How Girls Are Found

A few years ago just after moving to Thailand to a small northern town, I had problems with my bank. They sent a statement and as it was returned they cancelled my saving account. I usually took my money out of my visa account and my bank settled the
bills monthly. Well the machine kept my card, as I contacted the bank they told me I would have to come to my own country to open a new account; a very easy thing to do if you only have 200 baht in your pocket. I had no problems with my accommodation,
the owner of a small guesthouse was my friend and I could stay as long as I liked. He trusted me that I finally would pay. I was without a penny for almost two month until I could arrange a new bank account, a tourist from my country was a bank
manager and I gave him all the authority he legally needed. Then my problems were over, and I suddenly had 300,000 baht in my hands.

I always walked around the street, which had all the gogo bars late at night as I had nothing better to do. Usually the mamasans were sitting outside their places trying to get customers. They all knew of my problems and always invited me
to sit down for a chat. Most of the time; they sent one of their bar girls to the next 7/11 to get a cola and some potato chips for me. If the 3am closing time arrived they normally brought me back; on their little Hondas to my guesthouse, sometimes
we arrived with three or four other girls. They usually had a discussion between themselves and most of the time one of the ladies stayed with me until 7 AM. At day time one or the other came with some food for me. Actually the life was more fun
with pockets full of money.

Ok, enough of this. At one of the places I meet a friendly middle aged Chinese guy and had very long talks with him. He said he was the owner of a couple of restaurants and three per hour hotels. One day during the early evening he found
me walking close to my guesthouse. He brought me to his restaurant for a good dinner; he also introduced me to his wife. I then could see that a lot of Thai men entered the place and went to the back of the room. I thought nothing of it! During
the next three weeks we become friendlier and he finally told me that he actually ran a string of brothels. Much later he explained how the system worked.

Apparently there were people in Messai which run a brokerage business in very young girls. They are usually not Thais, do not speak Thai and come from Burma, Laos, the hill tribes and China. The brothel owners arrange for the delivery of
4 or 5 girls aged between 12 to 14 years, the girls did cost about 30,000 baht each, this money had to be paid to their parents and was for a three year contract. They were then put in a police car and driven to their destination; the cost for
this was 4 to 7,000 baht for each carload depending on the distance. They had to do it this way as there are too many roadblocks close to Messai. Of course the police cars went right through. Once the girls arrived at their destination they had
a medical examination for good health and also to make sure that they were virgins.

Now the interesting thing was that the brothels were for Thai men only. If a farang come he was sent away empty handed to some other place. They were afraid to have problems with the authorities in case the foreigners started to talk. The
prices for the girls were between 100 to 150 baht ST and 200 baht all night. They could not be taken out of the premises as they probably would run away. The Thai ‘gentlemen’ would pay from 2000 to 6000 baht for a cherry girl depending
on the age. One of the girls managed to escape but was collected by the police and promptly returned. They would never make it back to their country anyway as they had no ID cards or other papers.

He further explained that he had 28 very young girls at his place; it did cost him 40,000 baht each month as tea money to keep the authorities away. Sometimes special police came from Bangkok, no problems; the local authorities warned him and the girls
were shifted to some small hotels until the danger was over.

After one year of training they usually shifted the girls to BKK or Pattaya to work in Chinese hotels, “long timers will know what they are”. Again they were transported in official cars to pass the roadblocks. This time he
had to pay 25,000 baht for a carload. There the ladies, now maybe 13 to 15 years old had to work for another two years or even more if the parents got into some more debt. I was not interested in taking children but he showed me one of his places.
It was a pitiful sight. Many of the girls were locked in their rooms to prevent escape and they had very few possessions of any kind, maybe one or at most two pieces of very poor quality cloth. The minders checked every day to make sure that the
girls had no money of their own; otherwise they probably could run away.

To tell the truth I was completely horrified of the situation and debated with myself what I could do about it. I even sent an anonymous letter to the Bangkok Post; needless to say it was never published. Locally I could not do anything as
most of the area was and still is, controlled by the Chinese mafia. If they could find out that I made problems I probably would disappear. Before I could see what was happening I always thought that the days of chattel slavery were gone for good.
But believe me it is not so and remains until today.

About two years ago the Bangkok special police came down, unadvertised to their local colleagues and closed a lot of the places down. I am sure they still exist but I would not know where to find them. The people I know managed to escape
after they received a phone call from Bkk. Also all their girls could not be found. It seems to have been very well organized and did cover all of Thailand from Chiang Mai to Phuket. Well, after all there is very big money involved in this type
of business.

The big question is what will finally happen to the girls. They probably learn to speak Thai, but they still have no papers of any kind. I do not believe that they could make their way back to their own people. They probably finish up trying
to find customers on the streets, just to survive until the police catches them and deports them. They would not know any other type of work.

This story is true and should give the punters which frequent Chinese hotels and are after young girls something to think about.

Stickman's thoughts:

This is outrageous but as you say, what can be done about it? It is mafia controlled and anyone meddling could very possibly be done away with. The only way I can think of to help would be to amass as much evidence as possible and then pass it on to the highest authority possible. If nothing happened then, perhaps anonymous internet exposure might help. The problem is then that you really open yourself up to potentially VERY nasty consequences.