Slave Trade - Cambodia
Slave Trade - Cambodia
Story and photos by Andy Rain
Rakshey looks like any other 15 years old girl. Her thick dark hair and soft chubby cheeks are what you would expect of most teenagers. She enjoys embroidery and manicuring at the Health Care Center, in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh, where she is taken care of by local NGO’s along with 35 other young girls. But behind Rakshey’s silent reserved demeanor lies a troubled child whose life has been exploited and abused. Her past reveals a dark torturous affair. She has spent most of her years as a slave.
When she was 6 her mother died and she was taken in by her Aunt, a mother of 3 herself. As time went by her Aunt who had fallen into debt and grew increasingly frustrated with Rakshey, whose older sister was already working as a prostitute in Poipet, along the Thai Cambodian border.
In dire need to pay off debts Rakshey’s Aunt sold her to a Taiwan businessman for an unknown some of money.
For 7 long years she remained the businessman’s slave, domestic worker if you like. Regularly she was beaten with iron bars and tortured by electric shock. She escaped but was caught and brutally beaten again. But on the second attempt was successful and returned to her Aunt in Kampong Cham province. In the years that had passed Rakshey’s Aunt had fallen into debt with other lenders and so she was forced to repay her Aunts debts by having sex with 10 different lenders from across the region.
The debts were paid off and she was trafficked to Sihanoukville, a seedy coastal resort in the southeast of the country and sold into prostitution. The wife of her brothel owner soon became jealous of the Rakshey, so she was sold again to another brothel in her own province of Kampong Cham. A slave with no right’s, Rakshey’s life had been one of tragedy and despair. She was 14 years old.
Her new brothel owner forced her to take drugs so that she would attract more customers. But as the numbers grew, sometimes as many as 15 men every day, she could take no more. Her luck changed however. On one occasion she went with an under cover policeman who received a formal complaint from Rakshey about the brutal treatment and severe conditions she had been forced to live through. This is all the police needed to get her out. She was taken to the House of Hope, a local Christian N.G.O in Kampong Cham.that rehabilitates victims of exploitation.
Years of relentless sex, drugs and beatings turned Rakshey into a paranoid schizophrenic, compelling her to attack other victims of abuse who shared living space with her. Sadly years of abuse and exploitation proved fatal when she stabbed and killed a young girl at the House of Hope.
Now at Phnom Pen’ s H.C.C (Health Care Center) she learns non-formal education and enjoys teaching other girls manicuring and hairdressing. “ It’s impossible for her to be reintegrated into society”, explains shelter manager Keo Taon, 52. “My hope is that she can run a little grocery shop here at the center”.
All across Cambodia and the Asian region children are being trafficked and sold into prostitution and labour. A network of “Mukyul’s”, deceivers or tricksters and agents are taking advantage of the poor by tricking families into selling their children by persuading them there is work for them father afield in Phnom Penh and Thailand. In reality though, although some might find work on farms or factories the majority are sold into prostitution or labour.
Rakshey’s story is one of untold numbers who are unable to escape their fate. Many never see their families again. Countless fall prey to HIV/AIDS and other diseases. Beaten and sold time and time again from one place to the next their suffering goes largely unnoticed. Half the nation’s population are under 18 years old. Over 600,000 children are currently living and working as slaves in Cambodia. Some 200, 000 children have been trafficked from Burma, Laos and Cambodia into Thailand and work at construction sites, sweat shops or are forced to beg. A third of Cambodia’s 60,000 estimated prostitutes are under 18.
Tom Nup Tulkuk,” red light dies”, like Svay Pak another notorious red light district is well known for its wealth of young cheap women. So too is Sihanoukville’s Tulkuk red light district. Red lights light up the faces of young girls as they wait for customers in the darkness. Poeu is one of them. She tells me she is 20, when it is obvious she is most likely 15.
“ My mother and father don’t know I am here”. She didn’t want to talk about how she got here. “ When I was younger I used to go to school. I would like to get into the music business”, she explains.
Thou also says she is 20 but at a good guess would be around 16. She is an orphan from Phnom Penh and has been in Sihanoukville a year. “I happy here”, says Thou. She glances at her Mama San to check that she is watching. “I always where condoms. No condoms no sex. If I met a good man and he wanted to marry me, I’d be happy for that. I don’t want my children to have the same life as me”. Sadly though this is not often the case. Women who have spent their lives in prostitution have little means of supporting themselves when they can no longer attract clients. Their daughters are then encouraged to follow on in their footsteps.
In rural areas international and local NGO’s are trying to combat trafficking of young children by awareness raising. Local NGO’s along with the I.L.O (the International Labour Organisation) are focusing on people at risk, particularly rural areas where poverty is rife. Locals are taught of the dangers of recruiters and trafficking. They also receive rice and are given cows and pigs so that they have the basic needs to sustain their lives without having to resort to selling their children.
Drought in the country’s north east and floods in the southeast of the country continue to cause havoc with people lives every year. Often, it is a relentless struggle to stay alive and when poverty becomes real hunger, children are the first to be sold or to venture off in search for work, vulnerable to an array of traffickers and agents that are waiting to recruit them. In many rural areas of Battambang province poverty is so extreme local farmers and their children work the dry parched fields by hand and plant seeds praying that rain will grant them a meagre harvest. The only water available to them is muddy rain water that lies in ditches.
Chum Voon, 46 and his wife Mao Sean, 43, from Battambang province in north east of the country, have not seen their 2 daughters since they left in 1999. “ I haven’t heard from them for a year”, says Voon.” The last time I heard was that they were working as domestic workers. The Mukyul who took them to Thailand promised us he would find them work on an orange farm. We needed the money to buy a cow”, he explains. “We hope we will see them again”: Voon received US$ 200 for his 2 young daughter’s aged 17 and 14. Just US$ 100 a piece for a young girl, when it costs around US$ 350 to purchase a cow.
Half the children sold as slaves in Cambodia, are sold by someone they know. Few girls have any idea they would ever become prostitutes. Some 86% are tricked and sold into prostitution and once they have entered the profession often enough it is shame that keeps them there. Very few ever speak about their experiences. They live in silence and isolation from their former communities because most Asian societies look upon them as degraded immoral human beings rather than victims of exploitation. In reality these children are part of a large game that is bent on dehumanising young women and children for their own profit. Poverty, unjust social systems and the need for cheap sex and labour will only help to fuel this sad torturous business.
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