CHIANG MAI, Thailand (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Young boys walk in pairs late in the evening at Chiang Mai’s popular Tha Phae Gate, sauntering past tourists taking photos of the fort as locals hawk souvenirs.
No one would connect the boys to the older, white men - and a pair of Chinese 40-somethings - seated under a tree, or to the young man with the mobile phone leaning on a parked motorbike.
But for Alezandra Russell, founder of non-profit Urban Light, this scene - which unfolds every evening in one of the country’s most popular tourist stops - sums up everything that is wrong with Thailand’s approach to trafficking and slavery.
“The dialogue in Thailand - and around the world - is focused on women and girls, because the general perception is that boys are big and strong, and that they can take care of themselves,” said Russell, pointing out the deals being done.
“There is greater stigma around sexual abuse of boys in some cultures, including in Thailand. Anecdotal evidence shows it’s under-reported to a far greater degree than sexual abuse of girls. And the offenders are not just Western tourists, but are just as likely to be locals and other Asian men”
The boys, aged from 14 to 24, walk in pairs for greater safety, making eye contact with the men, who then communicate their choices to the man with the mobile phone. Once the deal is done, the boys move to a side alley to wait for their clients.
If no one passes muster, the men head to one of dozens of bars and karaoke lounges that offer boys for sex. The rates range from 2,000 baht ($62) for an hour to 5,000 baht for longer, in a back room or in the client’s hotel, Russell said.
“Why does this not shock and enrage people as much as it does when it’s girls?” said Russell, whose drop-in center is for boys in Chiang Mai’s sex industry.
“They are no less vulnerable and abused than girls who are trafficked into sex work. Yet it is much more hidden, so there’s much less sympathy, and far fewer resources for boys,” she said.
SOAPY MASSAGE
Thailand is a source, transit, and destination country for children trafficked for sexual exploitation.
Thailand has more than 123,530 sex workers, according to a 2014 UNAIDS report. Of these, at least 40 percent are under 18, and a significant number are boys, according to rights groups.
Children are trafficked into Thailand from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam. Victims from Bangladesh, Pakistan, North Korea and China also transit through Thailand en route to the United States, western Europe and Russia, activists say.
“We are aware that there are boys also in the sex trade,” said Krittat Uamson, deputy director of the justice ministry’s human trafficking division in Bangkok. “But the majority of sex workers is girls and women, so our main focus is women.”
Globally, as many as 2 million children are sexually exploited annually, according to the United Nations children’s agency UNICEF. A significant number are boys, campaigners say.