By Sharon Treasure Aaron November 5, 2023
New York, NY
Sex workers in New York City increase as the Venezuelan population grows the Queens Red Light District, and Brooklyn women follow suit. According to the New York Times in the first months of 2023 the Venezuelan migrant population has grown in New York City to a staggering 500,000 adults that have relocated to NY. Of these 500,000 migrants many of the females have turned to illegal sex work. The surge in sex workers has raised concerns of local residents who are witnessing the change of their neighborhood and worry about the side effects such as the potential for sex trafficking and the transmission of diseases. Roosevelt Ave now known as the “Avenue of Sweethearts” has had no issues with their population increasing. In sight, the population are not really residents but sex workers working in local “massage parlors”. These parlors have garnered the attention of NYC Mayor Eric Adams. In a recent press interview at Gracie Mansion, Mayor Adams was asked if there was truth to an association between the increasing number of Venezuelan women migrating into the city and the sudden spike in prostitution and John arrests. The mayor confirmed that “his administration intel has identified that there is a level of accuracy”. He also mentioned that there has been a similar increase in East New York Brooklyn. Both locations have grown since the height of the pandemic and the escalated numbers of new asylum seekers. In Brooklyn on Alabama and Georgia Avenues women can be seen scantily dressed on a Sunday morning at 10am soliciting cars driving by for a session. Driving through on a Sunday “Diamond” approaches cars and negotiates prices. “I would talk but I don’t have the time unless you have something for my time” she declared. As she continued to work her route Emilio Fernandez a local delivery driver was closing out his shift and cursed “They are making it hard to get back to the yard because ----- traffic, this has nothing to do with me”. And similar feelings can be reflected from residents of Jackson Heights Queens. Reportedly children are maneuvering through the crowded sidewalks of daytime sex workers soliciting in front of their establishments fronting as massage parlors. Mayor Adams has convened a task force to address both the issues in Jackson Heights and East New York. This task force is set to focus on the John’s who patronize the services of the sex workers as versus the migrants in Roosevelt Field and women of East New York. This task force has not yet identified how it will manage the American women working in East New York if primarily their resources are directed toward the migrant women. Time will only tell how the Adams administration handles both groups of women and simultaneously provide additional services to asylum seekers.
Comments