A 13-year-old girl revealed that she had been forced into prostitution by her mother and aunt in central Thailand since the age of 11.
The young girl living in Hua Hin was allegedly sold to a 50-year-old man in exchange for money to buy drugs and pay off daily debts incurred by her mother from loan sharks.
The case was revealed after the girl confided in her father and stepmother on April 26.
Four days later, her father contacted the Pavena Foundation for Children and Women to obtain legal aid and protection.
According to the father, he and the girl's mother had separated several years ago and had never been legally married.
They had two daughters, aged 13 and 8, who lived with their mother.
He claims that the mother regularly denied him the right to see his children and made it difficult for him.
After the girl contacted her stepmother to tell her that she no longer wanted to live with her mother and grandmother due to violence and ill-treatment, her father went from Phuket to Hua Hin to retrieve her.
He then filed a complaint with the Hua Hin police and informed the mother that the child would be transferred to Phuket.
Initially reluctant, the mother eventually gave in after the little girl revealed to her on the phone that she had been forced into prostitution.
The young girl recounted that her mother and aunt had taken her to a brothel on two occasions when she was 11 years old.
The first incident occurred in August 2023, when her aunt took her to meet the man, who then took her to a hotel.
After the assault, she returned home bleeding and in pain, but her mother attributed it to her period.
The second incident occurred two months later.
Once again, her aunt accompanied her to meet the same man, but the young girl resisted.
The man brought her back to a park, where her mother was waiting for her.
He allegedly told the mother not to bring the child back, which prompted the woman to insult her daughter.
The girl stated that her mother was a drug addict and had used her to pick up drugs from friends to avoid being arrested.
The mother also had significant informal debts that she had to repay daily.
On April 30, the Pavena Foundation contacted Colonel Kampanat Na Wichai, police commissioner of the Hua Hin police station, who ordered a thorough investigation.
The little girl was immediately sent for a medical examination and was questioned by a multidisciplinary team.
The little girl and her younger sister have since been placed in the care of the foundation.
On May 19, police obtained arrest warrants against the mother and aunt for human trafficking and procuring a child under 15 for sexual exploitation.
The mother was arrested on the same day.
A drug test confirmed her methamphetamine use, resulting in an additional charge for drug use.
She admitted to having arranged three meetings with the man:
Once in a public park to present the girl for 1,500 bahts ($40), and twice in hotels for 2,000 and 5,000 bahts ($53 and $134) respectively.
The aunt allegedly kept all the money.
The suspect was held in custody.
The police are currently searching for the aunt and are working to identify and prosecute the man who paid to have sex with the child, according to the foundation.
Human trafficking in Thailand
The sale of children for prostitution by their own parents in Thailand is a deeply troubling aspect of human trafficking and child exploitation, often linked to poverty, cultural factors, and systemic problems.
Although complete data on recent cases is limited, historical and current reports indicate that this is a persistent problem, particularly in economically disadvantaged regions.
Thailand has laws against prostitution and child trafficking, such as the 1996 Prevention and Suppression of Prostitution Act, which provides penalties for parents or guardians facilitating prostitution.
Reports from organizations such as the Pavena Foundation, ECPAT and UNICEF indicate that child exploitation remains a significant problem.
Organizations such as ECPAT and UNICEF work to protect children, with an emphasis on awareness, rescuing victims and rehabilitation.
If you suspect a case of human trafficking in Thailand, here are the steps you can take to report it:
- Emergency Contact: for immediate assistance, call the Royal Thai Anti-Human Trafficking Centre at 1599 (available 24 hours a day).
- Thai Government Social Assistance Line: contact the Thai government's social assistance hotline at 1300 to report any suspected cases of trafficking.
- Royal Thai Police Assistance Line: use the human trafficking assistance line at 1191 to report cases of human trafficking or violence against children.
- IOM Thailand: for non-urgent assistance, contact Saskia Kok, IOM Thailand Protection Officer, at slekok@iom.int or thpxu@iom.int.
- International Helpline: if you are outside Thailand, you can contact the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888 for advice.
See also:
Thailand: a missing teenager found in a Pattaya girl bar
Teenage girls were selling their virginity for 5,239 euros in Thailand
Sex workers in danger in Thailand
Source: Bangkok Post
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2 comments
At least she had the courage to talk about it.
Most have to remain silent, unfortunately.
In whom can you have more confidence than your mother or father?
Yes, Johan… a very sad and deplorable situation that denounces a social situation which, unfortunately in Thailand, tends to spread more and more frequently among the financially most disadvantaged sections of the population and which demonstrates through this kind of unacceptable incident, a slow but continuous degradation of the standard of living and means of subsistence of certain Thai families and households.
The inexcusable behavior of this woman, a drug user who, under physical, psychological and financial dependence on amphetamines, was led to force her daughter to prostitute herself from the age of 11 and be raped by a perverted pedophile is certainly not an isolated case, but as you rightly say, most of these cases of sexual submission of minors within the family framework most often take place in absolute silence with respect to the community in general, the predators obviously, but also the victims who often fail to express themselves until years, even decades after the events, when the feeling of shame and guilt fades from their consciousness manipulated by a family, school or other community authority.
The actions of this young girl, whose sexual ordeal lasted 2 years, showed great courage and lucidity in resisting the actions of her own mother and aunt, sold like a "sex doll" to a man who abused her and probably opened the door to long-term physical and psychological trauma.
It is fortunate that this very young girl was able to express herself to the authorities, probably avoiding a similar fate for her younger sister a few years later.
It should also be noted that it was not thanks to the intervention of an official state body, set up by a government, but thanks to a private foundation specializing in this kind of case that was able to put an end to the ordeal of this young girl, already marked for life, as she was just entering her pre-adolescence!!!
Let us hope that the family and social environment that will be hers from now on will help her, not to forget, but to minimize the physiological and psychological effects of this trauma that will remain forever etched in her body and mind…
I wish her to find within herself, strength and courage for her life as a teenager and as a woman and that she knows that she is not responsible for anything, except for the tyranny of a mother and an aunt whose only future I wish to be behind bars in prison, hoping that the media pressure does not weaken and that the police and judicial investigators, as well as prosecutors and judges do their job until the end of the justice procedures!