Sex workers in Thailand have launched a petition calling for prostitution to be decriminalised and urging authorities to remove all penalties for selling sex.

Empower Foundation, a group that supports sex workers, said it hoped to collect 10,000 signatures and present the petition to parliament to help persuade lawmakers to consider changing the country’s prostitution law.

A 2014 report by the UN agency fighting AIDS estimated that there were 123,530 sex workers in Thailand but advocacy groups put the figure at more than twice that number and say it includes tens of thousands of migrants from neighboring Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.

Raid on Bangkok Massage Parlor Reveals Trafficked Sex Workers

 A raid on  Massage a large Bangkok massage parlor   notorious for its ‘soapy massages’ has found underage sex workers and logbooks detailing big kickbacks to corrupt cops and officials, investigators said Wednesday.

Thailand’s police force has a reputation for graft, but it is rare for authorities to reveal so clearly how the protection rackets work.