In an ideal world, there would be no child prostitution and we wouldn't need to blur this girl's face. But the reality is...
July 29, 2007
The Electric New Paper (Singapore)
WHEN her father died, teenager Kong Bopha (not her real name), left her village in Cambodia for Phnom Penh, where a neighbour promised her work in a restaurant.
With a job, she could help support her mother, three sisters and brother.
The dream was short-lived.
After she arrived at the capital, the neighbour sold her to a brothel where she was beaten and forced to have sex with men every day.
Several times, the brothel owner had a doctor stitch up her vagina to fool clients into thinking she was a virgin, to get a higher price for her.
In Manila, pretty 13-year-old Jaydee (not her real name) took a job at a bar near the House of Representatives in Quezon City.
One evening, she noticed a government official eyeing her.
The next day, her 14th birthday, she was given what she thought was medicine. She passed out and when she woke up she was naked and lying in a strange bed.
Next to her was the official's son. It was his birthday too, and Jaydee and her virginity were his birthday present.
Jaydee was then forced to work as a drug courier and only escaped some weeks later. Now in a girls' shelter, she is too frightened to go to the police. 'I do not believe there is justice,' she said.
In recent years, the child sex industry has expanded across Asia, reported the Reader's Digest in its August edition.
A 2006 report by the US-based Asia Foundation estimates that almost 20,000 children are sexually exploited in Cambodia.
The Philippines National Plan of Action estimates that there are between 60,000 and 75,000 children involved in the sex trade in the country.
Non-governmental organisations have put the number closer to 100,000.
In India, where daughters are often seen as a liability by their families, the US State Department estimates that up to 500,000 children under age 16 are exploited in the sex trade.
'ALMOST A MILLION'
'There is a press-down-pop-up phenomenon: Even when the sexual exploitation is tackled effectively in one country, it may emerge insidiously in another country,' Prof Vitit Muntarbhorn of Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University, a longtime United Nations human rights special rapporteur, told the Reader's Digest.
Because sex with children is illegal and clandestine, no one knows for sure how many are involved. However, the magazine estimates that close to a million children are involved in the sex trade across Asia.
Three developments have led to this situation:
Kong Bopha spent a year on the streets of Phnom Penh. In March 1999, aged 17, she was arrested by police, who handed her over to social workers. She was angry and dejected and was suffering from typhoid and colitis.
After four years of counselling, she found a job in a garment factory. And five years after her nightmare began, she married a young man from her home village.
Her happy ending has not lessened her anger.
She said: 'People like that brothel owner must be punished so that other girls will not have to go through what I did.'
July 29, 2007
The Electric New Paper (Singapore)
WHEN her father died, teenager Kong Bopha (not her real name), left her village in Cambodia for Phnom Penh, where a neighbour promised her work in a restaurant.
With a job, she could help support her mother, three sisters and brother.
The dream was short-lived.
After she arrived at the capital, the neighbour sold her to a brothel where she was beaten and forced to have sex with men every day.
Several times, the brothel owner had a doctor stitch up her vagina to fool clients into thinking she was a virgin, to get a higher price for her.
In Manila, pretty 13-year-old Jaydee (not her real name) took a job at a bar near the House of Representatives in Quezon City.
One evening, she noticed a government official eyeing her.
The next day, her 14th birthday, she was given what she thought was medicine. She passed out and when she woke up she was naked and lying in a strange bed.
Next to her was the official's son. It was his birthday too, and Jaydee and her virginity were his birthday present.
Jaydee was then forced to work as a drug courier and only escaped some weeks later. Now in a girls' shelter, she is too frightened to go to the police. 'I do not believe there is justice,' she said.
In recent years, the child sex industry has expanded across Asia, reported the Reader's Digest in its August edition.
A 2006 report by the US-based Asia Foundation estimates that almost 20,000 children are sexually exploited in Cambodia.
The Philippines National Plan of Action estimates that there are between 60,000 and 75,000 children involved in the sex trade in the country.
Non-governmental organisations have put the number closer to 100,000.
In India, where daughters are often seen as a liability by their families, the US State Department estimates that up to 500,000 children under age 16 are exploited in the sex trade.
'ALMOST A MILLION'
'There is a press-down-pop-up phenomenon: Even when the sexual exploitation is tackled effectively in one country, it may emerge insidiously in another country,' Prof Vitit Muntarbhorn of Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University, a longtime United Nations human rights special rapporteur, told the Reader's Digest.
Because sex with children is illegal and clandestine, no one knows for sure how many are involved. However, the magazine estimates that close to a million children are involved in the sex trade across Asia.
Three developments have led to this situation:
- Greater demand for child sex from Asian men. Some Asian men want sex with children, especially with virgins, because they believe that it will bring them good health, long life and good luck, and protect them from HIV/AIDS.
- Indifference among lawmakers and enforcers. In most Asian countries, sex with a child under 16 years is a crime. So is employing anyone under 18 in the sex trade. Yet prosecution hasn't seemed to reduce the problem.
- Widespread corruption. Criminals responsible for the traffic in Asian children routinely buy off police officers, judges and lawmakers.
Kong Bopha spent a year on the streets of Phnom Penh. In March 1999, aged 17, she was arrested by police, who handed her over to social workers. She was angry and dejected and was suffering from typhoid and colitis.
After four years of counselling, she found a job in a garment factory. And five years after her nightmare began, she married a young man from her home village.
Her happy ending has not lessened her anger.
She said: 'People like that brothel owner must be punished so that other girls will not have to go through what I did.'
No comments:
Post a Comment