More Than 7200 Sex Workers on Phuket

By Chutima Sidasathian
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
THE SCALE of Phuket's sex industry has been revealed in a survey by Public Health officials that concludes there are more than 6229 female workers and 998 male workers in the trade.

The numbers are the totals of people who openly admit to earning their living from prostitution, Vice Governor Tree Akaradath was told yesterday.

The figures came on the same day as a seminar on prostitution was held in Bangkok. British ambassador Quinton Quayle expressed concern about prostitution across national boundaries.
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He said Thailand was a part of the problem because many women and men went abroad or were taken abroad to engage in prostitution.

The ambassador plans to visit neighboring countries to educate officials and the public about the trade in the sex industry.

On Phuket, Public Health officials check bars in Patong and other entertainment centres, including Phuket City, twice a year, asking the owners of establishments how many workers are involved.

Many karaoke bars and girlie beer bars in centres such as Soi Bangla in Patong have influential mamasan, motherly figures who control their younger colleagues, or ''families.'' (And there are Papasans, too).

Khun Tree was told yesterday that the mamasans tend to protect younger sex workers in all matters but do not necessarily advocate the use of condoms.

The result is a greater risk of HIV infection, as well as the danger of workers catching less significant but harmful venereal diseases.

Representing Public Health at yesterday's meeting was Dr Pongsawat Rattanasang, with Pannee Sittikan, from the Phuket Province Social Development office.

The risk was even greater in neighboring rural provinces such as Phang Nga, where ignorance of HIV, especially among young people, was even more widespread than on Phuket, although the numbers of workers were not so large.

The survey is not complete in terms of total numbers because some bars refuse entry to Public Health and decline to have staff involved in surveys, Vice Governor Tree was told.

Checks are usually made every March and October.

Resorts under the Accor and Evason brands are known to be signatories to a declaration against child prostitution, promoted by an umbrella organisation, Ecpat.

Officials from Ecpat and Accor have been reluctant to explain to Phuketwan how this worthy intention actually applies in practice.

Dealing with a situation where a resort guest brings a young person who may or may not be underage back to the resort seems to be an issue that many resort managements remain reluctant to discuss publicly.

Ecpat (End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and the Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes) is a network of organisations and individuals working together to eliminate the commercial sexual exploitation of children.

Prostitution remains a crime in Thailand but prosecutions on Phuket are relatively rare, perhaps in tacit acknowledgment that many sex tourists these days come from countries where prostitution is legal.

The overt nature of the international tourist sex trade is matched by a large-scale yet far less open industry involving Thais.

According to Ecpat: ''Several cities in Thailand suffer from the
impacts of sexual exploitation of children in tourism, notably Bangkok, Pattaya, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai and Phuket.

''Children are readily available in sex establishments and are also approached directly in the street by tourists seeking sexual contact.''

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