Sex trafficking in Cambodia

Sex trafficking victims in the country are from all ethnic groups in Cambodia and foreigners. Cambodian citizens, primarily women and girls, have been sex trafficked within the country and throughout the world. They are threatened and forced into prostitution, marriages, and or pregnancies. Sex trafficked victims experience physically and psychologically trauma. Some are tortured and murdered.

Sex trafficking and exploitation occur at all levels of Cambodian society. Male and female perpetrators in Cambodia come from many backgrounds. A number of traffickers are members of or facilitated by gangs. Pedophiles travel to Cambodia for sex tourism. The extent of sex trafficking in Cambodia is not known because of the lack data, the underground nature of sex trafficking crimes, and other factors. Anti-sex trafficking initiatives have been impeded by corruption, apathy, border management problems, fractured social institutions, weak law enforcement, and more. UNICEF states that some 37 % of the victims trafficked for sexual exploitation in Cambodia are children.

Victims

Cambodian women and girls are sex trafficked into China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Japan, and other countries throughout the world. They are imposed by coercion into marriages or brothels, including phony massage parlors and karaoke bars, and unfree labour in homes or on farms. Many are tied or locked up in dark rooms without restrooms and abused.

Many trafficked victims are taken into hotels, which are harder to detect than brothels. Survivors recall being terrified and crying often. Some attempt suicide. Many victims are drugged. Victims are sometimes forced by traffickers to get virginity certificates at hospitals. Women and girls from families in poverty and that lack education, as well as children and minorities, are vulnerable to sex trafficking.