“I would love to see the sex industry closed and ended in Thailand,” said Annie Dieselberg, CEO of NightLight International, a Christian non-profit group that helps women in the Thai sex trade find alternative work. “But it does bring in a lot of money so the government has to consider what alternatives it can offer the women. There has to be a way for them to make money and right now, the minimum wage is not enough for a single mother to take care of her family.”

Dieselberg is confident however, that as long as there is sex tourism, there will be human trafficking. “We work with a lot of international victims of human trafficking in Thailand… when the industry is this visible and in your face, when it becomes normalised and socialised, then trafficking becomes more prevalent and it becomes easier for it to coexist beside the industry,” she said.

Earlier this year the United States removed Thailand from its list of worst human trafficking offenders. However, its report also stated that “sex trafficking remains a significant problem in Thailand’s extensive commercial sex industry.”

According to Liz Hilton at Empower, a Thai organisation that advocates on behalf of sex workers, the heavy-handed police crackdown is increasing human rights violations rather than eliminating them. “The key human rights abuse comes from police entrapment,” she said. The Royal Thai police declined an opportunity to comment on the raids.

Rather than remove the sex industry, Empower hopes to enhance its standing among Thai society. Last week, they officially opened a sex work museum, ‘This Is Us’, in the Nonthaburi district of Bangkok. The museum celebrates Thailand's long history of sex work, detailing the first recorded brothel in 1680 to the more recognisable karaoke bars introduced in the 1980s. Other displays include a Thai boxing ring, dancing pole and dozens of papier-mâché dolls that represent the migrant sex workers who have travelled to Thailand from neighbouring countries.

For over 30 years, Empower has been campaigning for the removal of all laws specific to prostitution in Thailand. They say that by decriminalising the industry, sex workers will have access to the same labour laws enjoyed by other professions, reducing exploitation at the hands of their employers.

A growing list of major international agencies are validating the sex workers' calls for decriminalisation – this includes the World Health Organisation, UNAIDS, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

But Hilton recognises that this ambition might be unattainable under the current regime. “In terms of getting to decriminalisation – we are a long way off, we are no where near it, so what we have to focus on now is how the 300,000 women who are currently putting their faces on and going to work, how are they going to live and work here safely… the most urgent thing we need to do is get the police out.”

One of Empower’s latest projects is the 'High Heeled Defenders’ booklet, which informs sex workers of their legal rights (a very short segment, according to Liz) and advises them what to say if arrested by the police. But for now, it is business as usual at Susie Wong’s and her customers are not worried about the future of their vocation.

“The industry is never going to disappear,” said a British teacher, as his friend received a lap dance on the bench beside him. “If it can’t be here, then it will just go somewhere else nearby, maybe Cambodia or Laos.”