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As Thailand shuts door, child-sex tourists find new haven
Home » perspective » As Thailand shuts door, child-sex tourists find new haven
When the man in his 50s befriended Sanneh’s 14-year-old daughter Sirreh, a combination of being poor and too trusting led to the biggest mistake of her life.
The tourist offered to pay for Sirreh’s school fees and buy her clothes. “He came to our house, took my daughter out for walks and he gave us a lot of money,” the single mother recalls.
Sanneh thought it was a kind-hearted, charitable act from a well-off European. Only much later, weeks after the man had returned to Europe, did Sirreh dare to tell her mother that he had sexually abused her.
“I destroyed my own daughter, all because of poverty,” sobs Sanneh, with tears rolling down her cheeks. Hundreds of girls and boys are sexually exploited in the small West African nation, where every second person lives on little more than a dollar a day, according to the United Nations children’s fund, Unicef.
“In West Africa, Gambia is the main destination for child sex tourism,” confirms Sheriff Manneh, an officer with the Tourism Security Unit in Gambia’s capital, Banjul, which was formed specifically to focus on curbing sex tourism.
Every year more than 150,000 people visit the former British colony, which is only a short flight from Europe.
Most tourists come from Britain, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands and Germany.
“Many are coming for only that reason, to have sex with children. Wesee it happening every day. It has become a normal thing,” says Omar Jarjue, a tour guide in Kololi.
As child sex tourism is more and more heavily policed in Asian countries like Thailand and Cambodia, lesser known destinations like Gambia are gaining in popularity, experts say.
Sex tourists bluntly offer poverty-stricken parents money for their children, according to the Child Protection Alliance (CPA), an umbrella body of about 40 local non-profit organisations. Others befriend children who sell food and drinks on beaches. Some parents are trusting like Sanneh, a Unicef study found. But others turn a blind eye to the sexual exploitation of their children to earn extra income.
Gambia’s government has stepped in and reformed several laws to curb child sex tourism. A Sexual Offences Act and a Responsible Tourism Policy are meant to protect children. In 2014, the national assembly signed off on a special tribunal to hand down hefty fines and stiff sentences to sex offenders. Awareness programmes have been launched to educate hotel staff, community leaders, teachers and police officers. Hotels are now prohibited from allowing adults to take minors to their rooms.
“We check the identity documents of all visitors to determine their age,” explains Sillah Darboe, a receptionist at the Bungalow Beach Hotel in Kololi. If staff don’t follow the rules, they are suspended or fired, he says.
The CPA has formed dozens of watchdog groups, which monitor beaches, restaurants and bars in holiday towns and report cases of child sex tourism to the authorities. But corruption and weak law enforcement create stumbling blocks in the fight against child sex tourism, laments CPA national coordinator Njundu Drammeh.
“Prosecuting the culprits remains a challenge,” hesays.
In addition, sex tourists find ever new ways to circumvent the law.
“Instead of staying in the big hotels, they now stay in small motels or in privately rented out accommodation,” notes Manneh.
Part of the problem is also that government needs to carefully balance the fight against child sex tourism with the need to promote the Gambia as a thought-after tourism destination.
Tourism makes up roughly 15 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product and supports more than 80,000 jobs in the small nation of less than 2 million people, according to the World Tourism &Travel Council. Every dollar spent by holiday-makers and business people is important to keep the nation afloat, tempting law enforcement officers to look the other way.
By : Fabakary Jammeh, Kristin Palit
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Thailand: The life of a 17-year-old in Bangkok
Thailand: The life of a 17-year-old in Bangkok Close
Is it harder to be a teenager now than ever before?
Yean has lived in the Thai capital Bangkok her whole life, and like many 17-year-olds the most important things to her right now are her friends, family, and her future.
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Country’s first female tourism minister promises to crack the whip on vice industry
THAILAND'S sex industry is under fire after the country's first female tourism minister vowed to shut down the country's many brothels and go-go bars.
Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul wants future holidaymakers to flock to Thailand for its beauty and beaches and not its seedy red light districts and world-famous ladyboys.
But those working in the industry say any clampdown would devastate the local economy and leave thousands out of work.
Thailand is predominantly Buddhist country and with traditional values, but it is also home to one of the world's most infamous sex industries.
Every year, hordes of tourists flock to the bright lights of go-go bars and massage parlours in Bangkok and other tourist towns.
But Tourism Minister Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul had tried to play down the role of the sex industry in drawing visitors.
"Tourists don't come to Thailand for such a thing," Kobkarn said.
"They come here for our beautiful culture.
"We want Thailand to be about quality tourism.
Prostitution is actually illegal in Thailand but the law is almost invariably ignored - mainly because of police corruption.
Those trying to promote the welfare of sex workers say Kobkarn's goal is unrealistic.
The military government is in denial about the proliferation of prostitution and its contribution to the economy and tourism, said Panomporn Utaisri of NightLight, a Christian non-profit group that helps women in the sex trade to find alternative work.
"There's no denying this industry generates a lot of incomSe," Panomporn told the Mail .
There are no government estimates of the value of Thailand's sex industry, or how much of the income from tourism comes from sex tourists.
There are about 123,530 sex workers in Thailand, according to a 2014 UNAIDS report.
The tourism sector accounts for about 10 percent of gross domestic product and sex worker groups said the minister's vision of a prostitution-free Thailand would dent that.
"The police presence already drives off a number of clients who come to relax or drink at bars," said Surang Janyam, director of Service Workers in Group (SWING), which provides sex workers with free medical care and vocational training.
"Wiping out this industry is guaranteed to make Thailand lose visitors and income."
Many sex workers come from the impoverished northeast and see selling their bodies as a way out of poverty.
Prostitutes can earn up to 5,000 baht ($143.14) a night, nearly 20 times the minimum wage of 300 baht ($8.59) per day.
I n an attempt to diversify the industry, Thailand is starting a “month for women travellers” campaign in August, in which female-only pink immigration lanes and parking zones will be set up in international airports.
The campaign is timed to coincide with the birthday of Thailand’s Queen Sirikit in August.
Other travel sectors including wedding and honeymoon tourism, and eco-tourism, are also being pursued.
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Sexual exploitation is the main form of modern-day slavery in Thailand – making up more than half of the 191 human trafficking cases recorded by the government so far this year. Photo: Handout
While Thailand has ramped up efforts to tackle child sex trafficking in recent years, the crime is evolving and taking new forms such as the rising use of girls as ‘entertainers’ to lure men into bars
Sexual exploitation is the main form of modern-day slavery in Thailand – making up more than half of the 191 human trafficking cases recorded by the government so far this year
Sexual exploitation is the main form of modern-day slavery in Thailand – making up more than half of the 191 human trafficking cases recorded by the government so far this year. Photo: Handout
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