BANGKOK: According to government officials in Thailand and across Southeast Asia, women are being pushed more and more into taking positions as maids, only to be forced into the sex trafficking industry. According to a top Thailand police official working on cracking down on vice syndicates in the region, women are being “duped” into heading abroad to work as maids or in spas, “only to be forced into the sex trade.” The official told Bikyamasr.com on condition of anonymity that “this is something we have witnessed growing in recent years and without a real effort to stem it, women face a hard future in the region.” According to reports from local press in the region, poor women from rural areas of Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam are becoming victims of human trafficking. Without economic backing, the official said, “they face an uncertain future where the promise of money holds a lot of weight.” Many women, most under 30-years-old, are being promised an annual salary of $5,000 (RM15,000) to work as maids in Malaysia. But upon arrival in the country they quickly find out that those promises are not true. While many are able to escape, others are forced to work in the illegal sex trade that is booming in Malaysia. A recent report highlighted that Malaysian men prefer Vietnamese and Chinese women, which has seen syndicates push for more women from those countries to arrive in Malaysia to work as illegal sex workers. The victims would only realise they had been duped after arriving in Kuala Lumpur. In Malaysia, Federal Criminal Investigation Department principal assistant director (anti-vice and gaming) Senior Asst Comm Abdul Jalil Hassan said investigations revealed that more than 10 such syndicates had adopted such tactics. He said the syndicates would first pay for the flight tickets and passports, leaving the women in debt and having no choice but to accept their future to pay off those debts. SAC Abdul Jalil said those involved in the sex trade would charge between RM150 and RM200 per session. For women's rights groups across the region, the rise in illegal human trafficking in the sex trade is a worrying concern and one they have repeatedly called on governments to intervene and put more effort into ending this trade. Thailand's government said it was cracking down on illegal workers coming into the country, but with the numbers growing in Thailand and across the region, there are not enough manpower to curtail all activities. Social workers and activists said that in order to help end the illegal sex trade and human trafficking, more education needs to be had to inform residents of these syndicates, who promise a bright future, but deliver only hardships for women.
