Flushing Sex Workers Decry City Crackdowns On Massage Parlors

FLUSHING, QUEENS — Flushing massage parlor workers will counter city officials' seminar Friday on combating sex trafficking with their own teaching opportunity right outside.

Grassroots group Red Canary Song 红莺歌 will hold a "teach-in" Friday evening outside the Flushing Public Library, where officials and the NYPD will host a seminar to educate locals on sex trafficking and services available to victims.

The coalition of immigrants, sex workers and their allies — formed in response to the 2017 death of massage parlor worker Yang Song — is pushing back on the city's use of policing to address prostitution in Flushing.

"The Mayor’s Office says they’re holding their event 'so community knows what trafficking is and how they can refer people,' but when policing is at the forefront of outreach, this will mean more arrest, more incarceration, more immigration court proceedings and less access to advocacy services and support," Red Canary Song 红莺歌 said in a statement.

City Council Member Peter Koo, who represents Flushing, is partnering with the NYPD and Mayor's Office to End Domestic and Gender-Based Violence to host the March 29 seminar on recognizing and addressing human trafficking. The Queens Family Justice Center, Garden of Hope, Chinese Christian Herald Crusades, Korean American Family Service Center and Samaritans NYC are co-hosting that seminar.

Koo has recently worked with the NYPD to crack down on sex work along 40th Road in downtown Flushing, a tiny block where massage parlors are fronts for prostitution. It is also where Song, the massage parlor worker, died in 2017.

Law enforcement shut down some of the 40th Road massage parlors, Koo said earlier this month. He said has also pressured local landlords to evict tenants engaging in illegal activity.

Members of Red Canary Song 红莺歌 say this emphasis on enforcement is harmful and doesn't address the needs and grievances of immigrant massage workers.

"The NYPD’s raids and workplace shutdowns are destroying families, criminalizing survivors, deporting hard working people and terrorizing communities," Elle, a migrant massage worker based in Flushing, said.