The Face of Human Trafficking

Human trafficking of young women and girls to serve the insatiable demand of the global sex industry is a huge issue in the world today. Sexual slavery exists in many countries and young women are held against their will in forced prostitution in hundreds of cities around the world.

In Vietnam, there is a particular problem with young women and girls being pressured into the sex trade in Cambodia. They reach Cambodia by crossing the permeable borders of the three southern provinces of Dong Thap, An Giang and Kien Giang, among others. Cambodian police estimated in 2004 that more than 50,000 young girls were trapped in brothels scattered throughout Cambodia, with many of them Vietnamese nationals.

The World Human Rights Organization and UNICEF reported that their field research indicated one-third of the prostitutes in Cambodia were under the age of 18 and the majority of these were ethnic Vietnamese.

Sex tourists from Australia, nearby Asian countries, the Americas and Western Europe are coming to Cambodia with the particular emphasis on very young girls and virgins. By conservative estimates, as many as 1,000 girls enter the cross-border sex trade every year.

According to research conducted by the Asian Migrant Centre, 85% of Vietnamese women crossing the border had their first sexual experience as a result of a financial transaction.

According to NGOs active in this field, there are as many as 15,000 prostitutes working in Phnom Penh alone, and that up to 35% of them have been smuggled into Cambodia from Vietnam, mostly from the southwestern provinces. Brothel owners may pay traffickers $350 to $450 for each attractive young Vietnamese virgin, while non-virgins and those considered less beautiful are sold from $150 to $170 each.

Such a complex and widespread problem as human trafficking cannot be solved in three years. The ADAPT program is designed so that it can be increased in size and duration as resources are made available.