Thailand
Thailand, a country in Southeast Asia, is a popular tourist
destination for more than 11 million people each year. Unfortunately, Thailand also has a dark side
and is the #1 destination for sex tourism.
It is considered a major source, transit, and destination country for
men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of sexual exploitation and
forced labor. Trafficking in Thailand
Trafficking in Thailand looks much different than what we see in the
US. Here, culture and poverty play a
huge role and children of poor
families are often the victims. Many are forced into prostitution by their parents and many are
lured and captured by the traffickers.
In this culture, families will knowingly sell their daughters
into trafficking because of the extreme poverty or they will get tricked into
thinking they are sending her off to a better life where she can send money
home and support them only to find out there is no hotel job or maid work and
that she is going to be selling herself for money. Christine Caine shared a story of one such girl in A Mother's Impossible Choice.
There are approximately 3 million sex workers in Thailand
and roughly a third of them are minors. Unfortunately, a large number of the
sex workers in Thailand are forced into prostitution through human
trafficking. Sex can be negotiated in a
wide variety of venues (Go Go bars, Karaoke bars, brothels, etc.) for as little
as $30 US dollars and a small fee to the bar.
Sex tourism, which is the organization of vacations for the
purpose of taking advantage of the lack of restrictions regarding prostitution
and sexual activities in foreign countries, is thriving in Thailand. The city of Pattaya is at the top of the
list and boasts the title, “The sex capital of the world.” Pattaya accommodates over 5 million tourists
annually. Prostitution is illegal
— but everyone turns a blind eye. The
high demand and the fact that this industry brings in billions of dollars each
year to the Thai economy has caused many government officials, politicians and
police to turn a blind eye to illegal activities– making it very difficult to
crack down on sex trafficking.
According to the annual TIP (Trafficking in Person) Report,
which rates each country as Tier 1, 2 or 3 in regards to their laws and efforts
to fight trafficking, Thailand has been doing the bare minimum. Thailand is currently a tier 3, which is the
lowest of the ratings. This means their
government, does not fully comply with the
minimum standards and is NOT making significant efforts to do so.
- Since
the report began though 2009, Thailand was rated as tier 2.
- From
2010 – 2013 placed on the Tier 2 watch list, which meant they were in
danger of being placed in Tier 3.
(After the third year, a country
must either improve to Tier 2 or be automatically downgraded to Tier 3.)
- In 2014, they were automatically downgraded to Tier 3 and remained there for the 2015 report.
Resources:
ECPAT (End Child Prostitution and Trafficking)
http://www.ecpat.org/Based in Bangkok and does a great job in fighting sex tourism
Based in Northern Thailand (Chang Mai) and they do a great job in rescuing girls from brothels and finding them work in legitimate businesses!
Not For Sale
https://www.notforsalecampaign.org/Operates a children’s home, which offers shelter and long-term housing for youth rescued from exploitation.
Vanessa’s Trip:
So for Vanessa, as a survivor, to
step into this atmosphere and to stand face to face with exactly what she is
recovering from is so brave and courageous. She began her story with a little background on Thai culture and
their religion. The main religion in
Thailand is Buddhism and ornate statues of Buddha can be seen just about
everywhere. One of the things I like
best about her story was the picture of their group inside a Buddhist temple,
but praying to Jesus!
She explained the phenomena of
“ladyboys” which are so prevalent in Thai culture. Ladyboys are similar to what we would refer to as transvestites
here in the US. Ladyboys sometimes
choose to dress and act as a woman as it is fairly accepted in Thai
culture. But many of them were boys
that their parents actually chose to raise as a girl for the sole purpose of
engaging in prostitution as a woman.
For these “women” they are rarely allowed to begin living life as their
born gender because everyone (including the government) now considers them to
be a woman. If you would like to learn
more about ladyboys, This
article gives a pretty good explanation of them without sensationalizing
the issue.
Vanessa shared with us how her
group visited safe houses and orphanages and wrapped arms of love around the
women and children there. Their message
to the women was that God’s banner over them was love. They danced with banners from every color of
the rainbow, each representing a specific character trait of God. At the end of
their visit, they organized an elegant banquet for the women to come and be
loved on, danced with, and treated like God’s princesses.
She told us the story of how she
formed a connection with a young Thai mother at one of the safe houses because
they shared a similar story. It was a
healing experience for this woman to know that she was not alone and that
someone else understood her pain.
It was wonderful to spend an evening
learning of a different country and a different culture. Vanessa truly has a heart to sit in the
ashes with the broken and to create circles of love and protection around them.
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