Sex Trafficking in Asia

Human Trafficking In Asia

By: Rowan Schwartz

The definition of human trafficking is as followed; “The action or practice of illegally transporting people from one country or area to another, typically for the purposes of forced labour or commercial sexual exploitation.” (Dictionary.com). The human trafficking trade is one of the most horrific and frightening aspects of life for children and women in Asia. For example, it is estimated that that around 30,000 children are prostitutes in Cambodia, (CNN). The human slave trade holds around 40.3 million people captive according to the Global Slavery Index. It is estimated that around ⅔ of those people are from Asia. This problem affects all people; men, women, and children. Thailand, Cambodia, India, China, Pakistan, Indonesia, and Bangladesh are some of the most affected countries, due to human trafficking, in the world.

Cambodia is one of the most dangerous places to be a woman or girl in Asia. When a family in Cambodia is falling short on money or food or shelter, they send their daughters to find a job. The girls usually can't find anywhere else to go, until they find the sex trade. The girls that are forced to work in the sex trade have been as young as four to eighteen in Cambodia, (CNN). The mother or father of the girl is usually the one who is managing the sold sex. It is true that girls and young women have been kidnapped or captured and sold into the trade, but that's not the norm in Cambodia. The mothers that have been caught in the act of managing their daughters “jobs”, have blamed lack of money, food, shelter, and other necessities, for selling their young daughter’s sex. For example, CNN went to Phnom Penh in Cambodia back in 2013. There, they found a girl named Kieu. Kieu was 12 when she got her first “job”, where she would lose her virginity. She was taken to a hotel and raped by a man repeatedly for two days. When she returned, her mother sold her to a brothel for three days and 3 nights. There, she was raped by 3 to 6 men a day. Her mother, Neoung, had managed each and every sale of her daughter's body. After returning home from her second gig, Kieu was sold 2 more times, but when she learned of her mother's plan to sell her another time for 6 months, she ran away. When CNN interviewed Neoung, she stated that, "It was because of the debt, that's why I had to sell her. I don't know what to do now, because we cannot move back to the past." She also said that, “Selling my daughter was heartbreaking, but what can I say?” She blamed her poverty and lack of essentials as the things that drove her to sell her 12 year old's body to the child traffickers preying on young Cambodian children.

The sex trade in Thailand is also thriving. One in five women in larger cities in Thailand have worked or are currently working in the sex industry, (Daily Record). Thailand is one of the largest destinations for the sex trade in the world. Women, go-go girls, children, and ladyboys, have sold sex in major towns or cities in Thailand for a very long time. In Thailand, you will literally see women on the street with signs for sex, and there are bars and clubs that are famous sexual destinations. Local people, foreign and local men, expats, you name it, come into these bars or clubs frequently as sex tourists. The girls working in sex trade are employed for three common reasons. They either need the money and have no other source of income, were kidnapped or captured from their villages or coming from a foreign country into Thailand, or their parents force them into selling sex to gain extra money for the family. These are the most common sources of sex trafficking in Thailand. These women's pimps will watch them around the clock when they are working on “getting a job”, so none of them could escape. Even if the women did end up fleeing, they would be in life threatening danger for crossing the pimps, and could lose everything. Both ways, it’s a lose lose situation, and they work long and sketchy hours for next to nothing.

Prostitution has been outlawed in Thailand since 1960. But a survey in 2016 concludes that there are more than 120,000 documented sex workers, with thousands more going unnoticed. The Thai police are accused more often than not for turning a blind eye when they see illegal sexual activity. For example, a city in Thailand called Pattaya has more than 1,000 documented bars and massage destinations, many of which are home to illegal sex work. Now think, if there are more than 1,000 of these places, then why hasn't there been anybody who checks out the buildings? Why aren't there policemen who have helped the girls that most everyone living in the city knows are trapped inside selling sex? Why isn't there any help or solace for these women, and why is there barely anybody doing anything to stop illegal sex activity in the name of the law?

In Bangkok, in June of 2016, police shut down a massage parlor that was trafficking sex workers. They arrested more than 100 workers employed, and 15 of them were underage. These workers were offered no help or support, they were just arrested. How is incarceration going to help these sex workers in the long run? They will have even less than they did when they get out of jail then when they went in. Chances are, they will work even harder in the sex trade afterwards, because that's where the easy money is. The pimps also are almost never caught. But, there is hope. On July 19, Bangkok's Criminal Court Division for Human Trafficking convicted 62 people. All were sex traffickers. A newspaper called ‘The Atlantic’ wrote an article that stated, “Also included in the list of convicted criminals are former local politicians Patchuban Angchotipan (“Ko-Tong”) and Bannakong Pongphol, who were sentenced to 75 years and 78 years, respectively.” They also wrote that overall 62 out of 103 defendants were convicted for charges that included human trafficking, murder, abuse, kidnapping, and illegal firearms. Every single one of the defendants pleaded not guilty in this case. Sunai Phasuk,  who researches for The Human Rights Watch said that some of the people convicted were eligible of the death penalty. “The fact that there are very senior officials charged with this crime will help deter criminals in trafficking networks in the future,” he stated. This was an completely unpredicted achievement for Thailand, but unfortunately, only a scratch on the surface.

The last example of human sex trafficking in Asia is Indonesia. Indonesia’s government has promised the people that by 2019 they will have shut down all red light districts. But the war against sex trade is far from won. Prostitution in Indonesia is illegal, but, like many places in Asia, the law does not stop the sex industry from thriving. Indonesia’s sex workers are positioned mostly in the country's capital, Jakarta. Jakarta serves as a home to more than 11,860 female sex workers, according to a 2014 survey from three Jakarta AIDS Commissions. You can only imagine how much that number has spiked in the three years not tallied. Out of these women, an estimated 3,435 of them sell their bodies in the central districts of the capital, Jakarta. These statistics do not count males, transgender people, or ladyboys, so the actual sex worker number is realistically much, much higher. In the large cities in Indonesia, when passing a shadowy street or a street in a red lighting area, women hold up signs for sexual bars, or are just simply in lingerie, out and about, trying to lure in customers. Their pimps are usually keeping a close eye on the girls or have someone else to do so, to make sure they can't escape. But the girls barely ever try to, too afraid of the consequences, or have no place else to go. The “Anjelo ” are also a common sight on these shadowed streets. The “Anjelo” are the motorcycle drivers meant to ship the girls around to new street curbs, or to the brothels or hotels where the sex exchanges happen. Pichayada Promchertchoo, a channel news Asia reporter, said in less than an hour driving and roaming the streets in central Jakarta, 6 women had offered their services. Indonesia is predominantly a Muslim country, so it strikes many as odd that so many people work in the sex industry. Even so, commercial sex is booming in places like Jakarta and Surabaya.

The sex trade in Asia and Southeast Asia specifically is a horrific cycle that has shown no signs of stopping. Sold sex has been happening since the beginning of time. Brothels have been open even in the Roman ages, they are a part of culture old and modern. My belief is that we should legalize sold sex worldwide. This way, it wouldn’t be an illegal business, we could tax off of it, the workers would be protected by the law, and it would be a much safer situation. If we made sold sex legal, the law could actually bring justice to the men that rape the women or beat them. It could give the women a higher salary, it could also prevent sexually transmitted diseases and unplanned children by making sure that safe sex is the law. We could tax off of it and use that funding for so many things worldwide; education, poverty, or hunger. People might not like the idea of making sold sex legal, but the amount of people being hurt or kidnapped or thrust into awful situations will just keep growing if we don’t put some parameters around it. Just because something is illegal, doesn’t mean that it won’t happen. We’ve seen this with drugs, guns, discrimination, and so many other problems. Sold sex is already out of hand, laws to legalize and protect workers could help girls being torn out of their villages in rural Asia, could stop women from getting pregnant at 14 because the man who was paying her didn’t want to use protection, and it could help the 40.3 million people involved in sex trade all over the world. No person should ever have to find themselves in a position where they are forced to sell sex. Asian prostitution is a dangerous form of work, but the people who do find themselves selling sex deserve equality and granted safety from their government.

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Baynes, Chris. “27,000 Prostitutes in Pattaya's Red Light Area Could See Roaring Trade Wiped Out.” Dailyrecord, 16 Feb. 2017, www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/sex-sells-worlds-sleaziest-city-9835405.

Promchertchoo, Pichayada. “Indonesia's Sex Trade 'Impossible' to Shut Down.” Channel NewsAsia, 14 Mar. 2017, www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/indonesia-s-sex-trade--impossible--to-shut-down-8009820.