- Title: VARIOUS: Poverty and lack of laws make Southeast Asia a haven for paedophiles
- Date: 17th August 2008
- Summary: BOY SELLING ROSE TO TOURIST BOY CARRYING ROSE LOOKING AT TOURISTS BOY AND GIRL CARRYING ROSES TO SELL FOR TOURISTS
- Embargoed: 1st September 2008 13:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: Social Services / Welfare
- Reuters ID: LVACYR6Y8NM1JBPM7R0242PZ2Q0Q
- Story Text: The arrest of high profile-figures like British rock star Gary Glitter has shed light on paedophiles in Southeast Asia but the region remains a haven for them due to poverty and a lack of laws to protect children.
In November 2005 British rock star Gary Glitter was jailed in Vietnam for having sex with two 11-year-old girls.
Glitter, who was previously kicked out of Cambodia on paedophile allegations, is due to be released from a Vietnamese prison in mid-August after serving a nearly three-year sentence.
The arrest of the high profile-figures like Glitter draw attention to the exploitation of children, in Southeast Asia.
But, poverty, corruption and a lack of laws to protect minors make the region a popular destination for paedophiles.
Due to the nature of the child-sex trade, there are no clear figures of how many children are involved. But hundreds are believed to work in the red-light districts. They can be seen selling sweets, flowers and souvenirs to tourists and many of them end up selling sex.
Many arrested of paedophiles were made in Southeast Asia. Numbers of kids were rescued and sent to rehabilitation to be witness for the cases as well as to be protected to restart their childhood. Some were sent back home.
Even when abused children did cooperate, suspects were often freed on bail and would pay the children not to show up or declined to be identified.
Suspects also sneak through the legal loopholes where cash bribes can drop the charges or change the witnesses' stories.
"Unfortunately, a lot time people who are corrupted do get away with this and i think it goes back to your earlier question that sometime there is a feeling that in Southeast Asia you can get away with such crime that you can actually sexually abuse and exploit children and get away with it," said Amalee McCoy, a child protection specialist at UNICEF in Thailand.
Thailand's beach town of Pattaya is one of a popular town for child sex abusers, it is also renowned for its sex industry, even the government's Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) had once boasted about the town's exotic erotic shows.
Many of the homeless children are still seen wandering the streets of Pattaya begging for money from tourists and end up sleeping with them. Some underage boys also work at gay bars even though it's against the law.
Mek, 18, a former male prostitute for almost a decade, received 1,000 baht ($30 U.S. dollars) each time for sleeping with foreigners. He quit the sex industry and now works as a waiter earning $120 U.S. dollars a month.
"I went out with westerners. I, sometimes, had to masturbate for them. When they gave me money, I just went to buy glue for sniffing and played game," said Mek who was rehabilitated in a government boys home after leaving the sordid industry.
But there has been a steep jump in the number of sex tourists and child prostitutes in Thailand.
Pattaya is believed to have more than 200 paedophiles acting as tourists and protected by sex crime networks which will arrange children to be delivered to their luxury hotels or private houses.
"The most watched area is Pattaya. The group has taken children from Pattaya to exploit in other provinces and then they will use this tactic to avoid getting arrested. This is worrying us. It seems like the paedophiles are expanding their network to neighbouring provinces," said Supagon Noja, Director of Child Protection and Development Centre.
Poverty and family problems have driven children as young as six to work in the sex industry. Some of them have been sexually abused by their family members and some were forced to sell their bodies to foreigners.
Kids who became addicted to drugs and computer games were easily lured into prostitution. The UNICEF survey indicate that 30 to 35 percent of all sex workers in Southeast Asia are aged between 12 and 17 years and girls as young as 13 are trafficked as "mail-order brides." - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: Footage contains identifiable children: users must ensure that they comply with local laws and regulations governing the publishing of this material.