Thailand Trafficking Facts

Many of these statistics are ten to twelve years old, and though they show the reality of the trafficking situation in Thailand, we are eager to find more up to date ones. At this point, though, this has been one of our best resources for these statistics.

•Twenty years ago, Thailand was in the forefront as a sending country for trafficked women. Thailand has now become a destination country, receiving women from Russia, Yugoslavia, Poland, and the Czech and Slovak Republics, South America. (CATW - Asia Pacific, Trafficking in Women and Prostitution in the Asia Pacific)

•The internal trafficking of Thai females consists mostly of 12-16 year olds from hill tribes of the North/ NorthEast. Most of the internally trafficked girls are sent to closed brothels, which operate under prison-like conditions. (CATW - Asia Pacifc, Trafficking in Women and Prostitution in the Asia Pacific)

•Thousands of women from rural Thailand, China, Laos, Burma and Cambodia are sold to brothels in Bangkok or in other countries by unscrupulous "job brokers," who often operate in organized international syndicates. ("Survival the name of the game," Bangkok Post, 3 July 1998

•In Thailand, trafficking is a Bt500 billion annual business, which is 50%- 60% of the government's annual budget and more lucrative than the drug trade. (Authorites and activists, Kulachada Chaipipat, "New law targets human trafficking," The Nation, 30 November 1997)

•Of the estimated 20,000 prostitutes in Pattaya, hundreds are children who are either lured from their villages by the idea of opportunity or by criminal networks. (Mark Baker, "Sin city can? shake vice? grip," Sydney Morning Herald, 17 May 1997)

•Girls in China are kidnapped and trafficked through Burma to Thailand. In one kidnapping scheme in the central Thai provinces, an agent photographed village girls on their way to school; showed the photos to a brothel keeper who ordered the girls he wanted. The agent returned and kidnapped the chosen girl. (CATW - Asia Pacific, Trafficking in Women and Prostitution in the Asia Pacific)

•Three sisters left Nong Khai province, Thailand in June 1997 with a man who promised them a job in a restaurant in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Instead he traffcked them into prostitution. They were rescued after one sister convinced a man who bought her to let her make a phone call. She called her mother who alerted officials. On July 23, 1997, about 50 Malaysian policemen, accompanied by a few Thai officials, broke into the downtown Namapaya Restaurant. The group, headed by Kuala Lumpur police chief Dato Baki, found 35 girls - including Mrs Chandee's daughters - locked up behind bars on the third floor of the building. (Of flesh and blood: Forced Prostitution: One family recounts a journey into hell and back, Surat Jinakul, Bangkok Post, May 17, 1998)

•In Thailand, the new Measures in Prevention and Suppression of Trafficking in Women and Children Act only issues authorities the right to detain suspected victims of trafficking, not the suspected traffickers. (Kulachada Chaipipat, "New law targets human trafficking," The Nation, 30 November 1997)

•Close to 300 million dollars is transferred yearly to rural families by women engaged in prostitution in urban areas, a sum that in many cases exceeds the budgets of government-funded development programs. Between 1993 and 1995, it is estimated that prostitution in Thailand produced an annual income of between 22.5 and 27 billion dollars. (Dario Agnote, "Sex trade key part of S.E. Asian economies, study says," Kyodo News, 18 August 1998)

•There are 75,000 prostituted children in Thailand. (CATW - Asia Pacific, Trafficking in Women and Prostitution in the Asia Pacific)

•In Thailand, up to 400,000 children under the age of 16 are believed to be working in brothels,
clubs or bars. (Jill Serjeant, "Asia to launch joint crackdown on child sex trade," Reuters, 1 April
1998)

•From 1994 to 1997 the prostitution industry grew into a Bt60 billion business in Thailand. (Sangsit Piriyarangsan, an expert on the outlaw-economy, "Researcher discovers vice is big business," The Nation, 1 June 1997)

•4.6 million Thai men regularly, and 500,000 foreign tourists annually, buy women in prostitution. (CATW - Asia Pacific, Trafficking in Women and Prostitution in the Asia Pacific)

•8,016 establishments offer the "services" of 63,941 person engaged in prostitution (61,135 women and 2,806 men), says a Public Health Ministry survey conducted nationwide in January 1998. The survey is considered accurate because it involved representatives from the Interior, Labour and Social Welfare ministries, the Thai Red Cross Society, the Prime Minister's Office, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, various universities and NGOs. The survey, classifies prostituted persons into 25 categories, includes freelancers ranging from call girls to those who solicit in public places. The 1997 survey showed there were 7,759 establishments and 64,886 persons engaged in prostitution. (Thai Public Health Ministry. Aphaluck Bhatiasevi, "Vice purge hinders campaign as prostitutes go underground," Bangkok Post, 17 June 1998)

•Bangkok has 1,421 sex venues that employ 26,361 workers and attract 36,473 patrons per year. In the provinces, there are 6,338 venues employing 38,525 workers and attracting 67,789 patrons per year. ("Sex industry census shows more venues," The Nation, 29 July 1997)

•There are 60,000 brothels and other sexual service centers in Thailand. (CATW - Asia Pacific,
Trafficking in Women and Prostitution in the Asia Pacific)

•Half a million women are in sexual slavery, accounting for 18-20% of all Thai women aged 18-30. (Pino Arlaccki, Head of UN International Drug Control Programme, in charge of UN efforts to fight organized crime, Associated Foreign Press, 13 November 1997)

•55% of the total number of women in prostitution and 75% of men in prostitution became involved in prostitution when they were under 18 years of age. (Mahidol University Institute for Population and Social Research, Aphaluck Bhatiasevi, "Child Prostitute Problem Worrying," Bangkok Post, 28 July 1998)

•Estimates from January 1998 show 14% of prostituted persons are younger than 18 years and most of them from neighboring countries. (Thai Public Health Ministry. Aphaluck Bhatiasevi, "Vice purge hinders campaign as prostitutes go underground," Bangkok Post, 17 June 1998)

•40% of the two million in prostitution in Thailand are under 18, meaning that about 850,000
children are in prostitution. (Centre for the Protection of Children? Rights, Chris Gelken, "Row
Over Call to Boycott ?aedophile Playground" Gemini News, 28 February 1997)

•The government accepts that there are 200,000 "sex workers," 25% are probably below 18. (Dr.
Saisuree Chutikul of the National Committee for Women? Affairs, Chris Gelken, "Row Over Call to Boycott ?aedophile Playground" Gemini News, 28 February 1997)

•There are more brothels than schools in Thailand. (CATW - Asia Pacific, Trafficking in Women and Prostitution in the Asia Pacific)

•Among the factors leading to the selling of girl children in the North is the arrival of electricity and television in rural areas, the new-found ''need" for consumer goods and the diminishment of the old sense of community where neighbors helped each other with the planting and harvesting of crops. Filmmaker Supachai Surongsain says, "Electricity has become a part of their lives so now everybody must have a refrigerator, a TV and a radio. Motorized ploughs that require gas and oil have now replaced buffaloes. All these things require money, of course. People no longer help each other for free; they want to be paid for their time." Consumerism has severely weakened the villagers' traditional customs and values. ("Fishing for the Green," The Nation, 30 April 1997)

Wikepedia Facts:

Child prostitution: The exact number of child-prostitutes in Thailand is not known, but Thailand Health System Research Institute reports that children in prostitution make up 40% of prostitutes in Thailand. The reasons why and how children are commercially sexually exploited include:

•Poverty: a high proportion of the population lives in poverty.
•Ethnic hill tribe children: these children live in the border region of northern Thailand. They suffer from disproportionate levels of poverty in relation to the general population and most of them lack citizenship cards. This means that they do not have access to health care or primary school, which limits their further education or employment opportunities.
•Trafficked children: Many children are trafficked into or within the country through criminal
networks, acquaintances, former trafficking victims and border police and immigration officials who transport them to brothels across Thailand.
•Sense of duty: According to traditional customs the first duty of a girl is to support her family in any way she can. Due to this sense of duty and to pay off family debts, many girls have been forced into prostitution and some have even married their abusers.
•Wealthy tourists: Child sex tourism is a serious problem, numerous tourists from the Western
World travel to Thailand to have sex with children.
•Foreign child sex offenders: Some foreign sex offenders residing in Thailand have taken up
professions with access to children or are involved in trafficking children and organizing sex tours for others.
•Children are exploited in sex establishments and are also approached directly in the street by
tourists seeking sexual contact.
•Thailand is listed by the UNODC as both a top destination for victims of human trafficking and a major source of trafficked persons.]
•A proportion of prostitutes over the age of 18, including foreign nationals from Asia and Europe, are in a state of forced sexual servitude and slavery.
•There are reports of bribe taking by some low- or mid-level police officers facilitating the most
severe forms of trafficking in persons.
•Ethnic minorities such as northern hill tribe peoples, many of whom do not have legal status in the country, are at a disproportionately high risk for trafficking internally and abroad. Within the country women are trafficked from the impoverished northeast and the north to Bangkok for sexual exploitation.
•It is common that Thai women are lured to Japan and sold to Yakuza-controlled brothels where they are forced to work off their price. The reason why it is so easy to lure these women from neighboring countries is because Thailand has 56 unofficial crossover points and 300 checkpoints where people can simply cross over the borders without the need for any paperwork. This makes it easier for exploiters to get by without a hitch.[1] Most legal entry points into Thailand demand some i.d.--either a passport or an identity card, but the problem of people who cross borders to work every day (like the USA/Mexican border) makes lax the rules due to familiarity of officers and frequent travelers.