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The Straits Times (Singapore) July 30, 2005 Saturday
Asia's red light tourism; Sex tourists from West fanning a boom in an industry
that often involves children
July 30, 2005 Saturday
Neo Hui Min , Straits Times Europe Bureau
LONDON - IF THE main attraction is sex, Asia is the destination.
Undeterred by the threat of deadly communicable diseases or the threat of being caught and shamed, thousands of men
from Europe and the United States leave home every year looking for holiday sex.
It is an industry said to be worth billions annually, and there is a whole industry to support it.
A 1998 report by the International Labour Organisation shows that 2 to 14 per cent of the gross domestic product of
Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand is derived from sex tourism. In Indonesia alone, sex tourism revenues
can be as high as US$3.3 billion (S$5.5 billion).
Whether it is sex tours from Europe and America bound for Thailand, Costa Rica or eastern Europe, or Singaporeans
catching the weekend ferry to Batam and Bintan, the quest for cheap overseas sex knows no bounds.
Most of today's organised sex tours originate from Australia, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, the United States,
Japan and South Korea. The top Asian sex destinations are Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia,
Laos and Sri Lanka.
While prostitution may not be illegal in some of these countries, the rise of HIV/Aids and child sex workers has seen
human rights activists raising alarm.
Many are concerned because the Internet has pushed the industry to a new level. For many men, cyberspace is where
they locate the holiday of their dreams, choosing from a host of online operators flogging sex tours brazenly.
Many of the online tour operators appear to be registered in the US. Although, given the nature of the Internet, they
could be anywhere. Many of these operators find the trade lucrative enough to persist despite opposition from human
rights groups and legal considerations.
While many of these tour operators are keen to snare potential male customers, they are very wary of talking to journalists.
However, after The Straits Times sent e-mail queries to half a dozen sex tour sites, a Mr Peters (not his real name),
whose website offers a PO Box address in the US, offered to answer some questions via e-mail on condition of anonymity. He was the only one to respond.
Mr Peters explains that he takes about 80 people on sex tours to Asia every year.
For less than US$3,000, men in the US and Europe can join packages that include airfare, five to 10 nights' stay at 'liberal-minded hotels', a guidebook, a local tour guide and 'adult nightlife tours'. An online 'review' written by someone
who had sampled a tour recounted that tour members are escorted each night to various clubs where they can hook up
with local girls.
Despite the hard work of the Thai government to change its image as a sex capital, many of Mr Peters' tours wing their
way to Bangkok and other sex-for-sale hotspots in Cambodia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, the Caribbean,
South America and eastern Europe.
He insists that the services offered by his company are 'above-board' but concedes that the business of sex tourism is
'exploitative'.
The tours would be illegal only if women were provided as part of the package, he adds. Mr Peters stresses that his
company does not employ prostitutes, only a guide who is paid in US dollars to bring the men to nightclubs.
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The Straits Times (Singapore) July 30, 2005 Saturday
He justifies his activities by pointing out that Thai women who work in such clubs are there to 'help their families financially and to find a nice person to marry'. 'About 35 per cent of our tour members are looking for wives and we have had
quite a few successful marriages,' he maintains.
In the sex capital of Bangkok, it is estimated that prostitution generates revenues of about US$22 billion to US $30 billion annually.
A May article in British-based monthly political magazine, Prospect, estimated that a 'crude' way of measuring the extent of sex tourism in Thailand is simply to take a look at the discrepancy in numbers of males and females who visit the
Land of Smiles each year.
Of all foreigners, 60 per cent are male and 40 per cent female. In particular, arrivals from wealthy nations such as the
US, Japan and Britain show a wider gap - nearly two males for every female in 2003.
Sex tourism is on the rise within Asia as well, with more businessmen from wealthy Asian nations such as Taiwan and
Korea headed for the Philippines and Thailand each year.
American lawyer Ken Franzblau, who has been doing undercover work for New York-based women's rights group,
Equality Now, told The Straits Times that those who join sex tours do not go just once.
'I was talking to a bunch of guys and they told me that they would join a sex tour once, but they'd go back five or six
times on their own. An organised tour is like a gateway to a lifetime of such activities,' he says.
Mr Franzblau reckons that there may be '10 times more' who visit Asia for sex on their own than those who join advertised organised tours.
Companies offering adult sex tours to Asia abound on the Internet, with websites sporting explicit and lurid Internet
addresses. In 2000, there were 280,000 sex industry sites listed on the Internet. Last year, the figure exploded to 1.3
million.
According to a 2000 report by Dr Mohamed Mattar of the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, there are over 100 websites globally that promote child sex tourism to Asia. It is estimated that US-based
websites advertising sex tourism rake in over $150 million each per year.
According to United Nations estimates, between 700,000 and a million people are being trafficked annually, a large
percentage of whom are women and children exploited for sex. This is fuelled by interest generated by the Internet, the
cracking open of previously clam-shut borders of some Third World countries, as well as cheap fares and tours offered
by budget airlines.
The issue of child sex tourism has been gaining momentum in recent years as crackdowns on paedophiles have been
stepped up.
One agency that has been at the forefront of combating child exploitation is ECPAT (End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and the Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes), an umbrella body of NGOs founded in Thailand with
branches worldwide, that works closely with the tourism industry.
Ms Christine Beddoe, United Kingdom's centre director for ECPAT, told The Straits Times that not all countries have
laws in place to prosecute sex offenders for crimes committed overseas. Some countries which have such laws include
Germany and Britain but ECPAT is 'pushing for more countries to sign up'.
She notes that despite efforts to crack down on the child sex, it has continued to grow in recent years as a result of the
Internet, and informants which allow groups to keep a step ahead of the law.
'Every time there is a crackdown in Thailand, we notice that the activities would shift to a neighbouring country, such as
Laos or Cambodia. We're now very worried about places like Burma and Laos, where legislation is unclear and which
are even less accessible to NGOs,' she says.
The ease with which information is available online has made organisations like Missio Aachen jumpy. A few years
ago, the German Catholic agency which does international mission work heard about travel guides listing hotels where
travellers can buy sex with young prostitutes.
'We wrote to the publishers to ask what is going on. How could you print something like this?' recounts Ms Dettina Tiburzy, a member of the mission, to The Straits Times.
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The Straits Times (Singapore) July 30, 2005 Saturday
In that instance, the publishers complied and removed the lewd reference. But with the anonymous nature of the Internet
today, it's difficult to police cyberspace.
She estimates that about 400,000 Germans head to countries such as Thailand and the Philippines for sex tourism every
year. Of these, a few thousand prey on children, it estimates.
These tourists head to places like South-east Asia because 'in Europe they could easily be convicted, whereas overseas
they may be able to get away with it', she says.
When a crime of this nature takes place in a foreign country, it is difficult for the perpetrator's home country to gather
evidence and convince victims to testify.
But travellers making the trip to Asia for sex with minors should realise that even if they don't break any laws in the
country they are visiting, they can be prosecuted upon their return. About 30 developed nations, including Australia,
New Zealand, Canada, the UK and France, have laws against child sex.
Last year, Londoner Brian Parnell, 66, was jailed two years for trying to incite a boy under the age of 16 to commit a
serious sex act while he was in Sri Lanka. In 2000, 48-year-old Amnon Chemouil from France was sentenced to seven
years' jail for sexually assaulting an 11-year-old girl while on holiday in Thailand.
Missio Aachen's most significant coup was to send a German paedophile to jail, a feat accomplished with the aid of
Philippines-based child protection centre PREDA (People's Recovery, Empowerment and Development Assistance)
Foundation in 1996.
Now 21 and a youth advocate for children's rights, Ms Pia Corvera was only 12 when she was sold to a German tourist,
Thomas Breuerwurde, for 90 deutschemarks (S $93).
She found refuge in the Catholic mission's Philippines-based centre and got Mr Breuerwurde charged. But when he was
released on bail, he fled home.
Pia set the precedence by becoming the first foreign juvenile flown in to testify in a German court which sent Breuerwurde to jail for 3 1/2 years.
But such cases are a rarity. 'It is still a very long process to get convictions,' sighs Ms Tiburzy.
huimin.neo@gmail.com
GATEWAY TO DEPRAVITY
'I was talking to a bunch of guys and they told me that they would join a sex tour once, but they'd go back five or six
times on their own. An organised tour is like a gateway to a lifetime of such activities.'AMERICAN LAWYER KEN
FRANZBLAU, who has been doing undercover work for a New York-based women's rights group, Equality Now
PLAYING HIDE AND SEEK
'Every time there is a crackdown in Thailand, we notice that the activities would shift to a neighbouring country, such as
Laos or Cambodia. We're now very worried about places like Burma and Laos, where legislation is unclear and which
are even less accessible to NGOs.'MS CHRISTINE BEDDOE, UK's centre director for End Child Prostitution, Child
Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes
SECTION: Saturday Special Report
LENGTH: 1741 words
LOAD-DATE: October 14, 2005
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 2005 Singapore Press Holdings Limited