Thai Group Wants Japan to Punish Customers of Prostitutes

Bangkok, Dec. 1 (Jiji Press)--Japan should apply penalties to the customer's side, as well as the seller's side, over prostitution, Pavena Hongsakul, president of the Pavena Foundation for Children and Women, a Thai organization that supports victims of sex trafficking, said.

A case in which a 12-year-old Thai girl was forced to provide sexual services at a massage shop in Tokyo sent shock waves across society in the Southeast Asian country in addition to Japan.

Cases of Thai women being forced into prostitution in Japan are not rare, Pavena said in an interview with Jiji Press. But the incident in Tokyo was the first confirmed case of forced prostitution that involved a Thai child victim outside Thailand, she said.

This is a cruel act that hurts and abandons a child, Pavena said, referring to allegations that the mother of the victim took her own daughter to the massage shop.

The foundation in the first 11 months of this year received reports that 104 people who went overseas from Thailand were forced into prostitution, in 19 countries, including 43 victims in the United Arab Emirates, 12 in Myanmar, 11 in Georgia, five each in Malaysia and Bahrain and four in Cambodia.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]