Focus: Sex tourists in South East Asia
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While some child sex tourists are looking specifically for young girls and boys, others are “opportunistic” depending on who is available. These girls in Cambodia may be aged anywhere between 14 and 25. |
But a leap in regional tourism, and the poverty of communities living close to tourist destinations such as Angkor Wat, Luang Prabang and Thailand's beaches, is contributing to a very different pattern of exploitation.
A new report by Heather A. Peters, commissioned by UNIAP and World Vision, claims that existing interventions could be more effective if their range broadened to target tourists from Japan, Korea and China, as well as domestic tourists.
The report, "Sex, Sun and Heritage: Tourism Threats and Opportunities in South East Asia," states that Thailand and Cambodia have clear tourism agendas, with both countries hoping to double their already sizeable tourism industry within a few years.
The biggest challenge, according to Peters, is to protect the heritage that people are coming to see, and in particular the communities and children living alongside major tourist sites.
| Video: Som Hope Bai (Give me food) The story of a five year old trafficked from Cambodia to Vietnam and forced to beg on the streets. |
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Video: Speaking Out In September 2007, children from six GMS countries formed the Mekong Youth Forum in Bangkok to call for greater commitment to end child trafficking. |
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The report says there is a clear link between child sex tourism and child trafficking, and that lack of education or livelihood options for children growing up in tourist destinations also increases the risk of their abuse.
Among the recommendations from the report:
- Governments of both countries should, through their national tourism authorities, provide legislation, awareness and training to the tourism industry to reduce tolerance of child sex crimes.
- Governments and NGOs should broaden their primary focus on Western pedophiles to include regional and domestic tourists.
- More research needs to be done on common beliefs around the child sex industry, for instance that families willingly send their children into prostitution or that Asian men prefer girls and virgins.
- Skills training to offer alternatives to the sex industry should be realistic, targeted and community-sanctioned.
Both UNIAP and World Vision have multiple programmes to reduce child sexual exploitation and trafficking in Thailand and Cambodia. In both countries, World Vision provides shelters, rehabilitation programmes and livelihood training for victims of trafficking and sexual abuse.
World Vision also helps to maintain a child sex tourism hotline in several provinces of Cambodia. In 2006, the hotline received more than 350 calls to report child sexual abuse.
