Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2004. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Reuters NewMedia - November 8, 2004
Karishma Vyas

It is one of the more horrific memories of Ben Svasti's time on the front line of the fight against child trafficking.

"One girl even had duct tape stuck across her mouth to stop her from screaming," said Svasti of anti-trafficking group TRAFCORD, which helped rescue the teenagers, most of whom had been smuggled across the border from impoverished Myanmar.

Despite much-vaunted efforts to stamp out child trafficking in the region, officials from the United Nations and 20 Asia-Pacific countries meeting in Bangkok on Monday admit that far from going away, the problem is getting worse.

"The forces driving the trafficking and sexual exploitation of children are stronger and more vigorous than in the past, despite changes in laws and government policy," said Gopalan Balagopal of U.N. children's body UNICEF.

"Children continue to be sexually exploited, particularly through the use of the Internet, promotion of sex tourism and a lack of education about HIV/AIDS which make some people believe sex with children can cure the disease," he said.

It is impossible to estimate the number of children trafficked each year across the world, although all estimates run into the hundreds of thousands.

In Thailand, welfare groups say the total could be rising by as much as 20 per cent each year, earning the country the dubious reputation of being southeast Asia's human trafficking hub.

Identified as a preferred transit point and destination for regional child smuggling rings, Thailand now sits on a U.S. human trafficking 'watch list'.

UPHILL STRUGGLE

Thai police complain they are fighting an uphill battle against an increasingly sophisticated industry worth up to 100 billion baht ($2.45 billion) a year, according to Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University.

Desperately poor young girls from Myanmar, Cambodia and China are lured into Thailand with promises of lucrative jobs, only to end up in massage parlours and karaoke bars where customers will pay as much as 30,000 baht for virgins.

Others are flown as far as Australia, Japan, South Africa and the United States to be kept as brothel sex slaves.

Given its long, porous borders and rampant police corruption, getting the children into Thailand is easy.

Panupong Singhara, a police commissioner in the northern city of Chiang Mai where the problem is most acute, said suspected traffickers have been alerted to police raids and government officials and police implicated in trafficking busts.

"Corruption is one of my biggest concerns," Panupong said. "If evidence is found against any government official either from police or any other agencies, the person will be immediately charged and prosecuted."

It is not only foreigners who get sucked into the dark world of child prostitution in Thailand.

Near Chiang Mai's historic Tapae Gate, Kwan, a 14-year-old boy who fled an abusive step-father two years ago, walks the streets until the early hours looking for clients for sex.

"I know this is not the right thing to do but when I need money I have to do it," Kwan told Reuters.

Svasti said it was time governments in the region paid more than just lip service to the problem.

"Child trafficking and sexual exploitation is a form of slavery and it's something that most people in the West feel is historical," said Svasti. "But when it comes to slavery and sex slavery, it's very much alive."

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