Aid workers decry growing child-sex trade in Cambodia

A rehabilitation center for survivors of the child-sex trade

In this story: Poverty drives the market Police corrupt, aid workers say RELATED STORIES, SITES

From Mike Chinoy
CNN Correspondent

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia -- As governments in Southeast Asia crack down on the child sex trade, child protection experts say Cambodia is rapidly becoming the Asian destination of choice for pedophiles.

"It tends now to be a full-fledged destination," said Sebastien Marot, a French aid worker who runs a Phnom Penh rehabilitation center for children. "More and more tourists are coming to visit. More and more people are coming to be based here just for that," he said.

Marot's facility may seem a scene of youthful innocence, but the appearance is deceptive; two-thirds of the dozens of youngsters are survivors of the growing trade in child sex.

The scene is grim in the red-light districts of Phnom Penh's seedy slums: Teen-agers advertise themselves, dancing in doorways, while children under the age of 10 are available to satisfy the growing demand.

Poverty drives the market

At a center for rescued girls, many tell a similar story:

"I was 15 when I sold my virginity to a Japanese," says a girl named Lang. "There were 15 other girls, all very young, in the same brothel."

Chan Ut was about the same age when he became a prostitute. "A Cambodian took me to a guest house," he says. "The foreign client gave me $20."

In a country as poor as Cambodia, that's a lot of money. It helps explain why so many youngsters are sold, tricked, or forced into prostitution, and why it's so hard to help them.

A social worker who asked for anonymity makes regular visits to the red light district seeking to aid the children. "Our main work is education and health," he says. "The biggest problem in entering the brothels is to gain the trust of the bosses."

The social worker also spends time with boys who work in the sex industry, talking to them about safe sex in a country where AIDS is reaching epidemic proportions.

"These are street children," he said. "They need to eat. They're very poor. That's why they do this."

Police corrupt, aid workers say

Aid workers say the police are little help; they say child-sex tourism is not only tolerated but protected by corrupt officials.

"There is corruption in the police," said aid worker Pierre Legros. "All these places are very well protected. It's very difficult to investigate and rescue people."

"The problem is to catch the bosses," said one police officer. "If we just catch the sex workers, we can't stop it."

Social workers say that's because anyone who does get into legal trouble can usually bribe their way out.

Police hook pedophile on Web in five seconds
July 24, 2000
Child sex trade plagues Filipino resort
August 31, 1996
Pedophilia a growing problem throughout Europe
August 26, 1996
Nepali girls lose innocence as Indian prostitutes
August 23, 1996
Girls bought, sold in Asia
October 1995

U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child
  •  Optional protocolson the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography
Globalization of Female Child Prostitution, Law Review Article
NGO Forum on Cambodia

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