Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery Poverty drives the unsuspecting poor into the
hands of traffickers Published reports & articles from
2000 to 2025 gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Cambodia.htm
Cambodia is a
source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children
trafficked for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation and forced
labor. Women and girls are trafficked to Thailand and Malaysia for
exploitative labor as domestic workers and forced prostitution. Some
Cambodian men migrate willingly to Thailand and Malaysia for work and are subsequently
subjected to conditions of forced labor in the fishing, construction, and
agricultural industries. Parents sometimes
sell their children into involuntary servitude to serve as beggars, into brothels
for commercial sexual exploitation, or into domestic servitude. Within
Cambodia, children are trafficked for forced begging, waste scavenging, salt
production, brick making, and quarrying.
- U.S. State Dept Trafficking in Persons
Report, June, 2009 Check out a later country report here or a full TIP Report here |
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CAUTION: The following links
have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in Cambodia. Some of these links may lead to websites
that present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even false. No attempt has been made to verify their
authenticity or to validate their content. HOW TO USE THIS WEB-PAGE Students If you are looking
for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on
this page and others to see which aspects of Human Trafficking are of
particular interest to you. Would you like
to write about Forced-Labor? Debt
Bondage? Prostitution? Forced Begging? Child Soldiers? Sale of Organs? etc. On the other
hand, you might choose to include precursors of trafficking such as poverty and hunger. There is a lot to
the subject of Trafficking. Scan other
countries as well. Draw comparisons
between activity in adjacent countries and/or regions. Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources
that are available on-line. Teachers Check out some of
the Resources
for Teachers attached to this website. HELP for Victims SISHA (NGO, 24hr operation) ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** Child trafficking
takes new forms in Southeast Asia Rafael D. Frankel,
Special to The Christian Science Monitor, Battambang
Cambodia, December 12, 2001 www.csmonitor.com/2001/1212/p7s2-woap.html [accessed 26 January
2011] When he was 12, his
parents in rural Cambodia sold him to a trafficker who forced him to beg on
the streets of Bangkok, Thailand, and the resort town Pattaya.
He lived with seven other children in one room. All were Cambodian. Some were
as young as six. "The
trafficker told my parents he would send them $55 a month," the boy
says. "But I would earn $18 or $25 every day or night I begged." Over the next three
years, the boy escaped twice and made his way home. But the trafficker found
him, repurchased him, and took him back to Thailand. The second time, his
parents sold his younger brother as well. Slavery Continues
in the Form of Forced Prostitution Ed Vitagliano, News Editor for American Family Association
AFA Journal, Agape Press, April 15, 2004 www.crosswalk.com/1257639/ [accessed 26 January
2011] www.christianheadlines.com/news/slavery-continues-in-the-form-of-forced-prostitution-1257639.html [accessed 30 January
2019] Psychiatrist Wendy Freed authored a report for
Physicians for Human Rights. Her report on the psychological aspects of women
trapped in sexual slavery in Cambodia presented this frightening pattern
faced by thousands of girls and women: "The young
women have been in captivity for a period of weeks to months or years.
Initially there is shock and disbelief. Many young women describe not being
able to believe that they had been sold .... Once they realize that in fact
they are sold, they fight the brothel owner's demand that they accept
customers. Refusal leads to beatings, being locked in a room, and going
without food. This persists until the young woman gives up and realizes that
indeed they are trapped and have no options .... At some point in this process,
the young woman becomes submissive in order to avoid further beatings and
torment; her 'spirit is broken.' She surrenders, becomes resigned and
accommodates to the circumstances of captivity." ***
ARCHIVES *** 2020 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices: Cambodia U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, 30 March 2021 www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/cambodia/
[accessed 16 May
2021] PROHIBITION OF
FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOR Third-party debt
remained an important issue driving forced labor. According to a report from
the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights, by the
end of 2019 more than 2.6 million persons in the country had loans from
microfinance lenders totaling some $10 billion, contributing to an increase
in child labor and bonded labor. The Cambodia Microfinance Association and
Association of Banks in Cambodia disputed the size of the problem. Forced overtime
remained a problem in factories making products for export. Unions and
workers reported some factory managers had fired workers who refused to work
overtime. Children were also
at risk of forced labor (see section 7.c.). PROHIBITION OF CHILD
LABOR AND MINIMUM AGE FOR EMPLOYMENT Many children
worked with their parents on rubber, cassava, cashew, and banana plantations,
according to a union active in the agriculture sector. Approximately 5 to 10
percent of workers on those plantations were children. Children were
vulnerable to the worst forms of child labor, including in agriculture, brick
making, and commercial sex (see also section 6, Children). Poor access to
basic education and the absence of compulsory education contributed to
children’s vulnerability to exploitation. Children from impoverished families
were at risk because some affluent households reportedly used humanitarian
pretenses to hire children as domestic workers whom they abused and
exploited. Children were also forced to beg. Freedom House
Country Report 2020 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/cambodia/freedom-world/2020 [accessed 25 April
2020] G4. DO INDIVIDUALS
ENJOY EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY AND FREEDOM FROM ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION? Equality of
opportunity is severely limited in Cambodia, where a small elite control most
of the economy. Labor conditions can be harsh, sometimes sparking protests. Cambodia is a
country of origin, destination point, and transit point for sex and labor
trafficking; while the US State Department reported progress in Cambodia’s
efforts to fight trafficking in a 2019 report, it also criticized the
government for prosecuting individuals working to document this activity. 2017 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor Office of Child
Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking, Bureau of International Labor
Affairs, US Dept of Labor, 2018 www.dol.gov/sites/default/files/documents/ilab/ChildLaborReport_Book.pdf [accessed 17 April
2019] www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/ILAB/child_labor_reports/tda2017/ChildLaborReportBook.pdf [accessed 25 April 2020] Note:: Also check out this country’s report in the more recent edition DOL
Worst Forms of Child Labor [page 242] Children are
trafficked domestically, from rural to urban areas, and internationally, to
countries such as Thailand and Vietnam, for commercial sexual exploitation. (9;
1) In Cambodian brick factories, some children engage in forced labor,
including in hazardous conditions, to offset family debt to employers. (2;
31; 8; 12). Joining on Somaly Mam’s Brothel Bust Nicholas
Kristof, The New York Times, November 12, 2011 kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/12/joining-on-somaly-mams-brothel-bust/ [accessed 13 November
2011] www.nytimes.com/2011/11/13/opinion/sunday/kristof-fighting-back-one-brothel-raid-at-a-time.html [accessed 16 August
2020] The other reaction
that people sometimes have is resignation, the sense that forced prostitution
is as inevitable as it is evil. On the contrary, I’m struck every time I
visit Cambodia how much improvement there is. In Poipet,
most of the brothels are now shut down, and one trafficker there whom I’ve
known for years is now reduced to selling lottery tickets — because
kidnapping girls and selling their virginity is just too dangerous. There was
one police-run brothel in Poipet that I thought
would never close because of its connections, but it is now just a plain
vanilla hotel. Sure, there’s still prostitution in Poipet
and no doubt some children are still held in cages and sold to buyers — but
much, much less often than before. And this change came about because of
international pressure from the United States and other governments, from
news organizations, and from NGO’s. Human Trafficking
On the Rise in Cambodia Voice of America ®, Pnom Phen, 23 March 2009 www.voanews.com/content/a-13-2009-03-23-voa20-68797892/411883.html [accessed 19 July
2013] www.voanews.com/archive/human-trafficking-rise-cambodia [accessed 25 April
2020] TRAFFICKING VICTIMS
ARE ENSLAVED, TORTURED
- Trafficking victims in Cambodia typically endure years of torture and
abuse. Vann Sina
was lured from her village with an invitation to a Christmas party when she
was just 13 years old. When she arrived in Phnom Penh she was locked in
an underground cellar. She says she
was beaten a lot and had to serve many clients. She says that if she
refused she was tortured with electric shocks or forced to eat hot chilies.
She says that if she did not receive 15 or more clients every day she was
starved and beaten. -
htcp Human trafficking:
The faces and sorrow at the heart of a UN report UN News Centre, 13
February 2009 www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=29907&Cr=&Cr1= [accessed 26 January
2011] Sokha was 14 when she
was trafficked across the border from Cambodia into Thailand to sell fruit –
and was then forced into prostitution when her “boss” found the fruit trade
not sufficiently lucrative. Sokha was eventually
saved by an organization in Thailand that rescues girls from prostitution.
Now she hopes to set up her own sewing business and employ other girls
trafficked as she was. If This Isn’t
Slavery, What Is? Nicholas D. Kristof,
The New York Times, January 3, 2009 [accessed 26 January
2011] Pross was 13 and hadn’t
even had her first period when a young woman kidnapped her and sold her to a
brothel in Phnom Penh. The brothel owner, a woman as is typical, beat Pross and tortured her with electric current until
finally the girl acquiesced. She was
kept locked deep inside the brothel, her hands tied behind her back at all
times except when with customers.
Brothel owners can charge large sums for sex with a virgin, and like
many girls, Pross was painfully stitched up so she
could be resold as a virgin. In all, the brothel owner sold her virginity
four times. Pross
paid savagely each time she let a potential customer slip away after looking
her over. “I was beaten every day,
sometimes two or three times a day,” she said, adding that she was sometimes
also subjected to electric shocks twice in the same day. - htcp Sex workers want
legislation changed Australian
Associated Press AAP, June 24, 2008 news.theage.com.au/national/sex-workers-want-legislation-changed-20080624-2vtp.html [accessed 26 January
2011] www.smh.com.au/national/sex-workers-want-legislation-changed-20080624-2vtp.html [accessed 25 April
2020] Sex workers have
delivered a letter to the Cambodian embassy in Canberra calling for changes
to anti-trafficking and sex work laws. The new laws had
simply moved sex work underground, in an unsafe, unregulated environment,
alliance president Elena Jeffreys told AAP. "Hundreds of sex workers have also
been arrested, detained, and have faced violence and sexual assault in
detention. "Sex workers who are
HIV positive have been unable to access their medication, which is placing
their lives at risk." The
Cambodian government overlooked the distinction between sex work and
trafficking, Ms Jeffreys
said. Cambodia Tackles
Human Trafficking Marielle
Sander-Lindstrom, Wall Street Journal Asia, June 12, 2008 online.wsj.com/article/SB121321985362065761.html?mod=googlenews_wsj [accessed 26 January
2011] Cambodia is
regularly referred to as the human-trafficking hub of Southeast Asia, but
it's hard to know by which measure. Anywhere from thousands to hundreds of
thousands of men, women and children are trafficked there annually. Without
reliable data on these crimes, it's hard to combat this clandestine trade or
to prioritize needs and services for its victims. Not all bliss for
take-away Cambodian brides Brian McCartan, Asia
Times, Apr 8, 2008 www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/JD08Ae01.html [accessed 26 January
2011] khmernz.blogspot.com/2008/04/not-all-bliss-for-take-away-cambodian.html [accessed 30 January
2019] The mechanics of
the trade are still murky. What is known is that women from mostly rural
areas are brought by brokers into the capital city of Phnom Penh and put on
display for prospective foreign grooms. The brokers are usually either
informal operators or connected to one of several matchmaking businesses,
which until now operated freely in Cambodia. Because the
business apparently lacks a coercive element - women are allowed to turn down
a marriage offer - it is not technically considered human trafficking. The
business side of the trade, however, is certainly exploitative. Potential
grooms pay as much as US$20,000 to brokers for their services, while the
bride's family is given $1,000 as well as money to cover the costs of the
wedding. The broker and agency divvy up the rest of the spoils. Putting the red
light on human trafficking Thomasina Larkin,
The Japan Times, Sept. 29, 2007 www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2007/09/29/general/putting-the-red-light-on-human-trafficking/ [accessed 22 August
2014] "Neary grew up in rural Cambodia. Her parents died when
she was a child, and in an effort to give her a better life, her sister
married her off when she was 17. Three months later, they went to visit a
fishing village. Her husband rented a room in what Neary
thought was a guest house. But when she woke the next morning, her husband
was gone. "The owner of
the house told her she had been sold by her husband for $300 and that she was
actually in a brothel. For five years, Neary was
raped by five to seven men every day. In addition to brutal physical abuse, Neary was infected with HIV and contracted AIDS. "The brothel threw her out when she became
sick, and she eventually found her way to a local shelter. She died of
HIV/AIDS at the age of 23." Human trafficking
helps spread HIV/AIDS in Asia: UN Ranga Sirilal,
Reuters, Colombo, Aug 22, 2007 www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSL22325220070822 [accessed 26 January
2011] "Trafficking
... contributes to the spread of HIV by significantly increasing the
vulnerability of trafficked persons to infection," said Caitlin Wiesen-Antin, HIV/AIDS regional coordinator, Asia and
Pacific, for the United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP). "Both human trafficking
and HIV greatly threaten human development and security." Major human
trafficking routes run between Nepal and India and between Thailand and
neighbors like Laos, Cambodia and
Myanmar. Many of the victims are young teenage girls who end up in
prostitution. "The link between
human trafficking and HIV/AIDS has only been identified fairly
recently," Wiesen-Antin told the International
Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific. Eat To Live:
Feeding Pol Pot's children Julia Watson, Posted
at EARTHtimes.org, Phnom Penh, 21 May 2007 ki-media.blogspot.com/2007/05/eat-to-live-feeding-pol-pots-children.html [accessed 1
September 2011 January 2011] On the manicured
lawn between the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh and the Tonle
Sap River, a young couple sitting under a banyan tree offered me their
14-month-old son in exchange for my wrist watch. Gustav Auer of
Friends restaurant is not surprised. He and others involved in
non-governmental organizations locally are waiting to see whether the
adoption efforts of Madonna and Angelina Jolie -- who visited Friends when
she was in Cambodia recently -- have a positive or an adverse effect. There is no such thing, says Auer, as a
legal adoption policy in Cambodia. It's all about the money. You pay enough,
you get the papers. "In my nine years here, I know of only one legal
adoption where there was no financial compensation." U.S. presses
Cambodia police chief on trafficking Sue Pleming, Reuters, Washington DC, Apr 24, 2007 www.reuters.com/article/idUSN2431986320070424 [accessed 26 January
2011] Lundy, who was in
Washington chiefly for counter-terrorism talks with the FBI, was refused a
U.S. visa in 2005 because of "what was believed to be credible evidence
of complicity in human trafficking," former senior State Department
official John Miller told Reuters last week.
Asked whether Lundy was asked to address accusations against him
during his talks with senior officials, a State Department spokesman declined
to provide further details about the meeting.
Lundy previously has rejected charges of human trafficking, but Miller
said the police chief is suspected of playing a role in freeing eight
traffickers hours after they were seized in a raid in Cambodia. Cambodia launches
1st national task force against human trafficking Xinhua News Agency,
April 06, 2007 english.people.com.cn/200704/06/eng20070406_364388.html [accessed 26 January
2011] According to
official reports, over 180,000 migration laborers toiled irregularly in
Thailand, while hundreds or even thousands of Cambodians are exploited to
work as sex slaves in Malaysia, Japan, China's Taiwan and Hong Kong,
Qatar, Somali, and Saudi Arabia. More co-operation
needed in war on human trafficking Viet Nam News VNS,
Ho Chi Minh HCM City, 04-07-2006 At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 4
September 2011] Reviewing the human trafficking trend in the region, Thailand’s Susu Thatun, programme manager of the United Nations Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking in the Greater Mekong Sub-region reported that nearly one-third of the global trafficking trade of about 200,000-225,000 women and children are trafficked annually from Southeast Asia. While in the past
women and children have been reported as trafficked victims, Thatun said that boys and men have also been identified
as victims as well into the sex trade, heavy labour,
begging, marriage, and the fishing industry. In Viet Nam, Thu
reported that most of the 4,530 women and children were trafficked to China
and Cambodia from 1998 for the
purpose of prostitution, arranged marriages or labour
exploitation. Because of the
cross-border nature of human trafficking, Thu proposed that, under the AIPO
framework, ASEAN parliaments should establish a project on legal co-operation
to fight against human trafficking to be more successful in fighting the
complex form of crime. Microsoft Uses
Grants To Help Alleviate Human Trafficking Josephine Roque, All
Headline News AHN, Manila Philippines, June 15, 2006 At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 4
September 2011] Microsoft Corp. has
released grants worth more than $1 million to six Asian countries to deal
with human trafficking by providing computer skills. Called the
"Unlimited Potential," the grants were distributed throughout:
Cambodia, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Review of a Decade
of Research On Trafficking in Persons, Cambodia Annuska DERKS, Roger HENKE,
LY Vanna, Center for Advanced Study, The Asia Foundation, May 2006 [accessed 19 July
2013] The Review of a
Decade of Research on Trafficking in Persons, Cambodia, provides a
comprehensive assessment of over 70 research studies, highlighting what is
and what is not known about human trafficking in Cambodia. The Review analyzes
past studies, identifies gaps in information, offers suggestions for future
research, and calls upon the counter-trafficking community to work together
to create a solid base of knowledge that will inform and strengthen future
efforts to counter trafficking in Cambodia. Human Trafficking
Conference Calls for Action against Corruption, Weak Law Enforcement Ron Corben, Voice of America VOA News, Bangkok, May 22, 2006 www.voanews.com/content/a-13-2006-05-22-voa9/324966.html [accessed 28 August
2012] [accessed 25 April
2020] Ormond spoke of
female victims she met in Cambodia.
"I met with girls and women from many shelters. Girls so young it
was hard to comprehend their fate. Girls as young as five, seven and 12, who
had been victims of rape and sold into forced prostitution," she said. Vietnam, Cambodia
to Crack Down On Cross-border Human Trafficking Vietnam News Agency
VNA, May 24, 2006 vietnamembassy-usa.org/news/2006/05/vietnam-cambodia-crack-down-cross-border-human-trafficking [accessed 20 April
2012] Under the campaign,
part of specific activities under an agreement signed between the two
governments in October 2005 regarding cooperation in eliminating human
trafficking and helping victims, Vietnam will draw up a list of suspects and
rings involved in trafficking women and children from Vietnam to Cambodia. The Cambodian side
will define key areas, suspects and rings engaged in trafficking Vietnamese
women and children. Mekong region govts to co-op against human trafficking Xinhua News Agency,
Phnom Penh, May 7, 2006 news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-05/07/content_4517342.htm [accessed 26 January
2011] en.ce.cn/World/Asia-Pacific/200605/07/t20060507_6891299.shtml [accessed 21 January
2018] Since the signing
of the historic COMMIT Memorandum of Understanding in Yangon, Myanmar in
October 2004, by Ministers of the six countries, the Governments have been
active in laying the foundation for a network of cooperation to stop
traffickers and prosecute them, protect victims of trafficking and assist
them return safely home, and launch efforts to prevent others from sharing
the same fate. Khmer girls'
trafficking ordeal Kylie Morris, BBC
News, Thai-Cambodian border, 2 June, 2005 news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4599709.stm [accessed 26 January
2011] LOOKING FOR CASH - She and her
cousin were 16 years old when they decided, against their family's wishes, to
travel to Bangkok. The New Year was approaching, and they wanted some extra
cash for the festive season. A neighbour had told them they could make good money
washing dishes in a restaurant in the Thai capital. "At first I refused to have sex with men. Then I was beaten so badly I had to hide my face for a month, until it healed. Then I was told again I would have to sleep with the customers. I knew if I refused I would be beaten again. I had no choice but to agree." Cambodian police
raid hotel, rescue three girls from sex trade Mainichi Daily News
(Japan), September 07, 2005 thefuturegroup.blogspot.com/2005/09/cambodian-police-raid-hotel-rescue.html [accessed 26 January
2011] Police arrested two
women - a broker and a pimp during the raid.
One of the victims was 16 years old and was allegedly sold for
US$1,000 by her mother, who needed the money to survive. The alleged broker had the girl's family
registration card and intended to show it to pimp and buyer to prove the girl
is truly 16 years old. Rebuilding
Cambodia: one woman at a time Karoline Kemp, theTravelrag, September 6, 2005 rabble.ca/news/rebuilding-cambodia-one-woman-time [accessed 22 August
2014] Thyda looks like any
other young girl – only she’s lived through trauma most of us could never
imagine. At the age of 12 she was told that she needed to make money in order
to buy medicine for her sick grandfather. Because she was considered to be
very beautiful, her mother sold her to a friend for $300. This woman then
sold her to a high-ranking Cambodian official for $800. She stayed with him
for three hours on that first night. Thyda was
moved all over the country, being resold over and over again. Cambodian police
rescue 88 sex workers Australian
Broadcasting Corporation ABC Radio Australia, 26/06/2005 At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 4
September 2011] Police in Cambodia
have rescued 88 sex workers and detained the four men who allegedly coerced
them to work. Police have raided a
massage parlor at a hotel in Phnom Penh, rescuing 56 Cambodians, 28
Vietnamese and four Chinese sex workers. Comments about
Cambodia’s Tier 3 status in Trafficking in Persons Report H. E. Prum Sokha, Secretary of State,
Ministry of Interior, The Cambodia Daily (Letters to the Editor), Phnom Penh,
9 June 2005 www.humantrafficking.org/updates/29 [accessed 26 January
2011] H.
E. PRUM SOKHA, SECRETARY OF STATE, MINISTRY OF INTERIOR, PHNOM PENH - Before 2000,
there was no sensitization of the police, no specialized police units or
training on how to investigate these cases. Since 2000, however, after five
years of strong political commitment in the government, hundreds of police in
the specialized police units have been trained in the legal and technical
issues concerning law enforcement and the sexual exploitation of women and
children. The $50 Baby Annette Langer (with
additional material from Reuters), Spiegel Online International, 01/28/2005 www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,339105,00.html [accessed 26 January
2011] The parents'
horrifying decision to sell their one-month old is one that many couples in
Cambodia reach. Most regret doing so as soon as they realize the consequences
but in a landscape of abject poverty like this Southeast Asian country, many
feel that selling their own flesh and blood is the only way to make ends
meet. Cambodian Women
'Not Abducted' Guy De Launey, BBC News, Phnom Penh, 18 February, 2005 news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4275943.stm [accessed 26 January
2011] The Cambodian
government has issued a report into the alleged kidnapping of dozens of sex
workers from a safe house in the capital Phnom Penh in December. It says the women left the facility of
their own accord, while the anti-human trafficking group that ran the safe
house, Afesip, has criticized the report's findings
as a "cover up". Police Rescue Sex
Slaves In Cambodia South African Press
Association SAPA, Agence France-Presse
AFP, Phnom Penh, April 5 2005 www.iol.co.za/news/world/police-rescue-sex-slaves-in-cambodia-1.238046 [accessed 26 January
2011] Cambodian police
rescued 18 Vietnamese women, aged between 18 and 23, allegedly forced to be
sex workers in a massage parlor.
"Every evening they were forced to have sex with guests, and each
woman had to pay half of the money she charged a guest to the owners,"
Sun Bunthong said.
"They were not allowed to go out the house. One 18-year-old woman who had violated the
order was stabbed with a knife twice in her back. Asia Sex Traffic
Case UN Hails Stunning Success Press Release:
United Nations, 10 March 2005 www.humantrafficking.org/updates/108 [accessed 18 January
2016] [accessed 30 January
2019] The prosecution
rested on the testimony of eight Cambodian women, who left their home village
believing they would be offered work as noodle and clothes sellers in
Bangkok. Instead, they were held in Samut Prakan before being sold into a Malaysian brothel. Decisive sentence
handed down in Cambodian sex trafficking cases [PDF] PR Newswire,
Washington DC, January 19, 2005 www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-127292055.html [partially accessed
1 September 2011 - access restricted] A
brothel keeper and a pimp were found guilty of exploiting three teenage girls
who were regularly drugged and beaten at the brothel and forced to have sex.
The girls were sold to the brothel keeper who forced them to work off the
amount for which they were purchased.
Each time they were drugged, the cost of the drugs would also be added
to their debt. Myth 1 - After the
Brothel Nicholas D. Kristof,
The New York Times, Poipet Cambodia, January 26,
2005 www.oneangrygirl.net/brothel.html [accessed 26 January
2011] [accessed 30 January
2019] The traffickers who were supposed to get her and four female friends jobs as dishwashers smuggled them instead to Kuala Lumpur where three of them were locked up in a karaoke lounge that operated as a brothel and ordered to have sex with customers. The girls were forced to work in the brothel 15 hours a day, seven days a week, and they were never paid or allowed outside. Nor were they allowed to insist that customers use condoms. They were warned that if they tried to escape they could be murdered. Cambodia, Where Sex
Traffickers Are King Nicholas D. Kristof,
The New York Times, Phnom Penh, January 15, 2005 www.nytimes.com/2005/01/15/opinion/15kristof.html [accessed 26 January
2011] Police report describes the Chai Hour II as a case "of confinement of human beings for commercial sex" and adds that it is also "a place for trafficking/sale of virgin girls." Review:
"Terrify No More" by Gary A.
Haugen
-- W Publishing Group, Nonfiction, ISBN:
0849918383 Lisa Ann Cockrel www.bookreporter.com/reviews2/0849918383.asp [accessed 26 January
2011] This non-fiction narrative revolves around IJM's efforts to dismantle the notorious sex trade in the Cambodian village of Svay Pak, a place where children as young as five years old are sold for sex to Western pedophiles and where grandmothers sell the virginity of their granddaughters to the highest bidder. Sex Trafficking
Growing In S.E.Asia Fayen Wong, Reuters,
Singapore, April 26, 2005 www.chinapost.com.tw/international/detail.asp?GRP=D&id=61645 [accessed 1
September 2011] singabloodypore.wordpress.com/2005/04/26/sex-trafficking-growing-in-seasia/ [accessed 21 January
2018] Girls from the villages of Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia and the Philippines are lured into cities or neighboring countries with promises of lucrative jobs as waitresses and domestic helpers, only to end up in massage parlors and karaoke bars. Others are flown as far as Australia, Japan, South Africa and the United States to be kept as slaves in brothels -- beaten, drugged, starved or raped in the first days of their reclusion to intimidate and prepare them for clients, the experts say. The Modern Scourge
of Sex Slavery Dr. Martin Brass, Soldier
of Fortune Magazine, Hong Kong, 2004 www.military.com/NewContent/0,13190,SOF_0904_Slavery1,00.html [accessed 26 January
2011] [photo caption] Cambodian
policeman escorts 11-year-old Vietnamese girl from brothel in Toul Kork red-light district of
Phnom Penh: Six girls from 11-13 years of age were rescued from brothel that
offered only young children. Trafficked from Vietnam, children were rescued
during sting operation involving Cambodian Interpol and local police, led by
End Child Prostitution, Pornography and Trafficking (ECPAT) The Protection Project - Cambodia [DOC] The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS),
The Johns Hopkins University www.protectionproject.org/human_rights_reports/report_documents/cambodia.doc [Last accessed 2009] FORMS OF TRAFFICKING - It has been
estimated that at least 200,000 to 225,000 women and children are trafficked
from Southeast Asia annually. Most of the trafficking destinations are within
the region (60 percent are major cities of the region; 40 percent are outside
the region). Most trafficking into,
within, and from Cambodia occurs for the purpose of sexual exploitation. Within Cambodia,
children are trafficked for work in garment factories in Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville, for begging in Svay
Rieng along the border with Vietnam, or for
construction work, domestic work, or work as porters. Vietnamese girls
are trafficked to Cambodia, where they are supposedly prized for their fairer
skin. In fact, aid workers say that
most women working in Cambodia’s sex industry are Vietnamese. Trafficking gangs lure Vietnamese women
with promises of jobs as waitresses or hostesses. For example, a trafficking
gang broken up in January 2003 in southern Vietnam was accused of trafficking
18 Vietnamese women to Cambodia for forced prostitution between June 2002 and
January 2003. The women had been promised legitimate jobs. [3] Leaving the
Brothel Behind Nicholas D. Kristof,
The New York Times, Battambang Cambodia, January
19, 2005 209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/1324343/posts [accessed 26 January
2011] A year ago, a pimp
handed me a quivering teenage girl. Her name was Srey
Neth, and she was one of the hundreds of thousands
of teenagers who are enslaved by the sex trafficking industry worldwide. Then I did something dreadfully unjournalistic: I bought her. I purchased Srey Neth for $150 and another
teenager, Srey Mom, for $203, receiving receipts
from the brothel owners. As readers may remember, I then freed the girls and
took them back to their villages. Now
I've come back to find out how they coped with freedom. Testimony of Bopha US Department of
State, Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, “Trafficking in
Persons Report”, June 14, 2004 – Introduction: Victim Profiles www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2004/34021.htm [accessed 26 January
2011] [Book] [accessed 25 April
2020] Bopha lived in a rural
village and married at 17. Her husband immediately took her to a hotel in another
village and left her. Bopha discovered the hotel
was a brothel and tried to escape, but she was forcibly detained and told she
must pay off the price the hotel owner had paid for her. Bopha's debt kept
increasing due to charges for her food, clothing, and other necessities. Bopha could not leave. Ravaged by HIV/AIDS, she was
thrown out on the street and finally found her way to an NGO shelter in Phnom
Penh. She has been there for two years receiving treatment; it is not known
how much longer Bopha will live. [2] Bargaining
For Freedom Nicholas D. Kristof,
The New York Times, Poipet Cambodia, January 21,
2004 query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D01E1DD1239F932A15752C0A9629C8B63 [accessed 26 January
2011] www.nytimes.com/2004/01/21/opinion/bargaining-for-freedom.html [accessed 30 January
2019] Finally, Srey Mom said goodbye to ''Mother,'' the owner who had
enslaved her, cheated her and perhaps even helped infect her with the AIDS
virus -- yet who had also been kind to her when she was homesick, and who had
never forced her to have sex when she was ill. It was a farewell of infinite
complexity, yet real tenderness. So now I have
purchased the freedom of two human beings so I can return them to their
villages. But will emancipation help them? Will their families and villages
accept them? Or will they, like some other girls rescued from sexual
servitude, find freedom so unsettling that they slink back to slavery in the
brothels? We'll see. [1] Girls For
Sale Nicholas D. Kristof,
The New York Times, Poipet Cambodia, January 17,
2004 www.nytimes.com/2004/01/17/opinion/girls-for-sale.html [accessed 25 April
2020] Srey Neth claimed to be 18 but looked several years younger.
She insisted at first (through my Khmer interpreter) that she was free and
not controlled by the guesthouse. But soon she told her real story: a female
cousin had arranged her sale and taken her to the guesthouse. Now she was
sharing a room with three other prostitutes, and they were all pimped to
guests. ''I can walk around
in Poipet, but only with a close relative of the
owner,'' she said. ''They keep me under close watch.They
do not let me go out alone. They're afraid I would run away.'' Why not try to escape at night? ''They would get me back, and something bad
would happen. Maybe a beating. I heard that when a group of girls tried to
escape, they locked them in the rooms and beat them up.'' U.S. raps Cambodia
over sex trade Elise Labott, State Department Producer, Cable News Network
CNN, December 14, 2004 www.cnn.com/2004/US/12/14/cambodia.us.sex/index.html [accessed 26 January
2011] Under Un's direction, the Cambodian police rescued 84 women and
young girls from a brothel last week. But the next day, gunmen kidnapped them
and seven others from the shelter where they were taken after their rescue. Hitting Slavery
Where It Hurts Quentin Hardy,
Forbes, 01.12.04 www.forbes.com/forbes/2004/0112/076.html [accessed 18 January
2016] "Nothing
compares to the deadness in the eyes of a kid in a brothel," Haugen, 40,
says. "In Rwanda, the dead were already gone. In the brothels of
Cambodia, they are the living dead." They mapped a
systematic, and highly profitable, trade in innocents. Kids from remote rural
areas are promised work or treats in distant cities by slave dealers, who
sell them to brothels for up to $1,000. Sex with these kids costs $30
compared with $5 for an adult prostitute in Cambodia. "Our investigators came into Svay Pak, and within ten minutes pimps came up saying 'Do
you want small-small? I can get small-small,'" says Sharon Cohn, the
head of IJM's antitrafficking unit. "It was unbelievable--kids
as young as 5." Children
for Sale NBC News, 1/9/2005 msnbc.msn.com/id/4038249/#slice-2 [accessed 26 January
2011] www.nbcnews.com/id/4038249/ns/dateline_nbc/t/children-sale/#.XFHbP81rxko [accessed 30 January
2019] Dateline goes
undercover with a human rights group to expose sex trafficking in Cambodia.
Children, some as young as 5 years old, are being sold as slaves for
sex. - htcp Hagar, an NGO,
Helps Human Trafficking Victims in Cambodia Victoria Silverman,
U.S. Department of State's Bureau of International Information Programs, 17
June 2004 iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/article/2004/06/20040617114848hvnamrevlis0.1714899.html#axzz3B91GzE7r [accessed 22 August
2014] Tami believes the
dramatic rise in abductions and coerced sex slavery in Cambodia can be traced
to regional efforts to curb prostitution. Trafficking basically grew out of
the pressure in neighboring Thailand to change Bangkok's image as a "sex
capital," he said. "From Bangkok, organized crime had to find
another fertile place to operate." "Cambodia was
just coming out of 30 years of war, with weak legislation and rampant corruption,
so organized crime thrived," Tami continued. "Poverty and lack of
education, particularly among the countryside, also contributed to the
phenomenon." Cambodia is among the poorest and least developed countries
of the world, according to the World Bank. Cambodia: Young
Trafficking Victims Treated as Criminals Edgar, TakingITGlobal, Aug 16, 2002 www.tigweb.org/youth-media/panorama/article.html?ContentID=513 [accessed 26 January
2011] "These arrests
violate every principle regarding the appropriate treatment of apparent
trafficking victims," said Colm. "They
should be provided with medical and legal services, counseling, secure
shelter, and given the opportunity to cooperate in the investigation into the
traffickers. It is imperative that these girls get the services they need and
deserve." The investigating
judge on the case told reporters that initial findings revealed that the
girls were trafficking victims, but that when the court learned the girls had
entered Cambodia without legal documentation, they were no longer considered
victims, but violators of Cambodian law for illegal entry into the country. Measuring the Number of Trafficked Women and Children in Cambodia: A Direct Observation Field Study [PDF] Thomas M. Steinfatt, Professor of Communication, University of
Miami, Fulbright Scholar, Royal University of Phnom Penh, Sponsored by USAID,
6 October 2003 At one time this article
had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 4
September 2011] [page 25] SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS - Across Cambodia,
5,317 sex workers were observed in direct and indirect sex work
establishments. Of these, 2,328 or 43.8% were in Phnom Penh, and 2,989 in the
remainder of the country. An additional 12,939 unobserved workers were
estimated to exist throughout the country, for a total estimated number of
sex workers in Cambodia of 18,256, with an observed percentage of 65.5% Khmer
and 32.8% Vietnamese. A total of 1,074 persons, 20.2% of the 5,317 observed
sex workers, were classified as trafficked, 876 by their indentured status
and 198 as underaged. Almost all observed
trafficked workers were Vietnamese or Khmer, with less than 1% of other
ethnicities, and the total number of trafficked women and children throughout
the country was estimated at 2,000. The majority of those trafficked, 80.4%,
were observed to be Vietnamese since 61.9% of Vietnamese sex workers were or
had been indentured. Trafficked persons were concentrated in population
centers such as cities and towns, with the majority in cities. No indentured
workers were found in villages, as defined in this study, or in rural areas.
Those judged to be under 16 were found only in cities, particularly Phnom
Penh, Sihanoukville, and Koh
Kong. All trafficked women and children observed in the present study were in
brothels, some marked as “massage.” World Congress
Against the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children -- Feature 3: Cambodia World Congress
Against the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children, August 27-31, 1996 At one time this article
had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 4
September 2011] ARIS STORY - My family is poor
and so my mother pledged me for $500 to help feed my eight brothers and
sisters. I am the most beautiful, Ari says with pride. Most of the money she
makes goes directly into the pocket of a brothel owner, leaving little to pay
off the debt she now shoulders. How Ari came into
prostitution is a familiar story to the local organisations
researching child sexual exploitation. According to NGOs, the majority of
child sex workers are abducted by middlemen (or women), sold or pledged by
parents, relatives, neighbours or boyfriends, or
deceived with the promise of jobs or marriages. Often children are hired out
or sold by their families to agents who may or may not reveal the true nature
of the work. Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child, 2 June 2000 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/cambodia2000.html [accessed 26 January
2011] [63] While welcoming
the enactment of special legislation to combat sexual exploitation and the
adoption of a five-year Plan of Action against Sexual Exploitation of
Children (2000-2004) and other related measures in this area, the Committee
expresses its concern at the widespread phenomena of child prostitution and
the sale and trafficking of children; the inadequate enforcement of the new
legislation on these issues; and the shortage of trained people and
institutions to provide rehabilitation to the victims. Human Rights
Overview by Human
Rights Watch – Defending Human Rights Worldwide [accessed 26 January
2011] ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** 2017 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, 20 April 2018 www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2017/eap/277071.htm
[accessed 19 March
2019] www.state.gov/reports/2017-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/cambodia/ [accessed 25 June
2019] PROHIBITION OF
FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOR Third-party debt
remained an important issue driving forced labor. According to the findings
of a BWTUC survey conducted during the year, 48 percent of 1,010 construction
workers in Phnom Penh had debts; 75 percent of the debtors owed money to
microfinance or banks, and 25 percent owed money to family members. PROHIBITION OF CHILD
LABOR AND MINIMUM AGE FOR EMPLOYMENT Children from
impoverished families were at risk because affluent households used humanitarian
pretenses to hire children as domestic workers, only to abuse and exploit
them (see section 7.c.). Children were also subjected to forced
begging. In September the Ministry of Labor and Vocational Training’s
director of child labor acknowledged the ministry lacked resources to inspect
for child labor in domestic service. Child labor was
most widespread in agriculture, including sugarcane and rubber production,
logging, shrimp processing, and fishing, as well as in brick manufacture,
salt production, domestic service, car repair, textiles, slaughterhouses, and
the production of alcoholic beverages. Children also worked as beggars,
street vendors, shoe polishers, and scavengers. Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, March 8, 2006 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61604.htm [accessed 7 February
2020] TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS
– Children were trafficked to Thailand and Vietnam for begging, soliciting,
street vending, and flower selling. These children frequently were placed
into debt bondage to beg or sell, or they formed part of organized begging
rings even when there was no debt or economic hardship involved. One study by
MOSAVY found that 76 percent of trafficked persons returned from Thailand
came from families who owned land, 93 percent owned their own house and had
no debt on the land or house, and 47 percent of trafficked persons stated
that their mother was the facilitator. There was an increase in the
trafficking of women to Malaysia to work in the sex industry. Trafficking
victims, especially those trafficked for sexual exploitation, faced the risk
of contracting sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS. In some
cases victims were detained and physically and mentally abused by
traffickers, brothel owners, and clients. Traffickers used a
variety of methods to acquire victims. In many cases victims were lured by
promises of legitimate employment. In other cases acquaintances, friends, and
family members sold the victims or received payment for helping deceive them.
Young children, the majority of them girls, were often "pledged" as
collateral for loans by desperately poor parents; the children were
responsible for repaying the loan and the accumulating interest. Local
traffickers covered specific small geographic areas and acted as middlemen
for larger trafficking networks. Organized crime groups, employment agencies,
and marriage brokers were believed to have some degree of involvement The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor U.S. Dept of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs, 2005 www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/cambodia.htm [accessed 26 January
2011] Note:: Also check out this country’s report in the more recent edition DOL
Worst Forms of Child Labor INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - Cambodia is reported to be a country of origin,
transit, and destination for trafficking in children for the purposes of
commercial sexual exploitation and various forms of work, including forced
labor and begging. Cambodian children are trafficked to Thailand and
Malaysia for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation or bonded
labor. The commercial sexual
exploitation of children is a serious problem in Cambodia. Children are also used in pornography. All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT
ARTICLES. Cite this webpage as: Patt,
Prof. Martin, "Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery -
Cambodia", http://gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Cambodia.htm, [accessed
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