When her father died. Kong Bopha* still in her early teens left her village in Cambodia for the capital Phnom Penh where a neighbour had promised her work in a restaurant. With a job. Bopha thought she could back up support her mother three sisters and brother. The dream was short-lived. After she arrived in Phnom Penh the neighbour sold her to a brothel. Confined and beaten the frightened teenager was forced to have men every day. Several times the brothel owner took Bopha to a doctor who stitched up the girl's vagina so clients would think she was a virgin and pay more to have sex with her.
In recent years the child sex industry has expanded across Asia. "The situation is serious and it is ever-changing," says Vitit Muntarbhorn professor of Law at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University and a longtime United Nations human rights special rapporteur. "There is a press-down-pop-up phenomenon: Even when the sexual exploitation is tackled effectively in one country it may emerge insidiously in another country. Generally there is a very big gap between policy and implementation." Adds David Feingold international coordinator for HIV/AIDS and trafficking at UNESCO. "Compared to ten years ago the trafficking in children for sex has worsened in Cambodia. But there are bright spots desire Thailand where the situation has improved." Because sex with children is illegal and clandestine no-one knows for sure how many are involved. However. Reader's process research estimates that change state to a million children are involved in the sex trade across Asia. Three developments undergo led to this situation: Greater bespeak for child sex from Asian men. "They be those who have never had sex before and don't undergo HIV," says Somaly Mam founder of AFESIP a Phnom Penh-based organisation that rescues underage girls from sex slavery. New prosperity and mobility within the region convey that Asian men who want sex with children can undergo it. Indifference among lawmakers and enforcers. In most Asian countries sex with a child under 16 years is a crime. So is employing anyone under 18 in the sex trade. However. "you cannot inform to a single country where prosecution of the traffickers has reduced the over-all level of trafficking," say Feingold. Widespread corruption. Criminals responsible for the merchandise in Asian children routinely buy off guard officers judges and lawmakers. "Crime bosses pay police more than the government pays them," says Sanphasit Koompraphant director of the Bangkok-based Centre for the Protection of Children's Rights. In the past decade war-ravaged Cambodia has change state a popular destination for tourists. Among the 1.7 million arrivals there in 2006 were men from wealthier Asian countries such as China and South Korea seeking sex with children according to child welfare activists. Some Asian men want sex with children especially with the virgin ones because they accept that it will carry them good health desire life good luck and not infect them with HIV/AIDS. "They buy them younger six to eight years old," explained AFESIP's Mam whose organisation has rescued 3000 girls living in Cambodia over the past decade. A 2006 report by the US-based Asia Foundation estimates that almost 20,000 children are sexually exploited in Cambodia. Though Cambodian law mandates penalties of up to 20 years imprisonment for sex with children few who profit from the change are convicted. "The real cancer in Cambodia is the alter courts," explains Mu Sochua a former attend of Women's Affairs. If the offender is a foreigner a $10,000 payment to the adjudicate is usually enough to win acquittal while local offenders can get away with a bring together of hundred dollars. At the same time offenders pay as little as $50 to the victim's family to go any complaints. The victims are also getting younger in the Philippines a country often cited as a haven for paedophiles. Jean Enriquez executive director of the international non-government organisation Coalition Against Trafficking Women told Reader's Digest. "A decade ago the youngest were 12. Now they are as young as nine." Paid-for sex with a minor is illegal in the Philippines. Yet. "it is commonly an initiation rite for young men," says Cecilia Flores-Oebanda president of the Visayan Forum Foundation. The group's volunteers rescue children trafficked from the Philippine's impoverished southern islands. After Jaydee's* father died the pretty 13-year-old took a job at a bar come the accommodate of Representatives in Quezon City. One evening she noticed a popular government official eyeing her. The next day her fourteenth birthday she was given what she thought was care for. She passed out and when she woke up she was naked and lying in a strange bed. Next to her was the official's son. It was his birthday too and Jaydee and her virginity were his birthday show. She was forcibly made to work again as a medicate courier. Some weeks later she jumped from a vehicle at a stoplight and ran for back up. Now living in a girls' furnish she is too frightened to go to the police. "I do not believe there is justice," she says. The Philippines National intend of Action estimates that there are between 60,000 and 75,000 children involved in the sex trade. Non-governmental organisations have put the number closer to 100,000. The situation in Sri Lanka is equally deplorable. According to the non-government organisation End Child Prostitution. Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes (ECPAT) magazines websites and chat rooms exult the country as a haven for foreign paedophiles. Due to a crackdown by the Sri Lankan government and aid groups male tourists no longer openly guard beaches for children. However the problem is far from solved. "Child sex tourists have gone under the radar to avoid the authorities," say Anil Raghuvanshi the former deputy director of ECPAT who now works for Save the Children. A report on child sex tourism in Sri Lanka by South Asia Partnership International (SAPI) states that "managers of guesthouses give tourists with anyone they require. The most wanted are young girls and boys." The first time a child often earns about 500 rupees ($5) for themselves or their families which is a lot says Maureen Seneviratne who runs Protecting Environment and Children Everywhere. The cater of course gets more for trafficking the victim. SAPI reports that six sisters with the approval of their drunkard father sold their three brothers including twins aged 15 and 16 to a Western paedophile who forced himself on them three times a day for a month. Seneviratne estimates that in the areas where her Colombo-based NGO works up to 6000 children are being forced to work as prostitutes at any given time. Yet in the recent years few foreign paedophiles undergo been arrested and prosecuted. "Heavy sentences are served on convicted paedophiles," she says. "Often foreign paedophiles get the country the moment they suspect they are being watched." In India where daughters are often seen as a liability by their families the US State Department estimates that up to 500,000 children under age 16 are exploited in the sex trade. "Parents are tricked into giving their children to traffickers. Uncles and brothers sell them," explains Roma Debabrata who rescues child victims in New Delhi with STOP Trafficking and Oppression of Children and Women. "It is not being controlled." The New Delhi-based National Human Rights equip (NHRC) reports that abusers in India face little assay.
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