Like many of us, sex workers have been impacted on by the coronavirus pandemic, and many have had to adapt to survive. A volunteer helping sex workers in south Wales communities has lifted the lid on the hidden industry and how much like everything else it has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. But doing so has left many of them even more at risk than they might usually be.
They have had to put fears of catching the deadly virus aside to put food on the table for their families or themselves. But now the women who worked there have either been forced to turn to benefits to get them through the current crisis, while some have been seen selling themselves on the streets of Swansea just to stay in work.
Many have travelled from across Britain to ply their trade in the brothels, from as far afield as London, safe in the knowledge that their families will be none the wiser as to the nature of their work. They get more if they have families," said the volunteer who works for a south Wales organisation, but does not want her or the organisation named. She revealed there were brothels operating in the most unexpected locations and that even the smallest towns in south Wales were home to sex workers.
Many have been set up due to the good transport links in the area and also as the towns are so close to the M4. They work away from home and say they are working away. We keep an eye out for the younger looking girls. She said she was not aware of any brothels or parlours in Llanelli, but the girls there worked in Swansea and Briton Ferry. She said High Street in Swansea was the only place she had managed to find sex workers on the street.
The type of clients who chose to venture behind brothel doors were not always who you might expect, she added. She said it was married men generally, but she had even come across people who worked in the church. Some venues were 'high class', she said, but the sex workers often had to contend with the worst areas to spend their breaks. I have never heard names, only occupations. Another in Swansea was much better, but, "where the girls hang out is not nice, all the money is put into the rooms where they work.
