the people working there.

The workers at illegal massage parlors are especially at risk because they are rarely given condoms — afraid they’ll be used by private investigators as “proof” of a “full service.”

Private investigators, tasked with getting “services” from non-compliant sex workers, generally use condoms as “evidence.”

The sex industry is particularly confusing in Australia because the law changes from state to state. While it is not illegal to pay for sex anywhere in Australia, each state regulates it differently. For example, in New South Wales street walking is legal in regulated zones, but it is illegal in every other state. Similarly, brothels are illegal in the Northern Territory but are regulated in many other parts of the country.

Because of the varied laws, crackdowns on illegal brothels and massage parlors is an inherently sticky business.

‘It’s OK, it’s for money’


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The hidden sex culture of Australia’s Thai massage industry isn’t always something the workers immediately embrace.

A report by SBS Radio Thai, set to air on Viceland’s The Feed, found that a number of Thai women fall into the “extra service” side of massage after being enticed by the extra money.

“I came to Australia to expand my opportunities in life. I want to save more money here in order to set up a business back in Thailand,” Joy, a 30-year-old Thai masseuse, told SBS.

Joy, whose name has been changed to hide her identity, started out as a legitimate masseuse but found the temptation for extra money was too strong. She can now make up to $1,300 cash a week, for five days of work.

“The first time I offered to use my hands, I was scared and panicked because I had never done it before. I asked myself ‘why do I have to do this?’ But at the same time, I told myself, ‘it’s OK, for money, for money,’” she told the program.

Joy, who offers to use her hands for “extras” for as little as $15, said “full service” generally costs $120 but it’s up to the worker to negotiate the price.

She also said most people do the job “of their own free will” but not out of want. They do it for the money.

Bare-back parlors


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Thai massage parlors are increasingly offering a “bare-back” service, which are sexual acts performed without a condom.

Countless websites advertise exactly where customers can get this service in Australia. The websites even list reviews of the women who work there.

“She wanted to give a [BJ] with a condom but no way to do that,” one reads.

“She gave a really good bare-back [BJ],” another says.

But it’s not just the customers encouraging it — the websites even advertise bare-back services.

“As a leading brothel, we concern your experience here, so some new services are available now, including girlfriend experience, cover [BJ] (CBJ) and bareback [BJ] (BBBJ),” one website reads.

And sometimes, even when the workers say no to bareback, clients continue without consent.

“She offered to have full sex and the client secretly took off the condom. She cried and didn’t know what to do. The client didn’t care about her at all,” Joy told SBS in regards to a friend she knows that has been abused.

‘A lack of will’


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As local councils and police within each state announce “crackdown” plans on Australia’s sex industry, they’re having to become increasingly crafty in their methods.

“Rub and tug parlors,” as those in the sex industry call them, have a notorious pop-up reputation, meaning no matter how many times the police close them down, they’ll just keep popping up.

In an interview with The Gold Coast Bulletin last month, a senior police officer said the crackdown on massage parlors hadn’t happened “probably because of lack of will.”

The Gold Coast, the center of the state of Queensland’s party and night-life scene, has one of the highest numbers of illegal massage parlors in Australia.

One of the last big citywide raids on the illegal sex trade was in 2014 when police raided 50 shops suspected of fronting as therapeutic Asian massage parlors.

Cameron Cox, the CEO of Australia’s Sex Workers Outreach Project (SWOP), told News.com.au the issue isn’t as simple as vilifying the illegal parlors.

“It’s particularly difficult because if you walk into council saying, ‘I want to open a brothel,’ they know you’re going to spend months and a fortune in land and environment court.”

“So now, council instead tell you, ‘It’ll be knocked back, so apply to be a massage parlor instead.’ Then an old lady or someone finds out and complains and then the same council worker that was giving you that unofficial tip is turning up on your doorstep to close you down,” he said.

And while it’s often difficult to prove whether or not sex is happening at the venue, it is easy to check visas — which many workers are in violation of.

Lachlan Jarvis, the head of Lynswood Private Investigators, a firm employed by various councils to bust brothels in the state of New South Wales, told News.com.au there’s always more than one illegal thing happening in non-compliant brothels.

“More than 99 percent of the time councils or law firms ask us to investigate, we always find some other form of improper action going on at the brothel in question. We’ve seen illegal dumping or improper use of firearms or even sex trafficking and workers living in slave-like conditions,” Jarvis said.

Lynswood has been in the business of brothel busting for almost 15 years, and while Jarvis doesn’t engage in the busting himself, his firm looks into everything from venues set up without council approval to completely legal ones that might be staying open past approved operating hours.

Jarvis said they see the work as “entirely reasonable and necessary” and if brothels “weren’t doing anything wrong, we wouldn’t have to do it.”

Senior Sergeant Richard Farrelly, who works with Victoria Police’s Sex Industry Coordination Unit, said the police force see similar issues in non-compliant brothels.

“We get reports to us of physical and sexual assaults, sexually transmitted infections. Our main concern is that there are a lot of vulnerable people that work in the massage industry,” Farrelly said.

Workers operating on restrictive visas also means they’re less willing to approach police when something goes wrong — a sentiment Jules Cox, the CEO of Australia’s peak sex worker association Scarlett Alliance, agrees with.

“Police definitely aren’t the most appropriate people to be regulating the sex industry. The crackdown isn’t good and cops heavy-handedness hasn’t helped,” she told News.com.au.

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