Demand for virgins fuelling sex trade
Pastor Dale Morgan
*Demand for virgins fuelling sex trade*
From correspondents in Phnom Penh
September 16, 2007 07:02am
Article from: Agence France-Presse
HIGH demand for virgins from mostly Asian clients is fuelling the flow
of underage girls into Cambodia's sex trade, the International
Organisation for Migration (IOM) says.
About 38 per cent of the women and girls surveyed working in the sex
trade in Cambodia entered the industry by selling their virginity, IOM
found, while 85 per cent of the clients paying to sleep with them were
Asian men.
"The commercial sale of virginity is one of the major routes into
commercial sexual exploitation,'' the group said in a report released
earlier this week.
"This trade clearly shapes the patterns of trafficking within Cambodia
... it is arguably the largest factor contributing to entry into
commercial sex.''
Non-Asian foreigners accounted for 9 per cent of customers paying for
sex with virgins, IOM said, while the other 6 per cent was unknown.
More than half the Asian clients were Cambodian men, with the other half
made up of Chinese, Taiwanese, South Korean, Japanese, Thai and Filipino
men.
Most women were 16- or 17-years-old when they sold their virginity, and
the majority said they entered prostitution willingly.
But others told IOM they were tricked by family and friends.
"There was a high use of force and incapacitation through drugs or
alcohol at the time of commercial sex,'' the humanitarian group said.
People were increasingly picking up virgins in high-end karaoke bars,
massage parlors and other entertainment establishments in the country's
urban centres, IOM said, whereas before the trade was found mostly in
brothels.
IOM surveyed 203 women and girls working in the sex trade in the tourist
hub of Siam Reap, the seaside town Sihanoukville and Koh Kong province,
which borders Thailand.
Cambodia has struggled to shed its reputation as a haven for
paedophiles, putting dozens of foreigners in jail for child sex crimes
or deporting them to face trial in their home countries since 2003.