Cambodia: YUON CRIMINALS ACTIVE IN PROSTITUTIONS(5/6)[EN&KH]

"The people who persuade young girls to come to Cambodia are mostly women. They are like friends, but they sell their friends. They tell the girls that they can sell merchandise or work as a waitress... They only take young girls, of 16 or 17 years old."For the recruiters it is necessary to know the language, the places where to go and which way to bring the women and girls to Cambodia. Therefore, the recruiters are often Vietnamese with contacts abroad. These can be Vietnamese women who have worked themselves as prostitutes in Cambodia or "specialist" recruiters who recruit women and girls on behalf of meebon [brothel owner] in Cambodia. The Vietnamese word for recruiter is mai môi, which is like the Khmer equivalent neak noam. A brothel owner in Takeo explained how they operate:"The mai môi are people from Vietnam who have connections with meebon in Cambodia. The meebon has contacted the recruiter, so that he or she knows to which brothel to bring the women. These recruiters are always Vietnamese, because the Khmer don't dare to cross the border."Although it is important to have connections in Vietnam, not all recruiters are necessarily Vietnamese. A Khmer brothel owner in Svay Rieng explained how she recruits herself the girls in Vietnam for her brothel.The shades of morality and responsibility and 'legal obligation' as formulated by this meebon are interesting. What seems important is that the girls are working under a known and trusted brothel owner, not that the girls are going to work as prostitutes. Several brothel owners interviewed stressed the importance of having some kind of contract or relation of trust with the parents, especially the mothers, who send their daughters to work in their brothel. This is to contrast with those brothel owners who are involved in re-selling a girl to an unknown third person, which runs counter to the 'rules' of morality, responsibility and legal obligation of the brothel owner.Recruitment of women and girls for commercial sex work has been given more and more attention over the past years. A representative of the Vietnamese association argued:"But the number of Vietnamese women who are brought here to work in prostitution is the same as last year. Here they don't get arrested, while prostitution in Vietnam is restricted."In the Report on the Problem of Sexual Exploitation and Trafficking in Cambodia another way for Vietnamese to enter Cambodia, besides by land or water, is mentioned: traveling by air. For this option a passport, visa and plane ticket are needed which means that this way of traveling requires relatively much money and administrative organization. Therefore, it is not an often-used way to enter Cambodia by the kind of migrants discussed in this paper. According to the above mentioned report, it is only used for pretty girls who can attract a high price, which are mostly those whom the neak noam has abducted or bought from parents in northern Vietnam. After arrival in Cambodia, they are brought to secret locations, mostly in Phnom Penh, where they are kept for clients who take them to a hotel. During the survey, none of the Vietnamese women interviewed came to Cambodia by air. The most general way to travel from Vietnam to Cambodia is either by land or by boat. The fact that it is relatively easy to cross the border does not mean that closing the borders through tight police and military control is an adequate solution to preventing illegal entry in general and cross-border trafficking in particular. Hundreds of people cross the borders daily from Vietnam into Cambodia, and the other way around, for business, family visits, or work. Closing the borders would therefore negatively affect social and economic relations between Cambodia and Vietnam.In order to understand the full nature of the problems related to trafficking, it would not be adequate to concentrate solely on those who have been trafficked from Vietnam to Cambodia. The distinct processes, aspects and people involved in the different forms of migration from Vietnam to Cambodia are very much interrelated. Besides, the problem of trafficking and exploitation does not stop in Cambodia. Not every Vietnamese victim of trafficking comes 'fresh' from Vietnam. Some are recruited or otherwise forced within Cambodia, among the so-called newcomers as well as among the long-term residents.Besides, within Cambodia cooperation between the Vietnamese employers and the police or other government officials is necessary. This is especially true in the case of the commercial sex business. This business is by many Cambodians perceived to be dominated by Vietnamese, although these -as well as the Cambodian establishments- could not survive without some kind of cooperation from local authorities and/or law enforcers.

Channel: Education
Uploaded: December 31, 1969 at 6:59 pm
Author: AhmekKhmer

Length: 09:01
Rating: 5.00
Views: 5747

Tags: Cambodia  exploitation  Hok  Lundy  pedophile  prostitute  sexual  Yuon  

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