The sex trade is a thriving business – and it’s not specific to one country or region. Human Trafficking is the worlds fastest-growing criminal industry – children and women abducted and transported to foreign lands, forced into in the sex trade, often against their will. Others from poor and struggling regions turn to the sex trade to earn money to support their families. We all know that this happens – It’s a horrifically sad and regretful situation exacerbated when cashed up foreigners – people from our own cities – travel to poorer nations and prey on these victims.
The Coalition Against Trafficking in Women and Children has published statistics from a study on the sex trade in Malaysia, The Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia. The study estimates that between 0.25% and 1.5% of the total female population of the four countries is engaged in prostitution, accounting for between 2% and 14% of the countries’ gross domestic product (GDP). While you might not consider 1.5% of the entire female population to be a very high figure, this figure covers the whole gender, not just those that are adults. This equates to over 200,000 Prostitutes in Thailand alone.
Travel to any tourist town in Thailand and you’ll likely see any number of western men with their arms draped around the shoulders of young Thai women. I understand It’s not always sinister. We aren’t privy to the inner workings of their relationships – if it’s love then we can’t pass judgment on that.
Other times it’s an opportunity seized– A lonely traveler who sought companionship through a local – and paid for the privilege. While not a practice I would engage in – at home or abroad – if the woman is of age, involved by her own free will and no one is abused then some could argue that it’s really none of our business, dubious morality or not.
It’s the sex tourists and sex-pats (I think you can figure of what group that is) that I have the problem with. People who plan their entire holidays (or relocate) to have cheap sex as many times as they can before going back home to their normal life, jobs, wives. These are the people that write blogs and books on submissive “Little Brown f**king machines”. They own go-go bars and brothels, organising transactions between girls (sometimes boys) and foreigners, utilising a crude photo album full of pictures of girls in degrading positions so the foreigner can pick out a ‘date’. In an audio grab taken from a BBC interview in 2004, a local brothel owner says “The tourists, as opposed to the sexpats, are not so bad—often ignorant, yes, but lonely and innocent too.”
“One of the self-justifications put forward by the sexpats is that the business makes everyone happy—the exploitation is two-way. It is not like normal prostitution, you hear. All the girls are smiling! (”All smile, all the time!” is an official tourism slogan). But you don’t have to be a feminazi to see that the power relationship is grossly unbalanced. The real choices lie with the man with the wallet.”
Hi Steve.
Thanks for your comments.
You wrote:
“Considering this article seems aimed at people new to travel in SE Asia, if you’re in a place, where underage prostitution can take place so openly, I think your own personal safety should come first and screaming and yelling about it would be a the fastest way to get yourself confronted by some pretty unsavory characters. Not to mention, you’re not a local. The police, if not directly in on it, will almost certainly take the word of the locals over yours, a foreigner, who probably can’t speak the language.”
Just to clarify I wasn’t talking about anything to do with confronting locals, I wrote that if you see something wrong, like an under age child entering a car with a foreigner, then I feel you should bring it to the attention of someone – the police, a local, the foreigner. I do believe that the unwillingness to get involved is detrimental to the fight against these intolerable cruelties – and that goes the world over, not just while visiting SE Asia. Of course if you think that there is a personal safety concern then you are right, there are more discreet ways of letting the authorities or NGO’s know.
Most of us westerners have by now come to realise the illicit sex trade that happens across the globe. It is disgusting that so-called ‘ex-pats’ have set up home/shop in these asian lands on the pretext of loving the locals in order to pursue their predatory sexual desires. In doing this they offer an increased demand for sexual slavery of the most oppressed members of the local society that have already been debased and exploited by their own people. Yet if the tourist and ex-pat demand ceased to exist, or had never existed at all, then there might be perhaps fewer victims though not none at all. While it may take many generations for entrenched societal beliefs to change, there is no doubt that good exemplars make a difference. It is from the power of global opposition to many oppressions that some cultures have changed, but it is not going to change the sexual oppression of the poor until our own people cease and desist from this revolting practice.
Shane’s article has shined the light for some western traveller’s and I commend him for encouraging us to not turn the other cheek. Too many have just chalked this sad state of affairs as being just a matter of poverty and necessity that it is part of the ‘landscape’ of an exotic holiday destination.
Steve has clearly misunderstood Shane’s message about the power of one person who does not just stand idly by. Of course he does not advocate that one should jeopardise one’s own safety, but clearly there are some measure that a westerner can take…after all someone has to redress the inequity of the power that a western tourist predator has over a child sold into prostitution.
I don’t think South Korea is any different to these countries too, I’ve been to brothel in Soul and it’s very much the same in Thailand. The problem with this issue are not the foreigners alone, the government or authorities from these countries encourage this industry.
I think there is a real danger of wrongly accusing westerners of child prostitution in SE Asia. A lot of travellers who are aware of the issue see it when it isn’t even there. It’s extremely unlikely that you will see it in your daily travels, most people busted for it are ratted out by others involved in the buying and selling of sex, or by locals who can better tell when they are seeing something suspicious.
The child sex trade is very much underground and goes on behind closed doors why would they risk taking it out where they might be seen and suspected? If you see it, it’s probably because you’ve gone looking for it.
If you think you see something, snapping a discreet photo might be a good idea, then immediately ask those around who witnessed the scene if they think it was suspicious, the reality is they will have a better “something’s not right detector” than your average backpacker, unless they agree it was suspicious or the westerner was being overtly sexual towards a child then take the photo to the appropriate NGO, otherwise you’ve probably imagined it.
Posts
The sex trade is a thriving business – and it’s not specific to one country or region. Human Trafficking is the worlds fastest-growing criminal industry – children and women abducted and transported to foreign lands, forced into in the sex trade, often against their will. Others from poor and struggling regions turn to the sex trade to earn money to support their families. We all know that this happens – It’s a horrifically sad and regretful situation exacerbated when cashed up foreigners – people from our own cities – travel to poorer nations and prey on these victims.
Thanks for your comments.
You wrote:
“Considering this article seems aimed at people new to travel in SE Asia, if you’re in a place, where underage prostitution can take place so openly, I think your own personal safety should come first and screaming and yelling about it would be a the fastest way to get yourself confronted by some pretty unsavory characters. Not to mention, you’re not a local. The police, if not directly in on it, will almost certainly take the word of the locals over yours, a foreigner, who probably can’t speak the language.”