A Neophyte in Thailand

As I sit in the airport waiting to board the plane I observe those around me. I can't help but wonder if the portly Caucasian man has purchased the petite young Asian girl sitting beside him. I can feel anxiety rise up in me as I survey those, particularly males, occupying the cold uncomfortable seats in the waiting lounge. How many of them will participate in perpetuating this heinous crime? How many of them will buy sex from young girls forced to perform degrading acts? I keep trying to stir up fear and anxiety in my heart as I try to convince myself of the gravity of what I am about to enter into...but nothing will come.

I am fearless and calm and realize that this will not be the long awaited vacation in Thailand I had anticipated since I was an adolescent girl. I board the plane with the intent of meeting up with Sandy Kirkpatrick, the Executive Director of Artists United for Social Justice, and embarking on an investigation of sex trafficking in Thailand. The two week itinerary consists of delivering medical supplies to the Free Burma Rangers and the Backpack Health Worker Teams, vetting safe houses for women and children rescued from the sex trade, and looking for possible victims in some of the major commercial red-light districts of Bangkok.

I had preconceived notions upon my arrival in Thailand, the most prominent one being that most Thais were forced into prostitution against their volition. I've watched several documentaries about callous traffickers who threaten, kidnap and trick girls into prostitition. I've read account after account of brutality, humiliation, degradation and the unwanted reality into which many innocent girls succumb and spend the rest of their lives in a futile cycle of servitude. But some of the women consent to work in the sex industry, and are trafficked across borders knowing they will be employed in bars, however, many believe they will have limited physical contact with men and will be able to pocket the money they earn. Other women apprehensively consent because the lack of jobs, skills, and opportunities in their regions and the dire need to support their families. None of the women are prepared for the harsh conditions and trickery that awaits them, and all of them come from poverty, desperation, and sometimes addiction. So even though many consent to work, it is usually because they have no other viable choices, and they do not realize the full extent to which they will be involved in providing commercial sex services.

We visit several joints in the red-light district and hear similar stories from most of the Thai girls we converse with, "I come from Isaan (the impoverished region of Northeast Thailand) and I need to support my family." "This is not the life I wanted." While the workers are provided with little of the money they earn, it is better than the nothing they had in Issan. The waiting lists to get legitimate employment are long, and most of the girls want to leave, but think they have no other way to make money. So what is the difference between the girls who consented to work in the bars and can not leave due to their inability to get a legitimate job, and the ones who are physially forced to work in the sex industry, or the ones who remain because they have become addicted to drugs and can not really function as whole people, or the ones who are tricked into debt bondage? Slavery has many faces.

The article will be continued next week as Nina Mone Williams reveals more of what she learned in Thailand.