Prostitution In Thailand Rates
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Prostitution has been common in Thailand for centuries. During the Ayutthaya Kingdom (1351–1767), prostitution was legal and taxed,[1]:2 and the state ran brothels.[2] Prostitution is not illegal in Thailand, although many activities associated with it are (brothels, pimping, causing a public nuisance etc.). Nevertheless, it was estimated to be worth US$6.4 billion a year in revenue (2015), accounting for a significant portion of the national GDP.[3]
The legal framework governing prostitution in Thailand is based upon three acts:
The Prevention and Suppression of Prostitution Act, B.E. 2539 (1996)[4] is the statute most directly dealing with prostitution. Under the act, the definition of "prostitution" is "Sexual intercourse, or any other act, or the commission of any other act in order to gratify the sexual desire of another person in a promiscuous manner in return for money or any other benefit, irrespective of whether the person who accepts the act and the person who commits the act are of the same sex or not." A clear definition of the phrase "in a promiscuous manner" is not provided.[5]
Under the act, persons who solicit sex "...in an open and shameless manner..." (a phrase that is not clearly defined), or who are "...causing nuisance to the public..." are subject to a fine. Persons associating in a "prostitution establishment" with another person for the purpose of prostitution faces a jail term or a fine or both. The term "prostitution establishment" is not clearly defined, although it may be broadly interpreted to include any place where prostitution takes place, especially in regard to cases involving child prostitution that carry heavier penalties (up to six years if the prostitute is younger than 15 years of age)—otherwise, the law is not usually enforced against prostitution in private places. The act also imposes heavier penalties against owners of prostitution businesses and establishments.[5][6][7][8] The criminal code also stipulates penalties for procuring or using money earned from prostitution.[9][10]
The Prevention and Suppression of Prostitution Act was written with a particular focus upon child prostitution and trafficking. Section 8 penalizes customers who engage in sexual intercourse with sex workers under the age of 15 years with a prison term of two to six years and a fine of up to 120,000 baht. For sex workers between the ages of 15 and 18 years, the prison term is one to three years, and the fine is up to 60,000 baht.[5]
In regard to trafficking, Section 9 of the act states that, "Any person who procures, seduces or takes away any person for the prostitution of such person, even with her or his consent and irrespective of whether the various acts which constitute an offence are committed within or outside the Kingdom, shall be liable to imprisonment for a term of one to ten years and to a fine of twenty thousand to two hundred thousand Baht."[5]
Additionally, any offense under Section 9 that is committed "by means of fraud, deceit, threat, violence, [or] the exercise of undue influence or coercion," results in a penalty that is "one-third heavier".[5]
Obtaining sexual services for oneself without any of the aggravating circumstances (underage sex worker, trafficking, by fraud, deceit, threat, violence, or the exercise of undue influence or coercion) remains legal and is unpunished under Thai law.
The Penal Code Amendment Act (No. 14), B.E. 2540 (1997)[11] does not explicitly state that prostitution in Thailand is illegal, but Title IX, Section 286 of the Penal Code states: “Any person, being over sixteen years of age, [sic] subsists on the earning of a prostitute, even if it is some part of her incomes [sic], shall be punished with imprisonment of seven to twenty years and fined of fourteen thousand to forty thousand Baht, or imprisonment for life.” While penalties are not specified, the same section of the act penalizes any person who (i) is found residing or habitually associating with a prostitute, (ii) receives boarding, money or other benefits arranged for by a prostitute or (iii) assists any prostitute in a quarrel with a customer.[5]
The Act was also written to address child prostitution, but lacks complete clarity, as it does not define what an "indecent act" is. Title IX, Section 279 of the Penal Code states: "Whoever, commits an indecent act on a child not yet over fifteen years of age, whether such child shall consent or not, shall be punished with imprisonment not exceeding ten years or fined not exceeding twenty thousand Baht, or both."[5]
The Entertainment Places Act of 1966[12] places the onus upon the owner of certain types of entertainment establishments if prostitution occurs on the premises, thereby making them criminally liable. According to the act, sex workers must also undergo rehabilitation for one year at a reform house upon the completion of punishment for practicing prostitution.[5]
Related activities such as brothel keeping, solicitation and profiting from the prostitution of others are illegal.[5] Public nuisance laws are also used against prostitution.[5] In practice it is tolerated, sometimes because local officials have financial interests in local prostitution.[13] Prostitution operates clandestinely in many parts of the country.[14]
The largest prostitution sector in Thailand is that which caters exclusively to Thai clients. It is many times larger than the sector accessible to Western tourists and it remains almost entirely hidden from view for the casual foreign visitor.[15][better source needed]
We [Gambia] are not a sex destination. If you want a sex destination, you go to Thailand.— Hamat Bah, Gambian Tourism Minister commenting in 2018 on local sex tourism trends, provoking a rebuke from Thailand.[16]
Since the Vietnam War, Thailand has gained an international reputation among travellers from many countries as a sex tourism destination.[17] The precise number of prostitutes in Thailand is difficult to assess. Estimates vary widely and are subject to national and international controversy.[18] No Thai government has ever conducted a formal survey.[19] A 2004 estimate by Dr. Nitet Tinnakul of Chulalongkorn University gave a total of 2.8 million sex workers, including two million women, 20,000 adult males, and 800,000 minors under the age of 18, but the figures for women and minors were considered to be grossly inflated by most observers,[20] and to have resulted from poor research methods. According to a 2001 report by the World Health Organization: "The most reliable suggestion is that there are between 150,000 and 200,000 sex workers."[21][22][20] In its annual human rights report for 2008, the US State Department noted that, "A government survey during the year found that there were 76,000 to 77,000 adult prostitutes in registered entertainment establishments. However, NGOs believed there were between 200,000 and 300,000 prostitutes."[18] The state department's 2013 Human Rights Report for Thailand made no estimates of the extent of prostitution,[23] but in 2015 Havocscope, a database providing information about the global black market, gave an approximate figure of about 250,000 for the number of prostitutes working in Thailand.[24][25] UNAIDS in 2015 estimated the total population of sex workers in Thailand to be 147,000.[26]
It has been suggested for example that there may be as many as 10,000 prostitutes on Ko Samui alone, an island resort destination not usually noted for prostitution, and that at least 10 percent of tourist dollars may be spent on the sex trade.[27] An estimate published in 2003 placed the trade at US$4.3 billion per year, or about three percent of the Thai economy.[28] In 2015 Havocscope said that about US$6.4 billion in annual revenue was being generated by the trade, a figure which accounted for 10 percent of Thailand's GDP. Havocscope says that sex workers in Thailand send an annual average of US$300 million to family members who reside in more rural areas of Thailand.[24][25]
In 1996, the police in Bangkok estimated that there were at least 5,000 Russian prostitutes working in Thailand, many of whom had arrived through networks controlled by Russian gangs.[29]
In July 2016, it was reported that the Thai government intended to abolish the sex industry. Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul, the tourism minister, said "Tourists don't come to Thailand for [sex]. They come here for our beautiful culture" and that "We want Thailand to be about quality tourism. We want the sex industry gone".[30] Kobkarn was replaced as tourism minister in November 2017.[31]
The closure of the country's borders in 2020 as a reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic in Thailand resulted in there being few foreign clients for the country's sex workers. 35 percent of them had no access to public cash relief; some were refused government financial aid after they identified themselves as sex workers, while others had to lie about their profession in order to receive payments. Many switched to jobs outside the sex industry. The Department of Women’s Affairs and Family Development said that it was providing sex workers with relief supplies and job training. It also said that it was planning to amend the country's prostitution law to allow them to access social welfare benefits, as only 5 percent were part of Thailand's social security system.[32]
The primary tourist "prostitution zones" of Thailand are often identified as the red-light districts of Bangkok[17] and Pattaya[33][34] as well as Patong Beach Resort on Phuket Island.[35] In addition Hat Yai and other Malaysian border cities cater to Malaysians.[36] In Bangkok the areas most commonly associated with prostitution include the entertainment district of Patpong[17] as well as locations in the western Sukhumvit Road area such as the street called Soi Cowboy[17] and the Nana Plaza building.[17] The area known as the Ratchadaphisek entertainment district, running along Ratchadaphisek Road near the Huai Khwang intersection, is the location of several large entertainment venues which include sexual massage.[37] Lumphini Park in central Bangkok is well-known as a prostitution spot after dark.[38] In Pattaya the primary areas associated with prostitution are Boyztown,[34] Sunee Plaza and Walking Street.[33]
Rather than face of the risks of working independently, many sex workers trade their freedom for the relative safety that comes with fixed employment in businesses such as "karaoke" bars, "massage" parlours, or brothels.[19] Prostitution may take place in a number of different types of venues, including brothels, hotels, massage parlours, restaurants, saunas, hostess bars, go-go bars and "beer bars".[39] Many other service sector workers offer sexual services as a sideline. Thai prostitution is divided into different sectors that serve different markets (the main criteria being the socioeconomic status of customers and the nationality of both customers and prostitutes).[20] Straightforward brothels, which offer no services aside from sex, represent the lower end of the market. These are most common outside Bangkok, serving low-income Thai men.[19]
Prostitution is prohibited under Thai law, but karaoke bars and massage parlours can be registered as normal, legal businesses. When arrests of sex workers occur at such premises, police usually treat the act of prostitution as an exchange between the sex worker and the client—an exchange to which the owner of the business was not a party. Cases of clients being charged are few and far between, giving rise to the popular quip that, "employing sex workers is legal, being a sex worker is illegal, clients get off scot-free." Owners of such establishments are only accused of crimes when breaking other laws, such as the employment of underage workers or illegal migrants.[19]
Soapy massage establishments (Thai: สถานอาบอบนวด; RTGS: sathan ap op nuat, "bathing and massage places"), akin to Japanese soaplands, typically provide either an oil massage, nude body massage, or a bath treatment which includes sexual services.[40] In this type of establishment, male clients can engage in sexual activity with female prostitutes.[38] Prostitution establishments targeted at locals are usually "bathing-sauna-massage" parlours of this type.[41] There are so many soapy massage businesses in some sections of Bangkok, using massive quantities of water pumped illegally from groundwater, that they have been accused by authorities of contributing to Bangkok's subsidence of one centimeter per year.[42]
One observer says that, "So-called 'karaoke bars' commonly feature karaoke machines as décor, even though few or no customers visit such venues to sing, but rather to buy sex service."[19] In a 2015 study by the Ubon Ratchathani Provincial Health Service, there were 2,410 women working in restaurants and karaoke bars in Ubon Ratchathani Province. Of these, 1,230 were confirmed sex workers. Just over half of them—692 women—were from Laos working illegally in Thailand.[43]
Although Thailand is known for Thai massage, its non-sexual, traditional style of massage, known as nuat phaen boran, some massage parlours provide customers erotic massage at additional cost including handjobs, oral sex, and sexual intercourse. The Federation of Thai Spa Associations (FTSPA) in 2016 urged authorities to clamp down on sexual services being offered at some massage parlours. The FTSPA maintains that influential figures have used legal loopholes to open "pretty spas" or massage parlours where tourists can buy sexual services.[44] The difference between this type of massage and ab ob nuat is that not all massage parlours offer sexual services.
Women ("bar girls"), or men, in the case of gay bars, or transsexual ("kathoeys") are employed by the bars either as dancers (in the case of go-go bars) or simply as hostesses who will encourage customers to buy them drinks. Apart from these sorts of bars, there are a number of other sex trade venues. In most of these establishments the prostitutes are directly employed, but in hotels, some bars and discos freelance prostitutes are allowed to solicit clients.[45][46] Prostitutes will usually receive a commission when a customer buys drinks and sexual services can be arranged to take place on premises or elsewhere (with the latter requiring the customer to pay a "bar fine" to release the prostitute from the bar).[20][47]
The documented history of prostitution in Thailand goes back at least six centuries, with overt and explicit references by the Chinese voyager Ma Huan (1433) and subsequently by European visitors (Van Neck, 1604; Gisbert Heeck, 1655 and others). It is certainly not a new phenomenon, though it may have been exacerbated by the Japanese occupation during World War II and by the extensive use of Thailand as a "Rest and Recreation" facility by US forces during the Second Indochina War (c. 1963–1973).[48][49]
When Rama V abolished slavery in 1905, women found themselves destitute, so they began doing sex work for survival. Around that time millions of Chinese men came to do construction work, demanding for sex. In 1908, the king passed laws to legalize prostitution and help sex workers get medical care.[50][51]
Thailand has an ancient, continuous tradition of legal texts, generally described under the heading of Dhammasattha literature (Thai pron., tam-ma-sat), wherein prostitution is variously defined and universally banned. The era of traditional legal texts came to an end in the early 20th century, but these earlier texts were significant in regard to both the writ and spirit of modern legislation.[52]
In the twentieth century a variety of laws relating to the sex industry were passed, including the Contagious Diseases Prevention Act of 1908 and the Entertainment Places Act of 1966.[45] In the 1950s the Thai prime minister Field Marshal Sarit Thanarat initiated a morality campaign which included the aim of criminalising prostitution through the imposition of fines and imprisonment. A system of medical examinations and "moral rehabilitation" was introduced and the focus of public blame was moved from traffickers and procurers to the prostitutes themselves.[53] Prostitution itself was made illegal in Thailand[18] in 1960, when a law was passed under pressure from the United Nations.[54] The government instituted a system of monitoring sex workers in order to prevent their mistreatment and to control the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.[14] The 1960 law was repealed by the Prevention and Suppression of Prostitution Act, B.E. 2539 (1996). Under this law prostitution as such is not illegal, but brothels, pimping and causing a public nuisance (amongst other things) are illegal.
In 2003, the Ministry of Justice considered legalising prostitution as an official occupation with health benefits and taxable income and held a public discussion on the topic. Legalisation and regulation was proposed as a means to increase tax revenue, reduce corruption, and improve the situation of the workers.[28] However, nothing further was done.
In 2008, 532,522 Thais were suffering from HIV/AIDS.[55] The UNAIDS estimated in 2013 that from 380,000 to 520,000 Thais were living with HIV.[56] In 2017, the number of Thais living with HIV was 440,000.[57] The prevalence of HIV/Aids among Thai adults aged 15–49 is estimated to be 1.1 percent (2016).[58] Among freelance female sex workers, the prevalence of HIV was 2.8 percent in 2017.[57] Among female sex workers in brothels, it was 0.6 percent (2017).[57]
Mechai Viravaidya, known as "Mr. Condom",[59] has campaigned tirelessly to increase the awareness of safe sex practices and use of condoms in Thailand. He served as minister for tourism and AIDS prevention from 1991 to 1992, and also founded the restaurant chain Cabbages and Condoms, which gives free condoms to customers.
After the enactment of the Thai government's first five-year plan to combat the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the country, including Mechai's "100% condom programme", as of 1994 the use of condoms during commercial sex probably increased markedly. No current data on the use of condoms is available. The programme instructed sex workers to refuse intercourse without a condom, and monitored health clinic statistics in order to locate brothels that allow sex without condoms.[14]
A study done by AIDS Care investigated substance use of HIV risk behaviors among kathoey sex workers in Bangkok, Thailand.[60] Only half of participants stated that they were tested for HIV and one had seen a health care provider in the past 12 months.[60] It found that katheoys who experienced abuse from a father or brother were less likely to use condoms during anal sex with customers.[60] Katheoy sex work tends to be in large cities and tourist areas including Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Phuket City, and Pattaya.[60] Many kathoeys work part-time as freelance prostitutes and keep a day-time job.[61] Kathoeys are usually a cheaper alternative[citation needed] to female prostitutes and considered as less likely to be a disease risk.[61] Pressure from often specialized "ladyboy" bars puts kathoeys at risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases given that many customers are unwilling to use condoms.[62]
Thai society has its own unique set of often contradictory sexual mores. Visiting a prostitute or a paid mistress is not an uncommon, though not necessarily acceptable, behaviour for men. Many Thai women, for example, believe the existence of prostitution actively reduces the incidence of rape.[14] Among many Thai people, there is a general attitude that prostitution has always been, and will always be, a part of the social fabric of Thailand.[14] On the other hand, "...the idea of legalizing sex work is unacceptable to many thin-faced Thais who judge the profession to be a foundation of vices. It doesn't matter how many sex workers are left out
Pattaya prostitute prices - Thailand-trip.org
Prostitution in Thailand - Wikipedia
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