Cambodia, World Vision Join Hands To Combat Child Sex In Tourism

PHNOM PENH, Aug 22 (Bernama) -- Cambodia's Tourism Ministry and World Vision-Cambodia on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to forge partnership in combating sexual exploitation of children in tourism.

A joint press release said under the MoU, the ministry and World Vision will work together with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Interpol to address sexual exploitation of children in tourism in a dual prevention and protection approach.

Together with the Cambodian government and tourism sector, World vision will work to become more aware of vulnerabilities of at-risk children and support responsible tourism practices that prioritise child protection, Xinhua news agency reported.

Part Three: Former RCMP investigator a beacon for change

Svay Pak, Cambodia: Former RCMP forensics expert and Ratanak International’s founder – Brian McConaghy – stands outside a former brothel. It was the first crime scene he went to in the village and it’s where he helped Vancouver police collect evidence needed to convict Canada’s first sex tourist, Donald Bakker. (Photograph by: Courtesy, Ratanak International)

Brian McConaghy founded Vancouver-based Ratanak International, which helps rescue and educate former sex slaves

March 23, 2012

By Daphne Bramham

Vancouver Sun

SVAY PAK, Cambodia

A few years ago, sex tourists trolled the brothels of this dusty village looking for sex with children and willing to pay a premium for virgins and children as young as three.

Little girls with lipstick no longer strike sexy poses along the main street. But pimps still come and collect their girls and boys from a kids’ club run by a non-profit group in a former brothel on that same street.

Agape International Mission runs that program. It also runs a school, retraining for girls rescued from the sex trade, a medical clinic, and a gym for boys and young men (some of whom are pimps and brothel owners).

Vancouver-based Ratanak International provided the seed money and continues to fund a third of all the programs.

In November, Ratanak’s founder, Brian McConaghy, came to take a look at the most recent rental, a former brothel that will be converted into a clothing factory.

Infrastructure development and increased tourism mean exploitation of children is on the rise

Svay Pak children watching cartoons at The Sanctuary. (Photograph by: Courtesy Brian McConaghy , Ratanak International)

Part Five: What's to be done?

Infrastructure development and increased tourism mean exploitation of children is on the rise

March 23, 2012
By Daphne Bramham
Vancouver Sun

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Preschool-aged victims may be off the streets, but Cambodia is still a destination of choice for sexual predators.

Even though the country prosecuted more child sex offenders last year than in 2010, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child raised a red flag.

“The committee is seriously concerned that child sex tourism has been increasing in recent years and that an alarming proportion of children are exposed to sexual violence and pornography especially through the Internet,” it said in a June 2010 report.

It expressed “deep concern that thousands of children are exploited into prostitution ... and that rape of children is on the rise.”

Dark side of tourism: Sexual exploitation of children

September 27, 2011
Calgary Herald (Canada)

Today is World Tourism Day and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was right when he described tourism as “a force for a more tolerant, open and united world.”

But tourism can also be a force for evil.

The numbers of visitors to southeast Asian countries is growing exponentially. But with that growth comes a perversely abhorrent trend: child sexual exploitation.

More than ever, we’re travelling to countries perhaps we would have never set foot in five or 10 years ago because of internal strife of one kind or another. Countries that were once on the risky lists are now on the must-go lists: like Laos and Cambodia, and the Philippines. Meanwhile, countries like Vietnam and Thailand have become de rigueur among world travellers.

Thailand’s tourism grew by 26 per cent in the first six months of 2011 (11.7 million visitors), according to a news release from World Vision. Laos saw 2.5 million visitors last year – equal to Cambodia – while Vietnam had five million.

No Longer a Pedophile’s Haven

An American man charged with child-sex offenses hides his face as he arrives at court in Phnom Penh in 2003. (Tang Chhin / AFP-Getty Images)

A crackdown in Cambodia removes impunity for those who prey on children.

November 16, 2010
By Brendan Brady
Newsweek

Cambodia’s pedophile saga has provided no shortage of headlines in recent months. A Russian investor convicted of buying sex with 17 girls as young as 6 years old had his prison sentence reduced from 17 years to eight, with a chance for early release. A Swede suspected of sexually abusing children was recorded on tape by Swedish journalists, bragging about how easy it would be to bribe his judge for a shortened sentence. And another Brit, who in 2005 went free despite overwhelming evidence that he molested children, is now back in court, having returned to Cambodia seemingly undeterred by the legal system.

But these ignominious developments are actually an improvement over years past. Rewind a decade, and disgraced British glam rocker Gary Glitter led a cast of foreign pedophiles whose presence in Cambodia made the impoverished Southeast Asian country infamous as a refuge for child-sex offenders. Those were days when children were openly sold for sex in Phnom Penh’s Svay Pak district and NGO raids on child brothels were invariably foiled by corrupt police on the take. Lax law enforcement and pervasive local demand for prostitution have long made Southeast Asia a destination for sex tourists of all stripes—and in Cambodia, in particular, the social, economic, and legal foundations that militate against the sexual exploitation of children were shattered by years of debilitating rule and civil strife.

Today, the likes of Glitter no longer can break the law with impunity in Cambodia. Following pressure from local activists as well as the United States, Australia, and some European countries, Cambodia launched a campaign in 2003 to fight its reputation as a pedophile’s carefree playground. By most accounts, the effort has achieved results. Now, articles about arrests of North American and European nationals pepper the pages of the local press. The crackdown and accompanying PR campaign helped lift Cambodia from the gutter of the U.S. human-trafficking watchlist, making the donor-dependent country eligible for a greater variety of direct aid.

“For Western pedophiles, Cambodia is no longer a safe haven,” says Samleang Seila, the head of the local child-protection group Action Pour Les Enfants (APLE). The change is evidenced by a rising number of arrests for “debauchery” and “indecent acts,” which grew from just eight in 2003 to 36 last year, according to APLE. The organization tracks sex tourists, gathers evidence against them and hands their cases over to local police. That’s when things can easily unravel: inexperienced and under-resourced, Cambodia’s police and judiciary are prone to corruption and poor implementation of the law. But despite its shaky foundation, the legal system has made strides, says Joerg Langelotz, of APLE. Case in point: the same judge in the town of Siem Reap who a year and a half ago declined to deliberate on a child-molestation charge because the alleged abuse didn’t exceed fondling has now agreed to hear the case. “There is less complacency and more commitment,” says Langelotz.

As policing improves, Western perpetrators are taking greater cover. In two different arrests involving British men in the past few months, the suspects had founded child-care NGOs that now appear to have been fronts for them to prey on children. Kao Thea, the head of Phnom Penh’s anti–human trafficking and juvenile-protection division, is confident his police officers can stay ahead of the curve. “Now we can stop sexual abuse of children from foreigners who come to Cambodia because we are much more experienced than we were before,” he says. That may be true, but rights groups say a greater scourge has been largely undeterred by the crackdown: a thriving child-sex market fueled by locals.

Among the 141 arrests for “debauchery” and “indecent acts” in Cambodia since 2003, only 37 of the suspects were Cambodian and just 19 were men from other Asian countries, according to APLE. And yet, Western men represent only a minuscule fraction of the population in Cambodia that is sexually exploiting children. According to a report released last month by the juvenile-protection NGO, ECPAT (End Child Prostitution, Abuse and Trafficking), the vast majority of former child sex workers say their clients were local men. It may not seem like much of a revelation given the disparity in numbers between Western and local men but, as ECPAT points out, the findings run contrary to “the usually held assumption that pedophilia is a Western problem.”

“Cambodian men prefer beautiful, fair-skinned, and younger-looking sex workers—basically minors,” Chin Chanveasna, head of ECPAT’s Cambodia office, told a conference attended by government and NGO officials in October, adding that sexual exploitation of children by locals is overlooked because of a single-minded focus on targeting Western men. Says Steve Morrish, executive director of SISHA, an NGO that investigates human trafficking: “A lot of the Cambodian men I speak with, they want the young ones and they don’t see it as anything to hide.” Moreover, in Cambodian culture, it is often the reputation of the victim, rather than of the perpetrator, that is blighted. According to a report on Cambodia by Amnesty International released earlier this year, girls who are sexually abused often become outcasts in their community, while convicted offenders face little stigma.

Given the obstacles to changing such widely held attitudes, it’s not surprising the government has targeted Western men, whose crimes are more conspicuous. But, says, Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia division, “Western pedophiles are the low-hanging fruit. Now should come the climb up the tree to catch local sexual abusers of children.”

Japanese man convicted of sexually abusing 13-year-old girl in Cambodia

Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Associated Press

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — A Cambodian court sentenced a Japanese man to seven years in prison Wednesday for repeatedly abusing a 13-year-old girl and paying her $10 each time.

Atsushi Kato, 41, was convicted of paying a child for prostitution. The Phnom Penh Municipal Court also ordered him to pay 400,000 riel ($95) in compensation to the girl's family and to be deported after serving his sentence.

Kato, who is from Aichi prefecture in central Japan, was arrested in the capital in September when he visited his victim at a rehabilitation centre after she was rescued from a brothel. The Japanese man confessed during testimony that he had had sexual relations with the girl about a half dozen times, each time paying her $10.

"I thought the girl must be over 18 because she wore cutie makeup at night," Kato testified through his translator.

Cambodia has long been a magnet for foreign pedophiles because of poverty and poor law enforcement, but in recent years police and courts have increasingly targeted sex offenders.

Confronting Child Sex Tourism

SOS Children's Village (Canada)

In nearby Cambodia, 30, 000 children suffer from commercial sexual exploitation. Children as young as 5 years old are used as sex slaves. As in Thailand, they are magnets for child sex tourism, which is illegal in the country. In 2004, it was estimated that roughly a third of all prostitutes in Cambodia were children.

7/7/2010 – Child sex tourism is an urgent child rights issue throughout the world, but especially in Southeast Asia, as recent arrests in Thailand have demonstrated.

Despite the efforts of many governments to enact legislation that prohibits their citizens from engaging in child prostitution abroad, many children continue to suffer sexual abuse by locals, visitors and ex-pats.

For instance, the US created the Protect Act in 2003, which doles out a possible 30-year prison stay to an US citizen engaging in sexual acts with anyone under 18 years old abroad. In Canada too, engaging in any sexual act concerning children is illegal. However, a high-profile Russian pianist was apprehended and charged with raping a 14-year old boy in Thailand today. Mikhail Pletnev could face up to 20 years in prison and 40,000 baht in fines. And less than two weeks ago, a 90-year old Australian man, Karl Kraus, was apprehended by police for the sexual abuse—including child pornography—of four Thai girls (aged 5 to 12).

Thailand is a source, transit and destination country according to the US Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report. Thai girls may be trafficked to other Southeast Asia countries, South Africa, Europe, North America and Australia. Those coming into Thailand may originate from East Asia, Russia and Eurasian countries. Not all, but many, girls are trafficked by international networks of organized crime. Thailand’s 1997 Prevention and Suppression of Trafficking in Women and Children Act makes the sexual exploitation of children a crime punishable by 5-20 years imprisonment for exploiting children under 15 years old in addition to financial penalties.

In nearby Cambodia, 30, 000 children suffer from commercial sexual exploitation. Children as young as 5 years old are used as sex slaves. As in Thailand, they are magnets for child sex tourism, which is illegal in the country. In 2004, it was estimated that roughly a third of all prostitutes in Cambodia were children.

In the entire Mekong region of Southeast Asia, roughly 35% of all sex workers are between 12 and 17 years old.

Worldwide, more than 2 million children are victimized by the commercial sex industry. They have been sold by family members to pay debts or earn some extra cash, kidnapped, or otherwise coerced into the sex trade. These children are a high-risk group for sexually-transmitted diseases. More often than not, they face destitution in addition to prostitution, rejected by or estranged from their families and communities.

Child prostitution is only one aspect of the global child rights challenge of child trafficking. Girls may also be trafficked for mail-order-brides and domestic help. Both girls and boys may be trafficked for labour, sexual exploitation and work in the drug industry. Those interested in child protection might consult the 2009 “Training Manual to Fight Trafficking in Children” produced by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and UNICEF.

U.S. Cracking Down On Child Sex Tourism In Cambodia

5th March 2010
By John Morton
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

By any measure, Cambodia has come a long way in a relatively short period of time.

Since its full independence in 1953, this nation of now 14 million has endured two distinct and lengthy conflicts, and dictatorial regime that – between 1976 and 1979 – annihilated at least 1.5 million Cambodians through execution, forced servitude, and malnourishment.

Cambodia is a democracy today, but serious problems remain.

Child sex tourism in Cambodia is a persistent, pervasive practice that threatens the most vulnerable in this developing country. In recent years, the Cambodian National Police, international partners, and a number of non-governmental organizations have worked to crack down on pedophiles from around the world, arresting and prosecuting these criminals while working to rescue and rehabilitate the abused.

I am proud to say that the agency I lead, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), is at the forefront of this emerging issue, and aggressively pursues Americans who travel overseas to abuse children. Millions of children fall prey each year to sexual predators, and these young victims are left with permanent psychological, physical, and emotional scars. Many American criminals clearly believe they can evade detection and prosecution by committing child sex crimes overseas. They are wrong.

My visit to Cambodia seeks to strengthen our ongoing cooperation with the Cambodian National Police. Earlier this week, we signed a Letter of Intent to solidify the working relationship between our two law enforcement agencies to combat child sex tourism. This agreement seeks to develop a bi-national, coordinated, and intelligence-driven investigative response to the sexual exploitation of children by U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents.

There is no more poignant reminder of the critical nature of these investigations than a neighborhood outside Phnom Penh, known simply by its distance from the center of town – “Kilo 11.” There, predators from around the world prey on young boys and girls amidst the shocking poverty of a Cambodian slum. Accompanied by our Cambodian Police partners, we walked down narrow streets and dark alleys where we saw firsthand the extreme circumstances that lead some families to sell their children to these criminals – many of them from Western nations.

Not long ago, ICE agents assisted in arresting an American man for abusing a six-year-old child in a ramshackle blue hut, set deep in this labyrinthine neighborhood. This individual was eventually returned to the United States and is currently standing trial for charges stemming from his arrest in Cambodia.

These types of cases are extremely challenging to investigate and prosecute, but we owe it to these young victims to take action. Tragically, many of these children will bear the emotional and physical scars of this trauma for the rest of their lives.

The United States would not be able to successfully prosecute these cases without the assistance of our international partners.

John Morton is the Assistant Secretary U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

Cambodia police bust paedophile ring

January 24, 2010
AFP

Police in Cambodia have arrested two locals and a US man after smashing a seven-year pedophile ring offering underage "virgin" girls to tourists for $US3,000 ($A3,327) a night, they say.

Taxi driver Mey Sovann, 36, and his female accomplice Sek Vy, 47, were arrested on Friday for providing underage girls for sexual services, said Bith Kimhong, head of Cambodia's anti-human trafficking unit, on Sunday.

A six-month investigation, aided by the French Police's International Technical Co-operation Delegation (SCTIP), found that since 2003, Mey Sovann had advertised underage virgin girls on the Internet for $US3,000 ($A3,327) a night.

He would pick up customers from Phnom Penh airport and show them pictures, before taking them to meet the girls at a guesthouse owned by Sek Vy, according to an officer from SCTIP's Cambodia office, who asked not to be named.

Mey Sovann was arrested by undercover police at the airport in possession of the underage girls' photographs, while Sek Vy was arrested at her guesthouse in Kandal province, about 20km south of Phnom Penh.

American Carl Craig Thomas, 58, was also arrested on Saturday in the capital for sexually abusing three underage girls provided by the Cambodian pair, and for child pornography pictures he took at the guesthouse, Bith Kimhong said.

"We have arrested the man and the woman who provided underage girls. During the investigation, we found they were providing three underage girls to the US man too," Bith Kimhong told AFP.

"Now we are investigating the case further to see if they have a wider network," he added.

Cambodia has struggled to shed its reputation as a haven for pedophiles, putting dozens of foreigners in jail for child sex crimes or deporting them to face trial in their home countries since 2003.

'No Thanks, I'm Not a Sex Tourist'

A sex worker in Phnom Penh. Credit: UNAIDS/S. Noorani

And yet, how I ended up doing a bit of business with a Cambodian prostitute.

9 Oct 2009
By Luke T. Johnson
TheTyee.ca

It was not my intention to pay for the services of a prostitute in Cambodia. But it was the least I could do.

My dalliance with that young woman at dawn was spontaneous, infinitely relieving and wholly chaste. It capped, for me, a vicarious romp through the Southeast Asian nation's booming sex industry, a first-hand look at the desperation born out of decades of corruption and suffering.

Hardship and human trafficking

Cambodia can be a very grim place. It was carpet bombed by the United States during the Vietnam War, followed by genocide led by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge from 1975-1979. The latter atrocity killed nearly 2 million Cambodians -- nearly a quarter of the population. Today about half of the population of 14 million is under 20 years old.


The last three decades have seen Cambodia claw its way back to some sort of normalcy. Transparency International still ranks it as one of the world's most corrupt nations, but that hasn't kept the tourists out. With the magnificent Angkor Wat complex of temples in the north and miles of pristine beaches in the south, Cambodia has seen an increasing number of visitors in the past 10 years as tourism has become a pillar of the country's meager economy.

But economic development and the growth in tourism have brought along with them a marked increase in human trafficking. The UN Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking (UNIAP) cites the rise in tourism and an imbalance in urban-rural development in the past decade as contributing factors to human trafficking. With few jobs in the countryside and a young population earning barely US$1.50 a day, desperate families may sell their children to traffickers, who promise employment opportunities in well-travelled urban areas such as Phnom Penh, Siem Reap and Sihanoukville.

Many of those trafficked are women and children who end up selling sex in brothels, beer gardens and karaoke bars in these cities. But just because someone is a prostitute does not mean she is a victim of trafficking. The exact numbers are difficult to pin down, but a U.N. official told me that of the 20,000-30,000 prostitutes working in Cambodia, probably about 10 per cent consider themselves trafficked. That number likely does not include women who were tricked or fell into prostitution through other circumstances, however.

Sex tourist magnet

Nevertheless, the industry thrives. Patrick Stayton, the Cambodia field office director of International Justice Mission (IJM), a faith-based human-rights agency, says the quick-cash nature of prostitution has made it a generally accepted part of the culture in Cambodia. As a result, the country has become an attractive destination for so-called "sex tourists" -- those who travel abroad to fulfill their carnal needs.

And with such low overhead to start selling sex, Stayton says, supply can easily keep up with demand: "For a brothel, you just need someplace with a roof over it and a ratty old mattress. I mean, the guys that come in to support this kind of thing, they're not looking for five-star hotels. They'll do it basically anywhere."

Though it's the Caucasian sex tourists who stand out, the majority of johns in Cambodia are Asian. Unlike Westerners, who usually travel alone and find what they're looking for on the streets, beaches and in expat bars, Stayton says, tourists from China, Japan or Korea tend to travel in groups, visiting entertainment establishments like karaoke bars and massage parlors on pre-arranged tours, "because that's more their style."

'Boom-boom' for sale

The southwestern city of Sihanoukville -- with large chunks of land and even several islands owned by foreigners -- is a top destination for tourists of all kinds, but especially sex tourists. I was unaware of its notoriety when I boarded the bus in Phnom Penh with a friend to spend a few days there.

Sihanoukville, a sister city to Seattle, is home to Cambodia's lone international port and sits on a peninsula jutting into the Gulf of Thailand. In 2005, the New York Times called it the "next Phuket".

We had been in town less than ten minutes before an enterprising young man driving us to our hotel in his tuk-tuk (a motorised rickshaw) asked if we were interested in some "boom-boom," the not-so-secret code word for paid-for sex. It would be the first of countless offers we would decline.

Lawless law enforcement

Prostitution is technically illegal in Cambodia. It was criminalised last year with the passage of the Law on the Suppression of Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation, a move widely seen as an attempt by the Cambodian government to win favour with the U.S. State Department, which duly removed Cambodia from its annual human-trafficking watch list shortly after the law's passage.

The law itself is ambiguous at best and may even do more harm than good. The prostitutes and victims of trafficking -- those whom the law is supposedly intended to help -- reportedly are, in practice, the targets of widespread and often violent crackdowns, as police have no means or real motivation to distinguish between trafficked and non-trafficked sex workers. A recent article in The Economist cited reports of women and children who were beaten and raped while in detention following a crackdown, and suggested the crackdowns were negatively impacting progress made in fighting HIV/AIDS in Cambodia.

The State Department's 2009 report, which placed Cambodia back onto the trafficking watch-list, says that despite numerous raids on brothels, police failed "to arrest, investigate or charge any large number of persons for human-trafficking offenses."

The report continues: "Corruption is pervasive in Cambodia and it is widely believed that many individuals, including police and judicial officials, are both directly and indirectly involved in trafficking. Some local police and government officials are known to extort money or accept bribes from brothel owners, sometimes on a daily basis, in order to allow the brothels to continue operating."

Exploited children

The price of boom-boom for a Caucasian in Sihanoukville starts at about US$5, but $25 can usually get you a partner for an entire night. Oral sex, or "yum-yum," costs between $3 and $5. Generous customers might give tips of 100 to 200 per cent.


It's not hard to spot the sex tourists in Sihanoukville. Often sitting at tables surrounded by scantily clad ladies, they'll try to make awkward conversation until their solicitor's vocabulary has been exhausted and then surreptitiously saunter off, either to a room in the back or somewhere otherwise unseen. Or you'll see them walking down the street usually towering over the petite woman or women at their side, maybe holding hands to give themselves the impression that this relationship is more pure than it actually is.

These are the johns that few of the NGOs or human-rights groups are concerned about. Though maybe a little sad, these sex tourists are merely taking advantage of a quasi-legitimate service being offered, and no one really complains about the money they bring in.

What groups like IJM and Action Pour Les Enfants are really concerned about is child-sex tourism. The poverty and lawlessness of Cambodia has created an environment relatively friendly to pedophiles, who can find victims as young as 6 if they look in the right places. Sihanoukville indeed has some of those places, though indications are that they are not as prevalent as they once were.

It's impossible to know exactly how many child prostitutes -- defined as under 15 by the 2008 Sexual Exploitation Law -- are currently working in Cambodia. And opinions differ as to how much the situation has improved. IJM's Stayton says "pedophiles have to be more careful these days, because they know they can’t walk around as freely as they have in the past," though he says opportunities for pedophiles have not necessarily decreased.

Education campaigns have helped. The Childsafe program of Friends International, a child-advocacy NGO, trains and certifies Cambodian tuk-tuk drivers to be more aware of the dangers children face. Other countries, including Canada, have laws banning their citizens from travelling abroad to have sex with minors. Canada has caught two such offenders since the law was strengthened in 2002 -- Vancouver man Donald Bakker, who pleaded guilty in 2005, and Kenneth Robert Klassen, who is facing 35 sex-tourism-related charges. Canada, however, has also been criticised for not enforcing its law strongly enough.

Taking the tour


My time in Sihanoukville did not bring me into contact with any pedophiles, as far as I know. But my friend and I were given a tour of the town by a couple of local expatriates who are well familiar with some of the seedy hot spots.

The port, the point of entry for horny sailors, is Sihanoukville's cheapest and dirtiest red-light district and is located a few kilometres outside downtown. It's a dirt strip about 200 metres long, lined with shacks and huts with fluorescent red and blue lights dangling from the eaves and rows of catcalling women.

We rode our rented motorbikes from one end to the other, and the second we stopped to turn around we were swarmed by ladies desperate for work. One jumped on the back of my bike and said, "Let's go!" It was the beginning of the rainy season and most of the clientele had dried up, so two white guys in the middle of the night looked like hot commodities. They surely felt more than disappointment when we sped away.



Back in town, at a brothel in the Blue Mountain area, we sipped cans of Anchor Beer ("An-chore", not to be confused with Angkor, Sihanoukville's local brew) as a pleasant young lady kept us company, all but begging us to take her into one of the rooms in back, as cockroaches the size of my thumb scuttled across the dirt floor underfoot. She said she was Vietnamese, as were most of the girls at this place. Cambodia scores an unholy human-trafficking trifecta as a country of transit, origin and destination for victims. As many as 80 percent of the prostitutes trafficked to Cambodia are from Vietnam.

We gave our hostess a couple dollars for her time. She smiled, gave us each a hug and waved as we rode away.

Help in an emergency

On my last night in town we went down to Serendipity Beach (Ochheuteal Beach) to watch the sun rise. The beach is known for its ladyboys, but was mostly empty by the time we got there. I had a bus to catch at 7:45 AM and it was getting to be time to go. We gathered our things and mounted our motorbikes, but I was missing something... my keys! How they fell out of my pocket, I have no idea, but a full-scale search ensued, retracing steps and sifting through sand.


I was growing more and more anxious; the bike rental place had our passports, and without the keys I had no way to return the bike. A couple of prostitutes and some unseemly men had appeared. My friend said, "You know, if you leave the bike here, it'll be gone in 10 minutes." I knew.



Sensing the emergency, the prostitutes kindly joined our search. Just as hopelessness was setting in and I prepared to give up, one of the girls exclaimed and held up a sandy set of keys... my keys! Sweet relief. I took the keys and pulled a crisp $5 bill out of my wallet and handed it to my savior. She blushed and declined at first, asking if I wouldn't rather go over there so she could earn it. She promptly changed her mind and took the money, and I was off.



And that's how I came to pay a prostitute -- money well spent. For the price of a blowjob, I was able to leave Sihanoukville and Cambodia with my passport, some knowledge, and my dignity.

Luke Johnson is a former Vancouverite now reporting from Asia.

Financial crisis driving child sex tourism

Saturday, September 26, 2009
By Esther Han for PM
ABC Radio Australia

The global financial crisis has hit hard at the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and child protection agencies that fight child sex crimes in South East Asia.

Funds are running low, and the child sex tourism industry has boomed.

Now a US study has found that sex offenders from Australia are a big part of the problem in Thailand.

A report from the Protection Project at Johns Hopkins University found that sex offenders from Australia topped the list of foreigners involved in child sex tourism in Thailand.

Its executive director, Mohamed Mattar, says the economic downturn means plenty of cheap flights and more children and women living under the poverty line.

"We found that casual tourism and business is part of the problem. So you have a businessman, he goes abroad, and then he would like to have some sex on the side, and he would maybe go for younger boys or girls," he said.

Child sex trafficking may be booming, but donations to NGOs are not.

The Cambodian Children's Painting Project is one of 450 NGOs in Cambodia struggling to survive the global financial crisis, as manager Felix Brooks-Church explains.

"We're an art-based project working with about 100 of these children and our whole focus is to use art as therapy and also as a means to get them off the beach, alternative income and into schools with full sponsorship," he said.

"Our donations have really dropped. We run on a budget of about $3,000 a month and that feeds over 100 kids, schools them. That [has] probably dropped down to $2,000 if not less."

The project has just launched a paintings roadshow in Australia to boost their funds.

"What's remarkable about this piece, and more so the artist, is Sok Piset is 15 years old but he is extremely mentally handicapped, probably learning and acting like a five-year-old," Mr Brooks-Church said.

"But he is able to create these works of art that surpass - as far as abstract and impressionism - surpasses any of the other children."

Cronulla Sharks chairman Damian Irvine was auctioneer at the charity event.

"We should be more charitable in the harshest financial climate, as opposed to cutting back. That is where you must expend all your assets," he said.

Laws

Mohammad Mattar says Australia's law against child sex tourism could be more effective if it is fully implemented.

"The problem is that you're talking about a trans-national crime, you're talking about a distance, you're talking about sex crime, you're talking about a crime that involves children and all these are very complicating factors when you want to prosecute cases of child sex tourism," he said.

But Bernadette McMenamin, the CEO of Child Wise Australia, says the law is not good enough.

She is lobbying the Federal Government to introduce amendments, which include higher penalties for preparatory offences.

"These changes include preparing to travel overseas to sexually abuse a child; so if there is firm evidence, witness, flight tickets. It also includes grooming a child for the purposes of sexual exploitation overseas," she said.

"So we are focusing on the prevention before the sexual acts happen."

Sydney art lover Justine Carter was the winning bidder at the auction, buying Sok Piset's painting for $1,300.

"It is absolutely beautiful and personally I think I got a bargain. Knowing the history and what happened behind it, that money can go to that child and go to that community and it's just absolutely fantastic," she said.

But the extent of the problem is so broad it will take a lot more auctions and many more donations to keep the fight against child sex tourism in Cambodia going.

2 men face child sex charge

April 21, 2009
AFP

PHNOM PENH (Cambodia) - A CAMBODIAN court has charged a French man and a Greek national with paying for sex with an underaged girl, a lawyer said on Tuesday.

Prosecutor Kry Sok Y said charges were laid against Jacques Collinet, 61, of France and Christos Kapalios, 62, from Greece.

The pair are alleged to have bought sex from a 15-year-old girl and are both now in custody pending trial, a court official said, but declined to give further details about the men.

Cambodia has struggled to shed its reputation as a haven for paedophiles, putting dozens of foreigners in jail for child sex crimes or deporting them to face trial in their home countries since 2003.

60,000 children in S-E Asian sex trade

Fri, Mar 20, 2009
ANN/AFP

DENPASAR, BALI - IN A frightening statistic that is still creeping upwards, over 60,000 children in South-east Asia are being exploited in the multi-million-dollar world of sexual businesses and sex tourism, a seminar was told on Wednesday.

Startlingly, law enforcers at times hesitate to swoop in to the rescue because the child may be a family's sole source of income.

"The number falling victim to sexual abuse is increasing," said Mr Frans van Dijk, regional director of Terre des Hommes Netherlands, a Dutch aid body focused on children. The countries most affected are Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand.

At the South-east Asia Conference on Child Sex Tourism here, Mr van Dijk urged governments to take the issue more seriously.

The situation was especially bad in Asia because some Asian men believed that having sex with children increased longevity, he said.

The core problem, he added, was poverty and lack of education.

An Indonesian speaker, Mr Irwanto - the president of the National Coalition for the Elimination of Commercial Sexual Exploitation - noted that officers were sometimes hesitant to make arrests because it would mean the loss of a family's basic income.

He said children were being groomed for prostitution with financial incentives such as payment of school fees.

Children in areas prone to natural disasters, like earthquakes, floods and cyclones, were particularly at risk, especially orphans or those who had lost a parent.

"Children in disaster-affected areas like Aceh are a particular concern because they are very vulnerable to this form of grooming," he said.

The Asian tsunami of 2004 killed around 170,000 people in Aceh.

Mr Marco Scarpati, president oF the Italian chapter of End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes, said the rapid growth of technology, especially the Internet, played a major role in exacerbating the phenomenon of child-sex tourism.

Innocence lost, reason for HOPE

Artist Roger Dixon, the founder of the Cambodian Children’s Painting Project, oversees his young charges’ work at Serendipity Beach’s Serendip Bar, which also houses a gallery of paintings for sale.

With the Cambodian government, communities and families having failed the children who are preyed upon by paedophiles in Sihanoukville, an arts project offers a way out

January 2, 2008
Clive Graham-Ranger
Special to The Nation (Thailand)

The beach has been cleaned of debris, the sea sparkles, towels are being laid out on recliners. It's another day at Serendipity Beach in Sihanoukville. It's a tourist brochure in living colour.

But take a closer look.

Two 50-year-old farang men mingle with the sun worshippers. Gripped tightly by the hand, their beach consorts are male children, barely 11 years old.

It is said that paedophiles thrive on Sihanoukville's sea, sand and anything-goes environment. In the capital, Phnom Penh, the battle against sexual deviants has driven most of them underground following a well-publicised clampdown after critical reports in an appalled international press.

Cambodia's southern beach resort, though, has attracted less official attention.

But a group of children who earn their living as vendors on the beach are turning the tide under the guiding hand and watchful eye of what is known locally as Ibiza's art gang.

Founded in 2005 by artist Roger Dixon, a 63-year-old Englishman, the Cambodian Children's Painting Project is headquartered in the Serendip Bar at the western end of the beach.

Several of its walls are the children's art gallery, with examples of the paintings offered as saleable souvenirs hawked along the beach.

About 100 children, ages five to 15, are registered with the project. They are mentored, fed and given canvases and a wide choice of oils and brushes to create their miniature masterpieces. Each child is honour-bound to attend the local school for four hours a day.

Dixon, who spends half the year in Sihanoukville and the rest at his home and art gallery on the Spanish island of Ibiza, started the project just over two years ago.

"I came here to paint, and quite a few kids came up to me and said how they wanted to do the same," he says.

"They had all been peddling stuff on the beach for a few riel, which they took home to their families, often begging a handful of rice or the scraps from a tourist table. Many came from violent and abusive homes; none was getting the semblance of a formal education. Reading and writing was what 'other kids' could do.

"So we committed ourselves to assisting children who were neglected by their families, communities and governments and who had long since slipped through the weak social safety nets, making them vulnerable to abuse and exploitation."

Dixon was also quick to recognise the ravages of malnutrition among the children and embarked on systematically raising funds to ensure every child had healthy teeth and gums and at least one good meal a day. His pragmatic approach and the recognition he deservedly received from tourists meant the project quickly outgrew its beach location, so he negotiated a deal with the Khmer family who rented the Serendip Bar, sharing their space and, he hoped, its customers.

It was a perfect arrangement, and within a year he received full non-governmental organisation (NGO) status. Creating an NGO from scratch is an achievement in itself, but with a growing number of children relying on his scant resources, he decided to call on local assistance.

Sokha Peng became the charity's director and Pen Sopheap took on the role of caretaker and helper at the gallery. Friends from Ibiza also chipped in with regular visits, and longer-term help came from the likes of 60-year-old Anna Janssen, whose baking skills are a daily treat for the children and bring in extra cash through the sale of her chocolate-chip brownies and other confections to nearby hotels.

Barry Flanagan, the renowned Irish artist and prominent member of Ibiza's art gang, has also donated money to the cause, giving the project US$7,000 (Bt212,000) and his wholehearted blessing for bringing art and education into the lives of so many dispossessed children.

The tipping point, though, was the arrival on the scene of Felix Brooks-Church, 30. Born in Ibiza but educated in the US in computer sciences and graphics, he moved back to Ibiza to be close to his artist parents and ran a beach bar for a couple of years.

"I've known Roger and Anna all my life," he says, "and they suggested I come and see what they were doing. Within days of my arrival I was convinced I was in the right place at the right time. These kids are so keen to learn. They come here with no expectations, only a child's natural-born inquisitiveness and desire to do something well and enjoy themselves."

Brooks-Church has brought new impetus to the project.

"The project is opening a window of opportunity for them, allowing them to be creative and express themselves, to earn an income and, most importantly, to learn about other alternative possibilities for empowerment through work, education and art."

The paintings, unframed, sell for $4, with half going to the child artist and the rest towards project financing and a communal education fund to cover school costs for all the children. So far they have produced well over 8,000 paintings and sold more than a half.

The children represent an early-warning system against the ever-present threat of sex tourists. If they see or hear of any suspicious behaviour they immediately report it to one of the project's staff members, who contacts the authorities.

"It's one of our golden rules that the children do not work the beach after sunset," says Brooks-Church. "Most nights my last job is to patrol the beach and stop any kids who are out there and ask why they're not at home."

Donations can be made to the project through the CCPP website, ArtCambodia.org.

The writer is an assistant editor of the South Eastern Globe, a monthly Cambodian newsmagazine where this article first appeared.

Innocence for sale

Sep 13th 2007 | PHNOM PENH
The Economist

Ethnic discrimination fuels a vile trade

THE virginity trade can sound as innocuous as the clink of ice in a glass. Roving young women equipped with ice buckets and tongs have long been a fixture of Cambodia's karaoke parlours. Now scores of “ice-pickers” are being groomed to supply a thriving market for virgins.

Capitalising on an influx of foreign visitors, Cambodia has become the region's prime destination for purchasing “unbroken” under-age girls. Among the foreign clientèle, the vast majority are Asian nationals: Chinese, Korean, Thai, and Japanese men who believe that deflowering a virgin will rejuvenate and purify them.

Meeting the demand is a growing number of ethnic Vietnamese—a group historically reviled by the ethnic-Khmer majority, but prized by the visitors for their pale complexions. Though ethnic-Vietnamese are estimated to make up no more than about 5% of Cambodia 's population—the government has never issued official figures—they represent almost one-third of virginity sales, according to “Ties That Bind”, a new study by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

Helen Sworn, of the Chab Dai Coalition, a network of Christian anti-trafficking groups, says that some are still trafficked across the border. But most are Cambodian-born daughters of Vietnamese migrants who arrived in the 1980s and 1990s, lured by the prospect of jobs. Many migrants have instead fallen into debt. They suffer discrimination from Khmers, who associate the newcomers with centuries of Vietnamese colonisation.

Entire families have chosen to build their livelihoods around the country's sex industry. “It's the bread-and-butter of daily life,” says one Vietnamese woman who sold her 14-year-old daughter to a brothel. “Most of us think it's just a job, a career to earn our living...And the girls try to do whatever their parents tell them.”

Such sordid realities were once in plain view, when notorious red-light districts were in full swing on the outskirts of Phnom Penh. But nearly four years ago, Hun Sen, the prime minister, led a much-publicised campaign to curb brothels. Resourceful traffickers, madams and pimps responded by pushing low-end sex work underground and infiltrating more up-market hotels, casinos and bars. So Keo Thea, of the Phnom Penh police's anti-trafficking division, says it is now harder to trace traffickers and their victims. “We need to dress our officers up like businessmen to reach them.”

Unlike in a dingy brothel, work in a boisterous karaoke parlour can appear to be voluntary. The girls are not locked up by managers who arrange to sell their virginity. But recruiters still routinely use deception and force, says the IOM, and the proportion of under-age girls is far higher, particularly among ethnic Vietnamese.

The repugnance the trade provokes among both local authorities and international aid donors has helped expedite the progress of a much-delayed anti-trafficking bill. Its passage would bring Cambodian law closer in line with international norms. Given the complicity of Cambodian officials in the sex industry, this would be no small accomplishment.

But such forward momentum is also undercut by Cambodians' popular disgust for the ethnic Vietnamese and the political acrimony they inspire. The migrants are routinely demonised by the opposition Sam Rainsy Party.

“They're an easy scapegoat,” says J.K. Reimer, a consultant to anti-trafficking groups in Phnom Penh. “There is the perception that Khmers have a higher standard of purity than Vietnamese—that the Vietnamese are selling their daughters, but the Khmers are not.”

San Arun, a senior official in the Women's Affairs Ministry, says the government holds no bias against trafficked Vietnamese. She cites an agreement with Vietnam to protect all victims, whatever their status. But without more concerted intervention, says Ms Reimer, the community risks becoming more ghettoised. The supply of girls—and the rings that traffic them—will be unbroken.

It's an easy life for sexual predators in Asia

Corrupt law enforcement, sex networks provide cover for paedophiles in this part of the world

Friday October 19, 2007
By MICHAEL CASEY
AP

Last year, suspected paedophile John Mark Karr was caught in Thailand. This week, Canadian Christopher Paul Neil slipped into the country in a bid to elude police over allegations that he abused at least a dozen young boys in Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand. With each new sex case, the obvious question arises: Why do these predators choose Asia to commit their crimes?

Most experts in human trafficking say the region remains popular with sexual predators because of its corrupt law enforcement systems in some countries, pockets of endemic poverty and communities of like-minded criminals who can provide them with a safe haven.

''Everything here makes the crime easy,'' said Rosalind Prober, president of the Canadian children rights organisation Beyond Borders, who is visiting Bangkok.

''This can be an open crime in Thailand when Western men are obviously in front of people carrying on in this way. It becomes normalised so they don't think they are doing anything wrong,'' Ms Prober said.

Interpol has focused their worldwide manhunt for the 32-year-old Mr Neil on Thailand, after he was caught on tape arriving at Bangkok's international airport on Oct 11 from South Korea.

The photo, released by Interpol, shows a man with a cleanly shaved head and eyeglasses dressed in a white button-down shirt. Authorities believe it is the same man whose digitally blurred image appeared in about 200 internet photos that showed him sexually abusing Vietnamese and Cambodian boys as young as six.

Thai police said yesterday that three Thai youths said Mr Neil paid them for sex when they were aged 9 to 14.

Across Asia, hundreds of thousands of girls and boys are believed to work in the sex trade mostly in Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines.

Some of their customers _ mostly older men _ commit their crimes with relative impunity, walking hand-in-hand with underage girls in Bangkok or with boys in a resort hotel on the Indonesian island of Bali.

The victims in many cases are the poorest children, including beggars, street children and the homeless.

''It's all a manifestation of poverty that creates the vulnerabilities,'' said Richard Bridle, Unicef's deputy regional director for East Asia and the Pacific.

In one internet exchange intercepted by Cambodian police, two unidentified teachers talk about how easy it was for them to pick up mostly homeless boys between 10 and 14 and bring them back to their apartments for sex.

''I am having a wonderful time with them sexually. Some of them are very interesting. There is never a dull moment,'' one of the teachers wrote, according to a transcript published in 2004 by Beyond Borders. ''Last night, four boys spent the night and I like all four of them.''

Other paedophiles operate more covertly, depending on secretive paedophile rings in cyberspace to find their victims.

The networks offer tips on the best places to meet children or arrange sexual rendezvous in luxury condos or on private yachts.

To get access to such networks and earn credibility among their fellow paedophiles, they often must provide evidence of sex acts they have committed with children _ as Mr Neil appears to have done by putting the sexually explicit photos of himself with young boys.

Still others turn to jobs like teaching or tutoring that gives them ready access to youngsters.

Teaching English is especially popular because jobs are easy to get and the position carries with it a level of authority that makes it difficult for the children and even their parents to question abuses.

''The children are sitting ducks. This is their teacher. This is someone you trust and tells you what to do,'' Ms Prober said.

''You very quickly get trapped. There is such a level of control and power by a teacher. It's multiplied when it comes to a foreign teacher.''

Paedophiles also take advantage of Asian legal systems where cash bribes can lead to charges being dropped or victim's relatives and other witnesses suddenly changing their stories.

Disgraced British rocker Gary Glitter received a three-year jail sentence last year for molesting two Vietnamese girls, which was nine years short of the maximum.

Before the trial, he gave US$2,000 (68,440 baht) each to the families of two girls, aged 11 and 12.

Asian governments, however, have begun to address the problem, enacting tough laws and moving to convict paedophiles in Cambodia, Thailand and Indonesia.

Thailand, for example, has toughened its screening process for teachers since the Karr case.

Karr, who was arrested last year in Bangkok, confessed to killing six-year-old JonBenet Ramsey. He was flown back to the United States to face murder charges, only to be freed when DNA tests failed to place him at the crime scene.

''It is very good now that we have the police help us screen teachers to make sure there is no previous [criminal] record,'' said Poramit Srikureja, an assistant chairman of a Christian school in Bangkok where Mr Neil taught from August 2003 to January 2004.

''It is a lot more difficult now to get teachers.''

The Neil case, experts said, also shows that law enforcement agencies are better coordinating their enforcement activities and giving priority to paedophilia cases.

''We are beginning to see a trend going toward better laws, better policing and more awareness within public that this isn't acceptable,'' Mr Bridle of Unicef said.

''I see this particular case as a great cause of optimism and great cause for redoubling efforts to both catch these people committing these crimes but also looking at vulnerabilities that underlie why children become victims.''

Ethical Traveler Takes On Child Sex Trafficking in Cambodia

8.29.07
World Hum

Ethical Traveler and partnering organizations recently announced a campaign against child sex trafficking in Cambodia, urging supporters to sign a letter to the nation’s tourism minister. “As many as 100,000 women and children may be at risk,” the organization states. “Cambodia’s efforts to eliminate this slave trade have been hindered by corruption, poor law enforcement, and a weak judiciary system.” To learn more, I traded e-mails with travel writer and Ethical Traveler Executive Director Jeff Greenwald.

World Hum: How optimistic are you that the Cambodian government will take appropriate action?

As with Ethical Traveler’s previous campaigns, we’re focusing on a sector of government that’s usually removed from human rights or environmental issues: the Ministry of Tourism. Tourism is very important in Cambodia; the nation relies increasingly on revenue from travelers, most of who have come to visit the ancient Khmer ruins at Angkor and elsewhere. We believe that the arrival of hundreds of letters from travelers around the world, all focused on this specific issue, will convince the Minister of Tourism that this problem is a real threat to Cambodia’s economic health.

Cambodia’s actual mechanism for action is a bit mysterious—but If the Minister takes these letters to his colleagues in the Home and Justice sectors, the government will certainly be compelled, at the least, to enforce their existing laws. We’re hoping they will do more, like actually close down hotels that support the child sex trade. I frankly think that the ministers will be quite rattled by the fact that this problem has such a high profile.

That said, Cambodia has significant issues with corruption and cronyism. It may be some time before we see concrete results. Meanwhile, we’ll work with the global media to make sure that this remains a high profile issue until the government does take action. And our partner in Cambodia, ECPAT, will continue to monitor the government’s progress.

You suggest concerned travelers sign a letter to Cambodia’s tourism ministry noting that they’ll be watching for progress. If not enough is done, will Ethical Traveler and your partner organizations call for a traveler boycott of Cambodia?

We certainly hope it doesn’t come to that. Boycotts are always a last resort. But if the Cambodian government continues to look the other way on this issue, or fails to enforce the laws that they themselves put on the books, Ethical Traveler will discuss the possibility with our partners.

What’s next? Any other major issues you’re considering spotlighting in the near future?

Our next big project will be completing, and announcing, the 2007 list of “Top Ethical Travel Destinations.” It’s a huge effort—narrowing down all the countries in the developing world into a list of 10 places we encourage travelers to visit and support. But it’s a lot of fun, and very positive: a way to reward and acknowledge which governments have best managed to combine sustainable tourism with cultural integrity and great social programs.

Thanks, Jeff. Good luck with the campaign.

Children for sale (Dateline NBC 2004 Original report)

Click on the photo to view Dateline video
2004: Dateline's Chris Hansen reports on the illegal sex industry that victimizes Cambodian children, and the efforts to stop it.

Update: Children from sex ring 'have a future'

Click on the photo to view Dateline video
Inside a sexual slavery ring in Cambodia - New developments in the hidden camera investigation exposing the trafficking of young children (Photo: Dateline NBC)

New developments in the hidden camera investigation exposing a child sexual slavery ring in Cambodia

TRANSCRIPT

Aug 8, 2007
By Chris Hansen
Correspondent
Dateline NBC (USA)

This story aired Aug. 8, Dateline NBC. Contains adult subject matter.

Phnom Penh - The moment we stepped outside our hotel in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, we were greeted with this offer.

Driver: Many, many, many girls.

Dateline: Many girls?

Driver: Yes.

Dateline: How young?

Driver: Young, maybe, uh,... 12.

Twelve year olds for sale? Sounds shocking, but when we arrived in this village called Svay Pak, we met a young pimp selling even younger girls.

Po: New girls, too much for you.

How young?

Po: Eight, eight.

Along with a human rights investigator, we followed the pimp through the village alleys into a room filled with kids.

Po: New girls, new girls.

Some so young they could be in kindergarten.

At one brothel after another, there were dozens of children -- all for sale.

This girl told us she's nine.

This one ten. Both said they knew how to perform oral sex.

And they gave us a price in U.S. Dollars.

Girl: One girl, 30.

Dateline: One girl 30, and two girls?

Girl: Sixty.

We also found foreign tourists visiting Svay Pak, but most weren't eager to tell us why.

Dateline: So what do you do down here chief?

Visitor: Um, I have a friend down, here to eat.

Dateline: Uh-huh.

Visitor: Uh.

Dateline: You come down to Svay Pak to eat?

Visitor: Um, no it's nice, just a nice area.

This American doctor did admit on hidden camera he came for sex -- not with the very young girls, but with teenagers.

Jerry A: I mean, 15, 16 and older. Maybe a 14-year-old might sneak in if you can't tell the age, but you know I don't take the little, the really little ones.

We were in Cambodia with Gary Haugen, a former federal prosecutor who runs a human rights group called the International Justice Mission.

Gary Haugen: This is the kind of brutal ugliness that is sort of hard to open your eyes to. But once you do, I think as a human being, you’ve got to take responsibility for it.

Haugen and his team devised a plan to rescue the children in Svay Pak and put the adults exploiting them behind bars. With pressure from the U.S. government, they persuaded the Cambodian police to take action.

We went undercover inside a brothel with the human rights investigators.

Robert: This is Lam and Viet, and Dao?

When the police raided...

(girl screams)

Dateline: It's okay. Be good girl. It's okay. It's okay.

Thirty-seven girls were rescued that day. Many were under the age of 10.

A dozen suspects were arrested. Four were convicted and given prison sentences ranging from 5 to 15 years.

Our report has had a far-reaching impact, not only in Cambodia, but a continent away in Vancouver, Canada.

In January 2004, police were investigating a complaint that a man named Donald Bakker had beat up a prostitute in this park and videotaped the crime.

Ron Bieg: The whole entire incident had been taped.

Chris Hansen: Videotaped?

Ron Bieg: Yes.

Even more disturbing, Vancouver police detective Ron Bieg told us that authorities found videotapes Bakker shot of himself on a trip in Asia of having sex with very young girls.

Chris Hansen: And we're talking about seven, eight, nine year old kids?

Bieg: Yes … We were blown away by it.

These are images of Donald Bakker's child victims. Canadian authorities wanted to prosecute Bakker for those overseas sex crimes, but they didn't know who the victims were or where the crimes took place -- until Bieg tuned in to our report on Cambodia. He couldn't believe his eyes when he began to look closely at the video.

Ron Bieg: We see rooms that look eerily similar to the rooms in Bakker's videotape.

Chris Hansen: Some of the children looked to be--

Ron Bieg: Similar.

Chris Hansen: Similar. That's a pretty good break.

Ron Bieg: It was a godsend.

Bieg explained to us how he compared images from our broadcast with Bakker's tapes.

Chris Hansen: So you were able to match, for instance, this piece of furniture here to a piece seen in the tape confiscated from Bakker.

Ron Bieg: Exactly.

And an even closer look at our tapes reveals other details that matched: this window, these posters on the wall...

Chris Hansen: It turns out that some of the girls seen on Bakker's video performing sex acts on him were seen being rescued in our story.

Ron Bieg: Yes. Four of them. That was the break that we needed.

Donald Bakker pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting seven girls in Cambodia and three adult prostitutes in Vancouver.

He was sentenced to seven years in prison.

And he was not the only individual to face justice after our original story.

Possibly because of all the attention, Cambodia has begun to crack down on foreign sex offenders.

Investigator: Hey, Terry.

Like Terry Smith.

Last year he was running a bar in a beachfront town in southern Cambodia.

Bob Mosier of the International Justice Mission said his group heard that Smith was selling young girls for sex and was allegedly also raping them himself.

Bob Mosier: He would show these children pornographic videos. And when, after watching the videos, he would have these children perform these sexual acts on him. As training.

Mosier sent in undercover investigators as customers.

Smith apparently told the girls to dance for the customers, first with their clothes on and then, shockingly, with their tops off.

The human rights group took the evidence to the Cambodian authorities.

This police officer arrested Smith and his girlfriend and says he found tapes Smith made of himself in several Asian countries.

Cambodian police official [translation]: I believe that he didn't violate only these girls here. I believe he violated many other girls.

It also turned out that Smith was a convicted sex offender in the United States and was wanted in Oregon.

The Cambodians agreed to turn him over to U.S. authorities.

Last October, U.S. Marshals escorted Terry Smith home to the U.S. to finally face those charges back in Oregon.

Last month, Smith was sentenced to 22 years in prison.

Since we first started reporting on this issue four years ago, the changes in Cambodia, in many ways prompted by human rights advocates like Gary Haugen, have been profound.

Gary Haugen: The difference is dramatic. And it should be a sign of hope for other countries that struggle with the problem of sex trafficking.

He's especially proud of what's happened with some of the girls his group has helped rescue.

Gary Haugen: Just a few weeks ago I was able to see for the first time some of those youngest girls that we rescued and they talked to me about how one wanted to become a lawyer. And one wanted to become a translator. And one wanted to go into computers. And this is a transformation that one can appreciate only if you've ever seen the undercover video of what was being done to these children inside these brothels. They have a future.

Miami Man Sentenced to 40 Years in Prison for Sex Tourism and Child Pornography Offenses [in Cambodia]

WASHINGTON, July 31 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Miami resident Kent Frank was sentenced to 40 years in prison on sex tourism and child pornography charges, Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta of the Southern District of Florida announced today.

Federal District Judge Adalberto Jordan also ordered Frank to pay a $25,000 fine and serve 15 years of supervised release.

On April 5, 2007, a federal jury in Miami found Frank guilty of eight counts of child exploitation offenses related to his sexual abuse of three young females in Cambodia. Frank was convicted of four counts of traveling in foreign commerce and engaging in illicit sexual conduct with a minor. The jury also found Frank guilty of three counts of purchasing a minor with the intent to produce child pornography and one count of traveling in foreign commerce for the purpose of engaging in illicit sexual conduct with a minor.

Frank engaged in commercial sex acts with three underage girls during two trips to Cambodia between September 2003 and January 2004. Evidence showed that Frank paid underage girls in Cambodia money for sex and to pose for pornographic pictures.

The prosecution stemmed from the Jan. 1, 2004, arrest of Frank in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, by the Cambodian National Police (CNP), on debauchery charges. The CNP found four females, including the three minors that Frank was convicted of exploiting, coming out of Frank's hotel in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on the day of Frank's arrest.

The case was investigated by agents Gary Phillips and Taekuk Cho in the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Attache Office in Bangkok, Thailand, and George Rodriguez and Shawn Newton in the ICE office in Miami. The anti-trafficking unit of the CNP provided substantial assistance in this case. The non-governmental organization AFESIP (Agir pour les Femmes En Situation Precaire, or Acting for Women in Distressing Situations), which sheltered the four females after they were found at Frank's hotel, has also been instrumental in efforts to protect and care for minor victims of prostitution. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Morales of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida in Miami and Trial Attorney Wendy Waldron of the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section of the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice.