-Caveat Lector-
Now, now, mustn't interfere with "the free market" ...
Thailand losing the battle against child prostitution
BANGKOK, May 20 (Kyodo) -- By: Supalak Ganjanakhundee Complaining that the
sea is dirty, the sand dark, and the sun usually on vacation elsewhere, Thai
travelers put the Bight of Bangkok beach resort Pattaya in last place for
their own holiday.
For some foreign visitors, however, Pattaya is still the place to be, despite
being -- as one Thai social worker put it -- a ''place not for tourism, but
for entertainment and commercial sex.''
Sitting on the resort's beachfront, however, is more like taking a seat in a
marketplace than relaxing beside the surf.
Sanphasit Koompraphant, director of the nongovernmental Center for the
Protection of Children's Rights, says that most beach vendors sell food and
souvenirs, there are others who carry albums filled with photos of naked
children.
The children depicted are offered for sex with tourists for as little as a
few thousand baht (less than 100 dollars), and while sex with minors is
illegal in Thailand, few tourists are ever arrested.
Brothels offering sex with minors are outdated, and outlawed, but similar
sorts of services can be bought on the beach and in restaurants, massage
parlors, nightclubs, pubs, bars, karaoke rooms and even barber shops,
Sanphasit said.
And the age of the sex workers is becoming lower as suppliers continue to
bring in workers to meet market demand, he added.
Of an estimated 90,000 prostitutes in Thailand at the end of last year,
roughly 18,000 are under 18, according to the office of the National
Commission on Women's Affairs at the Prime Minister's Office.
Organized prostitution generates 45-60 billion baht in revenue annually, an
official at the commission said, and noted the traffickers in human beings
also import and export sex workers.
Many children found in commercial sex establishments in Bangkok and Pattaya
are not Thai, but Chinese, Myanmarese, Cambodian or Laotian.
The commission on women's affairs estimates 5,500 non-Thai children are in
the Thai prostitution racket, but many believe the real number is three times
as many.
Besides the psychological damage to children, commercial sex is also
responsible for a spread of HIV among Thais. An estimated 82.1% of 111,108
HIV-positive Thais acquired the virus through sexual intercourse, the
Ministry of Public Health said, predicting the number with HIV will increase
to more than 700,000 by 2005.
Fida Shah of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) suggested the
economic crisis in Thailand has pushed more children into commercial sex
since July 1997, but Sanphasit, an economist, says, ''No matter how good the
economy is, prostitution remains in Thailand.''
The number of prostitutes, he said, is an indicator of a social malaise.
''Generally, parents love their children and provide good care for them. But
some Thai parents, particularly in northern districts, force them to have sex
for money. They just want to show off their wealth to the neighbors, never
caring where the money comes from,'' he said.
Sanphasit, who has more than 10 years experience helping children escape from
prostitution, said the legal constraints on child prostitution are too weak
to bring it to an end.
The 1996 Prostitution Prevention and Suppression Act provides protection for
children, punishing all parties involved in child prostitution, including
parents or guardians who lure or persuade children into prostitution, brothel
owners and those who have sex with children.
But the fines and jail terms are not enough to deter violators, Sanphasit
says.
Even though having sex with minors is a criminal act, it is not considered
serious enough for police to investigate thoroughly.
One Pattaya policeman said, ''The police have no time to play (cat and mouse)
with personal affairs, except for criminal cases.''
The Attorney General's Office has 40 cases on file of foreigners accused of
sex with minors and the number of Asians charged is growing.
Thai authorities say they particularly watch visitors from Japan, Taiwan and
South Korea, but since 1996 when Thailand launched its new prostitution law,
the attorney's office has investigated only two cases involving Japanese.
Between September and December last year, the Ministry of Justice reported no
indictments of people having sex with children, underlining the weak
enforcement of the new regulations.
But Wanchai Rojanavong, deputy director of International Cooperation at the
criminal division of the Attorney General's Office, says he hopes things will
change, at least with respect to visitors from Japan where a new law that
bans sex with minors went into force earlier this month.
Thailand ''hopes, as Japan has introduced new legislation banning child
pornography and prostitution, authorities will pay more attention to Japanese
who have sex with children'' in Thailand, he said.
Sanphasit, worried about the lack of law enforcement, suggested that because
''having sex with kids is a sickness, those who enjoy such affairs are never
frightened by laws. They have psychological problems and we need different
ways to cure them.''
He believes programs to strengthen social awareness and reduce demand for
paid sex are needed.
''Demand creates supply. If we campaign to reduce demand, we will reduce the
numbers of child prostitutes,'' he said.
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