It may seem unbelievable that in modern, civilised world slavery still exist but it is true. If we define slavery as a violent domination of one human being over another, there are many cases that classify as it. One of them is prostitution and particularly child prostitution. It is horrible that when to many of us childhood is the best time in life, when we laugh, play whole day, eat sweets and are under constant protection of our parents, to some children it is a hell. Many children in Thailand are forced to sell themselves on the streets and as a consequence they are robbed not only of their childhood but also of their self-respect and honour.
"How is it possible in the 21st century?" one could ask. Probably one of the reasons of child prostitution is poverty. Poor parents or families sell their children, both boys and girls, in order to get money that they need for buying food, tools or paying debts. The process of selling the child does not look like former-day slave hunting. It is not an armed mob, which capture the slave but a businessman-like looking member of the criminal organisation. He comes to a village and looks for the victims. Most valuable are young virgins because there is the smallest risk of them carrying a Sexually Transmitted Disease. To make the parents sell their children slavers bribe them with large sums of money or use tricks. They may, for example, pretend that they are looking for workers for an ordinary factory in a distant part of the country. Many children believe that they are really going to work in restaurants, shops or beauty salons. The parents are told that their children will return home when they earn certain sum of money.
The reality looks, of course, completely different. The children are moved to brothels in the southern part of the country. They undergo violent treatment, including beating, raping and "servicing" about 15 clients a day. They are given small amount of money (about $1,20) and using it; they must pay for their daily expenses. For example, they have to buy food for themselves. They are forced to work every day and have only a few days off per month. They suffer much because of the kind of work they do and other physical and psychical abuses.
There is another type of such enslavement. The children may be used as forced labour. They are put into brother like into a work camp. They are closed there and forced to work by methods like abuse and threats of torture or even death. They cannot leave the brothel and sometimes such places are fenced (even electrical fences are used). There is no need to persuade the reader that such conditions are very harmful to psyche of the children. At the beginning they are in big trauma because of the condition in which they are put. Sometimes, it is especially true in case of very young children; they do not understand what is happening. Later, the nature of their work plus the confinement cause additional shock and pain.
If girls try to resist and oppose servicing clients they are beaten. Some of them may be even killed. In order to break any possible resistance, the children are regularly beaten and raped. The aim of such treatment is to destroy their sense of self-worth.
The corruption in the government, either at local or national level, does not help in reducing or eliminating the problem of children prostitution. Sometimes the issue is even minimised and ridiculed. Some members of the police force who should work to eradicate this kind of prostitution even support it. They are paid for non-intervention and discrete help by the owners of brothels. They also are clients of such agencies and because of that are not interested in the liquidation. The culture of the country also may be partially responsible for spreading if children prostitution. In Thailand women are normally treated like objects which role is to give pleasure to the men. Having sex is regarded as something normal, not something tabooed. The wives may know of "activities" of their husbands but they do not regard them as something that should be condemned.
Some statistics:
According to research there are between 800,000 and 2,000,000 prostitutes in Thailand. The one-fifth (20%) of them are children aged below 18. That is why Thailand is sometimes called Disneyland for paedophiles. Sex with children may be prohibited and fought with, but the people who want to and have money come to Thailand. Here they may buy what they want and not fear the law. Majority of them comes from America and Europe.
Why nothing has been done to deal with this problem?
The prostitution of children does exist and is prospering despite the fact that it is against the law to have sex with girl younger than 15 years old. There is a pressure coming from some politicians and communities to change the law and make sex with persons (including boys) under 18 punishable. However, the problem in changing the law and executing the existing rules is corruption. Politicians and police officers are bribed by the owners of brothels and pimps and support them secretly. Another problem is that prostitution is very good source of money. In some regions it is even the best way of making money and it is difficult to fight with such a lucrative business. The people involved in it will not give it up event if the children are victims.
There exist many moving stories about children forced to work in brothels. One girl was sold by her father who needed money for drugs. She was 7 years old at the moment. She was taken to a brothel where she had to service about 20 men per day while not receiving any money. She spent in this way 5 years before being eventually freed by the police. However, she was already infected with AIDS.
Among such histories there is also one about a 12 years old girl who stopped learning and went to city or was lured into going there. Then she was placed in a brothel and had to have sex many times a day. She tried to escape but all her attempts failed. She was caught and beaten severely. When she became too sick and weak to service the clients of the brothel she was left on the street. She was pregnant and as it turned out later she also had AIDS. Her baby died because of AIDS that he caught from his mother.
All these stories tell the horrible truth about the fate of the children forced to work as prostitutes by criminals whose only concern is income. They are left on their own and nobody takes care of them: of their physical and psychical needs. The treatment they undergo in brothels: constant beating, raping and psychical violence have a tremendous impact on their minds. They may not understand what is happening around them, why their parents sold them. Did they do something wrong? What those people want, why they shout at them all the time? The effect of living in such conditions is depression or other mental illnesses. The initial shock is especially dangerous. The trauma sometimes leads them to suicides, as they believe that death is the only way of escaping from the suffering.
"The body's filth cannot touch the pure soul, and snowdrifts cannot destroy living seeds. This life is but a threshing floor of sorrows in which souls have their adversities sifted out before they give their yield. You are oppressed, Marta, and the one who wronged you is the owner of mansions, the possessor of great wealth and a small soul" - Kahlil Gibran
