By SOPHENG CHEANG
AP
PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA: Three Cambodian women who escaped from sexual slavery in Malaysia last year were returned home this week, an aid group and officials said Thursday (July 5th).
The three, ages 18 to 23, came back Tuesday (July 3rd) after working as prostitutes for several years in Malaysia, said Somaly Mam, director of the nonprofit group Afesip. Its name is the French acronym for Acting for Women in Distressing Situations.
The case underlines the widespread problem of human trafficking in Southeast Asia, where economic desperation in poorer countries drives such exploitation. There are few mechanisms to protect them.
Cambodia was recently placed on a U.S. human trafficking watch list for the second consecutive year, "because it failed to show evidence of increasing efforts to combat trafficking in persons, particularly in addressing reports of public officials' complicity in trafficking," according to the U.S. State Department's annual report on worldwide human trafficking.
The report describes Cambodia as "a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor."
It also calls Malaysia "a destination country, and to a lesser extent, a source and transit country for women and children trafficked for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation."
At least 51 Cambodian girls and women were rescued from brothels in Malaysia in 2005 to 2007, said You Ay, the country's Deputy Minister of Women's Affairs.
She gave no estimate of the total number of Cambodian sex workers in Malaysia, but said Cambodia's and Malaysia's governments are working together to try to rescue more.
Somaly Mam said one of the three returned women was tricked by her sister while she was in Cambodia into getting a job in Malaysia in 2006, but was later sold as a sex worker. Background information on the others was not immediately available.
All three are now at Afesip's center in Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh, where they are receiving counseling, she said, adding that she believed three people in Malaysia had been arrested in the case.
Somaly Mam said Malaysian police rescued the three women from a brothel in November. She said one of them, who managed to escape from the brothel, phoned Afesip's Phnom Penh office to ask for help.
The three, ages 18 to 23, came back Tuesday (July 3rd) after working as prostitutes for several years in Malaysia, said Somaly Mam, director of the nonprofit group Afesip. Its name is the French acronym for Acting for Women in Distressing Situations.
The case underlines the widespread problem of human trafficking in Southeast Asia, where economic desperation in poorer countries drives such exploitation. There are few mechanisms to protect them.
Cambodia was recently placed on a U.S. human trafficking watch list for the second consecutive year, "because it failed to show evidence of increasing efforts to combat trafficking in persons, particularly in addressing reports of public officials' complicity in trafficking," according to the U.S. State Department's annual report on worldwide human trafficking.
The report describes Cambodia as "a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor."
It also calls Malaysia "a destination country, and to a lesser extent, a source and transit country for women and children trafficked for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation."
At least 51 Cambodian girls and women were rescued from brothels in Malaysia in 2005 to 2007, said You Ay, the country's Deputy Minister of Women's Affairs.
She gave no estimate of the total number of Cambodian sex workers in Malaysia, but said Cambodia's and Malaysia's governments are working together to try to rescue more.
Somaly Mam said one of the three returned women was tricked by her sister while she was in Cambodia into getting a job in Malaysia in 2006, but was later sold as a sex worker. Background information on the others was not immediately available.
All three are now at Afesip's center in Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh, where they are receiving counseling, she said, adding that she believed three people in Malaysia had been arrested in the case.
Somaly Mam said Malaysian police rescued the three women from a brothel in November. She said one of them, who managed to escape from the brothel, phoned Afesip's Phnom Penh office to ask for help.
2 comments:
My highest admiration to the lady of hearts Somaly Mam in her hard work combatting against women exploitation.
I call on all the brothers and sisters out there to donate any spare fund that you may have to her struggling cause. Your generosity will never be forgotten in the minds and souls of your underprivileged, abused and victimised sisters and the Cambodian people in large.
Every little bit counts brothers and sisters...Please do whatever you can to help!
I totally agreed and support you to support our people and country.
Only together-ness we can get our country and people from out of these evils surrounding and oppresion. ( viet govt, and hun sen govt )
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