Child sex trade soars in Cambodia

Al Jazeera's investigation found underage girls working in brothel's around Phnom Penh Thousands of children are bought and sold for sex every day in Cambodia and while the industry is often shown as serving predatory foreign tourists, the majority of its customers are Cambodian men. Girls as young as 14 work in brothels' around Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital, an investigation by Al Jazeera, broadcast on Tuesday, found. Al Jazeera filmed secretly at several brothels, and in each case found much the same thing - rooms full of young women in their early twenties, as well as teenagers. "For my virginity they gave me $200," Ya Da, a 16-year-old former prostitute, told Al Jazeera. Ya Da worked in a brothel for two years before she ran away. Now, she lives in a safe house with other former prostitutes and abused children. "There were just a few foreign customers [at the brothel]," she said. "I never slept with any, I slept only with Cambodian men." 'Local customers' Mu Sochua, a politician with the opposition Sam Rainsy Party and a former minister for women's affairs, told Al Jazeera that most of Cambodia's sex industry was supported "by local customers". In video Cambodia's trade in child prostitutes "And some of these local customers are high-ranking officials. You have the military, the police and civil servants. you have rich businessmen who have lots of money," she said. The involvement of high-ranking officials has been one reasons, NGOs say, that the sex industry has thrived in Cambodia. "Very often these brothels and criminal networks are being supported and protected by high ranking officials," Mark Capaldi, from Ecpat International, an orgnaisation working to eliminate child prostitution, said. "The problem is not just as abusers but also the impunity and lack of law enforcement in closing down these brothels and karaoke bars." But General Bith Kim Hong, from the Cambodian national police force, rejected allegations that the officials focused their efforts to curb prostitution almost exclusively on foreigners. "The national police are concerned about anyone who commits a crime, who has sex with children, whether they are foreigners or Cambodian," he told Al Jazeera. "We have a very high commitment to prevent child prostitution." Few arrests Last year, the Cambodian police arrested only 21 people for committing sex crimes with children - eight of those arrested were foreigners and 13 were Cambodians. The police also admit that the brothels they shut down in high-profile raids often reopen a few weeks later. In 2002, Gary Glitter, the British pop star, was expelled from Cambodia amid child-sex allegations. But while the arrest and conviction of foreigners make the headlines, most child sex trafficking supplies local demand, Mu Sochua said. "It is easier to catch a foreigner and also the government wants to have showcases to make itself look good - that Cambodia is actually taking care of this problem of human trafficking, which is really not the truth," she told Al Jazeera.