AFP
Cambodia faces problems enforced new sex trafficking law
PHNOM PENH - CHANTHA said there was nothing else she could do in Cambodia but become a prostitute.
'If you don't even have a dollar in your pocket to buy rice, how can you bear looking at your starving relatives?' she said.
'You do whatever to survive, until you start to realise the consequence of your deeds.'
Chanta, in her early twenties, was working in a small red-light district west of the capital Phnom Penh several months ago when she was arrested under Cambodia's new sex-trafficking law.
Police nabbed her in a raid and charged her with publicly soliciting sex, fining her nearly US$2 (S$3). Then, Chanta claims, the arresting officers gang raped and beat her for six days in detention.
Bruises covered her body, but none of her assailants were brought to court, she said.
The Cambodian government began prosecuting a new 'Law on Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation' in February after years of pressure from the United States to clamp down on sex trafficking.
Since then, authorities have conducted brothel raids and street sweeps, but rights groups complain the new law has in many ways worsened the exploitation of women.
'The law allows police of all levels to arrest and punish sex workers,' said Mr Naly Pilorge, director of local human rights group Licadho.
'The sex workers are arrested to police stations and rehabilitation centres and then they are abused.'
More than 500 women were arrested for soliciting sex in the first nine months of 2008, according to anti-trafficking organisation Afesip, with many of them forced into rehabilitation centres.
Rights groups say the new law makes women easier prey for traffickers, and could increase rates of sexually-transmitted infections as prostitutes stop carrying condoms out of fear they will be used as evidence against them.
They also allege that detainees are regularly abused at the two rehabilitation centres controlled by Cambodia's ministry of social affairs, Prey Speu and Koh Kor.
Koh Kor has the added grim reputation of being on an island which was the site of a prison and execution camp under Cambodia's murderous 1975-79 Khmer Rouge regime.
Despite Chanta and others testifying to instances of rape, beatings and extortion at the hands of police in the rehabilitation centres, authorities have repeatedly denied the abuses.
Major General Bith Kimhong, director of the interior ministry's anti-trafficking department, said he does not believe anyone has been abused under the new law because he has received no complaints from victims.
More than 100 people were arrested this year, as human trafficking prosecutions increased by 50 per cent, Bith Kimhong said.
The raids on brothels and streetwalkers proved a commitment by the government to end sex trafficking, he said, vowing they would continue.
'We'll continue to cooperate with local authorities to enforce the law,' General Bith Kimhong said.
The new law is one of several moves by the Cambodian government over the past year to show that it is cracking down on sexual exploitation.
In March it imposed ban on foreign marriages amid concerns of an explosion in the number of brokered unions involving South Korean men and poor Cambodian women, many of whom were allegedly being set up for sex slavery.
There have also been a string of arrests of alleged foreign paedophiles, as Cambodia seeks to demonstrate sex tourists are not welcome.
Ms Pich Socheata, deputy governor of one Phnom Penh district, leads 'clean-ups' of prostitution on the streets but said she empathises with sex workers.
'They are female and I am too, so I do understand no girls want to do that job. But we are only practising law,' she said.
But Ms Keo Tha, a staff member at sex workers' rights group the Women's Network for Unity, says many more Cambodian women are still being forced into prostitution as jobs dry up amid the global financial crisis.
A more sensible law, she said, would legalise prostitution.
'We are sandwiched right now - we are oppressed by the police, the law and rising living costs,' she said.
PHNOM PENH - CHANTHA said there was nothing else she could do in Cambodia but become a prostitute.
'If you don't even have a dollar in your pocket to buy rice, how can you bear looking at your starving relatives?' she said.
'You do whatever to survive, until you start to realise the consequence of your deeds.'
Chanta, in her early twenties, was working in a small red-light district west of the capital Phnom Penh several months ago when she was arrested under Cambodia's new sex-trafficking law.
Police nabbed her in a raid and charged her with publicly soliciting sex, fining her nearly US$2 (S$3). Then, Chanta claims, the arresting officers gang raped and beat her for six days in detention.
Bruises covered her body, but none of her assailants were brought to court, she said.
The Cambodian government began prosecuting a new 'Law on Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation' in February after years of pressure from the United States to clamp down on sex trafficking.
Since then, authorities have conducted brothel raids and street sweeps, but rights groups complain the new law has in many ways worsened the exploitation of women.
'The law allows police of all levels to arrest and punish sex workers,' said Mr Naly Pilorge, director of local human rights group Licadho.
'The sex workers are arrested to police stations and rehabilitation centres and then they are abused.'
More than 500 women were arrested for soliciting sex in the first nine months of 2008, according to anti-trafficking organisation Afesip, with many of them forced into rehabilitation centres.
Rights groups say the new law makes women easier prey for traffickers, and could increase rates of sexually-transmitted infections as prostitutes stop carrying condoms out of fear they will be used as evidence against them.
They also allege that detainees are regularly abused at the two rehabilitation centres controlled by Cambodia's ministry of social affairs, Prey Speu and Koh Kor.
Koh Kor has the added grim reputation of being on an island which was the site of a prison and execution camp under Cambodia's murderous 1975-79 Khmer Rouge regime.
Despite Chanta and others testifying to instances of rape, beatings and extortion at the hands of police in the rehabilitation centres, authorities have repeatedly denied the abuses.
Major General Bith Kimhong, director of the interior ministry's anti-trafficking department, said he does not believe anyone has been abused under the new law because he has received no complaints from victims.
More than 100 people were arrested this year, as human trafficking prosecutions increased by 50 per cent, Bith Kimhong said.
The raids on brothels and streetwalkers proved a commitment by the government to end sex trafficking, he said, vowing they would continue.
'We'll continue to cooperate with local authorities to enforce the law,' General Bith Kimhong said.
The new law is one of several moves by the Cambodian government over the past year to show that it is cracking down on sexual exploitation.
In March it imposed ban on foreign marriages amid concerns of an explosion in the number of brokered unions involving South Korean men and poor Cambodian women, many of whom were allegedly being set up for sex slavery.
There have also been a string of arrests of alleged foreign paedophiles, as Cambodia seeks to demonstrate sex tourists are not welcome.
Ms Pich Socheata, deputy governor of one Phnom Penh district, leads 'clean-ups' of prostitution on the streets but said she empathises with sex workers.
'They are female and I am too, so I do understand no girls want to do that job. But we are only practising law,' she said.
But Ms Keo Tha, a staff member at sex workers' rights group the Women's Network for Unity, says many more Cambodian women are still being forced into prostitution as jobs dry up amid the global financial crisis.
A more sensible law, she said, would legalise prostitution.
'We are sandwiched right now - we are oppressed by the police, the law and rising living costs,' she said.
10 comments:
What many dont understand is that the police officials ARE the ones who are involved in hman trafficking. This law will give police an excuse to arrest any unsuspecting woman randomly on the street and "accuse" them of being a sex-working only to force them into that kind of work.
For your information, most police officials in Cambodia are Vietnamese.
Most police officers and agents are vietnamese; they clean the streets from locals, and import freshy pussies from YuonLand and rent it in discrete places called "Cafe xxxxx"(any viet coffee shops in Phnom Penh)
The police officers in Cambodia are corrupted as hell. They are incompetent with their duties and cannot be trusted nor relied upon. The police is only good for kicking and beating people out of their lands. You begin to ask yourself, "How come they act this way?" Well, it all starts from the highest ranks & officials in the municipal police and the military police.
That's what happen when we allowed Ah lowlife donut maker to enter Cambodia.
3:24 PM,
Damn, you are so smart! For a second there, I almost thought that the problem is a result of greedy Cambodians living in Cambodia who lack respect for authority & law and all they want is American $$$$$$
can you say ah srok maha apouk a leuy boh ah lok thmil sen?
Ask Hok Lundy , he was Phnom Penh municipal police chief.
Hok Lundy and Hun Sen knows all about raping innocent Cambodian women and underage child.
Hok Lundy and Hun Sen fuck the Cambodian movie star (Piseth Pilika) before Bun Rany (Hun Sen's wife) order a kill on Piseth Pilika.
http://ia311543.us.archive.org/1/items/HengPoevStatementofHengPoev/Statement_of_Heng_Peov.pdf
Hok Lundy (Phnom Penh municipal police chief) also funded terrorism in Cambodia from the order of Hun Sen.
MARCH 30, 1997 GRENADE ATTACK
http://www.cambodiapolitic.org/doc_30_march_1997/30_march_97.htm
That's not new! Thousand of girls been raped under the Japanese bridge by police officer when they like to return to sweipark. And again when they like to return to Vietnam .
If they like to cross the boarder to Vietnam , many of them are raped and robbed by the border police of all there money and there belongings.
After visiting more than 50 country's the police with the lowest attitude I find in Cambodia.
Sorry about that but this is my experience.
Ali Quis Sydney
dog confront with animal always that sex start move on first before processing in ah hun law
new laws are good, however, watch out for the excessive abuses from the authority, though. everyone can help with this by making complains to the right authority when they see such unnecessary abuses from the police force. i mean making arrest of sex prostitution is one thing, but the abuse of the police is any other thing altogether. even victims have rights, too, you know!
making up a law doesn't mean that it will be enforced.... like many in Cambodia.
For your info., the police work with the prostitutes. Every week, the police wld go to the brothels and ask for money. If the money is not given, then they wld raid the place. The hookers go to jail for a few days, once they're out, they wld go back to the same place.
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