HANOI, Dec 31 (AFP) - Vietnam is bracing for the return of more than 60,000 prostitutes being kicked out of neighbouring Cambodia, state media reported Monday.
The "tumultuous" return of the prostitutes will "pose risks for places all over the country in the coming days," said Deputy Police Minister Le The Tiem quoted by the Nong Nghiep newspaper.
Cambodian authorities were "feverishly tackling the clean-up of this social plague in the major Cambodian cities even using tanks" to crackdown against brothels, as well as drug-trafficking and organised crime, he added.
Most of the Vietnamese prostitutes peddling their wares in Cambodia were "young, pretty and in great demand" and had therefore run a high risk of being exposed to the HIV virus, the paper added.
"Prices for sexual services fell in the southwestern provinces" after the return of some of the women to their homeland, another police official told the paper.
The UN children's fund (UNICEF) recently said more than 450 Vietnamese children aged under 15 had been sent to work in the sex trade in Cambodia in the past year.
At the end of November, Cambodian authorities ordered all bars, nightclubs, discos and karakoke clubs to shut down in a bid to crack down on vice and drugs. Many Vietnamese prostitutes worked in such places.
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