Girls For Sale - Underage Sex Trafficking in Mae Hong Son Province, Northern Thailand

Sex trafficking of underage children is a major issue facing the remote villages in Northwestern Thailand. Poverty, the lack of employment opportunities, insufficient education opportunities, and the remoteness of these villages all contribute to the issue. In addition, working in the sex industry does not have the same social stigma in Thailand as it does in Western countries, and the amount paid to families in compensation for taking their daughters can be more than several years of income. For the children themselves, their strong culturally-imposed sense of obligation and duty to their families mean they willingly submit themselves to this life so their family can get ahead. In most cases, a trafficked girl will see between 5 and 8 customers per day, for 20 days each month. Again due to their obligation to their family, all profits (after their debts have been paid off) will be sent back to their families – the girls themselves do not get rich in this industry. Improvements are needed in the standard of education and the number of schools offering education above 6th grade, as well as community engagement and Government intervention through policy in order to combat this issue. However, a solution is a long way off and, until the Government and communities work hard on preventative measures such as education, countless underage children will be trafficked to work in the sex industry, setting their lives on a path of servitude, while the traffickers get rich in the process.