Rory Byrne's March 23rd article "Human Trafficking On the Rise in Cambodia" from VOA News is misleading and uninformed. The first glaring error is of course the misspelling of the Capitol City of Phnom Penh in the article. Let us hope that this is a simple editorial mistake and not an indication of how well he understood his subject matter. Unfortunately I think it may be the latter.
The real problem with the article is that it lacks perspective or any other viewpoint on the Human Trafficking issue. There is no dissenting voice or opinions reported. Cambodia has become for lack of a better word the worlds favorite sex "obsession". With daily breathless reportage on Human trafficking and child sex convictions one is left with the mistaken impression that Cambodia is a place where one can simply walk down the street and pick out your favorite 13 year-old girl or boy for an hours pleasure. This is simply not the case.
I first came to Cambodia 15 years ago and now have lived here for 2 years and own a business. In all that time I have never witnessed any such activity nor could I direct anyone to any place which deals in such a thing. I have traveled widely here and employ a number of Cambodians and in conversation with them I cannot find a single person that knows about the "sex slave" trade. I do however know that it is often the families of these girls and boys who send them away or sell them into "jobs" in prostitution. Many boys are sold into the military so their family can get the stipend the government gives out for that and many escape. Most of the girls, if the truth be known, are sent into this trade by their families, not lured there by strangers. Most are free to come and go as they please because having been sent there by the parents they often will stay out of respect and fear of the parents. The parents receive a payment, the girl is expected to work for a period of time.
This is not slavery, at worst it is indentured servitude. There is a very important difference. Of course no one wants to see children sent into the sex trade by anyone, let alone their parents, but I believe the notion that there are thousands of girls chained in basements being used as sex slaves defies logic. Most of Cambodia is a crowded and busy place especially the cities. Keeping something like this from the police would be very difficult here, to say nothing of the fact that I have never seen or heard of a house here with a basement. While many of the police are corrupt not all of them are by any means and there are many levels of police in a given area. This makes it especially difficult to keep slaves locked in your "basement" without your neighbors and the police finding out and reporting on you.
The article does not at any time cite one single credible study of this problem and for good reason...none exists. Some organizations such as World Vision raise millions of dollars in the U. S., Britain and Australia beating the child sex and human trafficking drum. Only a trickle of those funds are ever spent here in Cambodia actually doing anything about the problem. A problem that I would argue is no worse than in London, Honolulu or Des Moines.
The article goes on to cite how there were girls rescued from this business by the organization named in the article, one I have never heard of previously. It is written in such a way as to leave the impression that all these girls were "sex slaves". I would defy the writer or the organization cited to bring forth one credible person with that story. It seems clear to me that what is most likely is that there was financial incentive for these girls to leave or that they felt they had no other place to go if they left on their own. Many families wont take a girl back who has shamed them by working in this industry and many continue in the business for the very good financial rewards. Consider that the average wage of most Cambodians is often cited at less than one US dollar a day. A girl or boy working in the sex trade can make 10, 20 or 100 times this in a single day. With this they buy cell phones, motorcycles, nice clothes and send money home to the family. This scenario is the real story of the sex trade in Cambodia.
Many do it as a sideline, some go to school, and others do work in brothels. some come to escape the poverty and closeness of village life. Some of the young people that turn to this trade do it because they have lost a good job in a factory due to layoffs. Consider this the next time some well meaning organization asks you to help stamp out child labor in Cambodia, Thailand or where ever: If these young people lose their jobs often the next stop is to turn to prostitution to make sure they eat everyday. This is the real story of the sex trade.
People often fall into this trap when writing or reporting on Cambodia. With little or no knowledge of the country and it's people they rely instead on those with an axe to grind, an issue to promote or in the case of some organizations, money to be raised by keeping this issue on the front burner and sounding as horrible as possible. It would be nice to have a reporter ask some hard probing questions, explore the logic and interview others with a different viewpoint. Unfortunately Mr Byrne seemingly did none of that.
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The following is Khmerization's reply to Mr. Alan Perry's rebuke of Mr. Rory Byrne's article:
To squarely put the blames on the girls and their parents for voluntarily entering the sex trades and forced prostitutions is immorally wrong and inhuman. Some parents might have sold their girls into prostitutions against their will and some girls might have entered the prostitution industry voluntarily due to economic reasons. But a large numbers of girls were forced, lured, and worst, were kidnapped into sex slavery and were tortured into sleeping with clients.
I have read reports in the Cambodian press and international press quoting highly reliable NGO and embassy officials and I have talked to people who have witnessed the kidnappings and beatings of girls to force them to sleep with clients.
To compare the problems of human trafficking and sex trades in Cambodia to London and Honolulu is utterly preposterous and outrageous. And to deny outright the existence of human trafficking and sex slavery in Cambodia, as Alan Perry has been making, is ignorant, but, worst, inhuman and immoral. Human trafficking and sex slavery do exist in Cambodia and existed in a large scale with the complicity and involvements of the Cambodian rich and powerful who owned most of the brothels and who were the only ones who can afford to solicit sex with virgin girls who were normally kidnapped, trafficked and sold into prostitutions against their will.
As a foreign resident of Cambodia, I would expect Mr. Alan Perry to be on the side of the victims of sex slavery rather than on the side with the perpetrators (sex traffickers) of the worst heinous crimes of human trafficking and sex slavery. It is sad that he chose to side with evil.
Mr. Perry's reply to Khmerization's rebuttal can be read here.
Khmerization
5 comments:
Alan Perry must have buried his head in the sands or has he deliberately out to try to cover up the inhuman trades that he might have involvements through his bungalow business. Sad to read such an article from an uninformed so-called foreign-resident expert.
I totally agree with the previous two post. I am also a foreign resident living in Cambodia for 6 years and I too have seen, read and heard experiences of the various forms of human trafficking here. I also know some very good organizations and people who work to combat these heinous crimes. Cambodia is the transition point between Vietnam and Thailand in the way women and children are trafficked. Also you should be aware that part of the sex trade here is based on the color of skin and virginity. There is a continuous myth that goes around suggesting that if men with HIV AIDS who have sex with virgin girls at a very young age would mean they would be cured from HIV AIDS. Obviously this is not true. Also in Ratanakiri, Modulkiri and near the boarder areas to Laos, children and young girls are kidnapped, drugged, raped and sold into slavery to Thailand and as far as Korea and Japan.
Obviously Mr Perry thinks that this does not happen or that there is an exaggeration of the facts! No one can exaggerate the truth! In Kampong Som, many of the children and women are smuggled on smalled boats to go down to Vietnam and further. It is also true that many of the brothel owners were some of the politically elite. Hok Lundy, Hun Sen's Nephew Hunto and many others. What saddens me is that Mr. Perry is like many others who come to invest in this country but actually thrive off the corruption, sex trade and human trafficking and unstable law practices to make their business grow and get rich. One might need to ask if he is one of the people who purchase sex workers for his own pleasure!
having dealt with Mr Perry in the past i can attest that he is an absolute idiot who has his head buried in the sand.
Trafficking no such thig! He just prefers young boys as many people can attest to in Sihanoukville and was run out of one restaurant by two disguusted tourists last year who had to witness his flirtings.
Those in glass houses shouldn't throw stones!!
The latest from Reuters 5 October:
U.S. national Alan Arthur Perry, 57, gets into a vehicle after his trial at the Provincial Court in Preah Sihanouk, some 230 km (143 miles) west of Phnom Penh, October 5, 2010. The Preah Sihanouk Provincial Court tried Perry on Tuesday of sexually abusing four underaged boys and the verdict is to be announced on October 13, presiding judge Plang Samnang said. The judge said he was tried under two charges, purchasing child prostitutes and distributing child pornography of the alleged victims, aged between 16 and 17 and added that each charge carries a prison sentence of between 2 to 5 years.
Perry gets three years in jail - news reports are currently being filed.
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