Government Policies to Regulate Sex Tourism in Thailand - Research Paper Example

Government Policies to Regulate Sex Tourism in Thailand s Introduction In the recent past, sex tourism has become very popular across the globe. Sex tourism is defined by Francoeur (2008) as travelling in order to engage in sexual activity, especially with prostitutes. In the same way, the World Tourism Organizations describes sex tourism as trips that are planned outside or inside the tourism sector making use of networks and structures with an aim of initiating a commercial relationship between the tourist and the residents of that destination. Since some people view sex tourism as a way of enhancing their travel experience, social problems crop up when a particular country attains the reputation as a destination for sex tourism. Sex tourism gets its popularity from the acute unemployment and poverty in the destination country. Edwards (2012) argues that sex tourism is a multibillion dollar sector that offers support to an international workforce of over 50 million people. The sex industry also benefits the service industry including hotels, restaurants, airlines, and transport industries. Sex tourism is often associated with males and various nations have become preferred destinations for sex tourists, such as, Brazil, Thailand, Indonesia, and Colombia among others (Harrison, 2010). Among these nations, Thailand is at the center of sexual tourism worldwide with Pattaya, Bangkok, and Phuket the major sex tourism destinations. There are about 2 million sexual workers in Thailand. Of the 59 million Thai population, over a half a million people are infected with HIV/AIDS. This is primarily attributed to sex trade. In this perspective, the paper will discuss what the government of Thailand should do in relation to the continuing practice of sex tourism as a dominant form of tourism to its country. Discussion People who travel so as to engage in sexual activity are subject to the prostitution laws of that destination nation. However, when the sexual activity is non-consensual or involves child prostitution it is illegal both in the individual’s home country and the participating nation. Sex tourists interact indiscriminately with various sex partners of their choice irrespective of their age. The major attractions for sex tourists comprise of easier attitudes for prostitution since there is either indifferent law enforcement or legal, low cost of sexual services in the destination state, and also access to child prostitution, and Thailand befits these conditions. Roots of prostitution in Thailand Thai prostitution dates back to the 6th century with explicit references to the Chinese voyagers in 1433 as well as the subsequent European visitors. However, sex tourism came into limelight during the Vietnam War when Thailand was used by the American forces as a ‘Rest and Recreation’ facility. Till the 1906, prostitution was legal in Thailand. Even after the Vietnam War the government continued to promote the sex industry. The annual profit of $5 realized in 1967 increased to $20 by 1970 (Wielenga, 2006). By the end of the 1980, tourism had become the leading source of export income surpassing textile and rice exports. Thailand has gained global attraction among the tourist since the Vietnam War as a sex tourism destination. The increased development of tourism in Thailand has broadened the scale of sexual services that were common in Thailand. In 1999 about 8,650, 000 tourists visited Thailand, and by 2003 the number had increased to 10,870,000 (Embassy of the United States, 2003). The Thai religion has also perpetuated prostitution. Buddhism does not reject prostitution because if one practices prostitution it considered as a personal way of practicing karma. Additionally, Buddhism views sex as a ritual which is aimed at connecting the female and the male. In this perspective, it can be noted that in Thailand most women as well as children participate in sex trade due to cultural and financial reasons (Murcott, 2001). Sex tourism in Thailand Most women and children in Thailand are unemployed and live in poverty. With the huge development of the sex industry, most of these people have been pushed to engage in sex tourism so as to earn a living. Out of all the tourists who visit Thailand every year, 75% are sex tourists. In addition, culture has also contributed to sex tourism in Thailand. The Thai cultural values expect the eldest daughter to provide for the family. Women and children are obliged to obey the family wishes of providing for them even if it means engaging in sex trade (Guzder, 2012). Considering that there are few employment opportunities, the women contribute to the constant supply of women in the sex industry (Green, 2001). It has been reported that the earning of one sex worker is enough to support the whole family residing in the country side. Besides, the lowest paid sex worker employed at ‘beer bars’ earns twenty times more than a laborer employed at an unskilled factory (Guzder, 2012). That is why the industry has continued to grow since 2004 until now something which has made Thailand gain its popularity as a sex tourism destination. Due to the recent economic down turn, numerous factories as well as projects have since stopped leaving tens of thousands of workers without employment. The unemployment crisis is rising at rate of 100,000 every, and it rose up 1.5 million by the end of 2012 (Guzder, 2012). In 2008, the World Bank approximated that the average yearly purchasing power in the United States was $46,700 while in Thailand is $7,700 per person. About 300,000 sex tourists from the developed nations, like, U.K, Canada, Australia, Germany, and Japan travel to Thailand annually (Hall & Ryan, 2013). Recent studies have indicated that there are over 700,000 commercial sex workers in Thailand aged mostly aged between 17 and 24, and most of them serve tourists often from the West. These prostitutes are majorly poorly educated young women from the rural areas (Nagle, 2012). The women have created a dependency relationship with the Western men with the woman providing the emotional and sexual needs while the sex tourist offers the financial support (Abramson & Pinkerton, 2006). Most Thai women admittedly consider the Western men as economic benefactors since most of these women are from very poor families. Sex tourism in Thailand occurs in various ways, the ago-go bars in centers such as Phuket, Pattaya, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, and Bangkok including Nana Plaza, Soi Cowboy, and Patpong are identified as sex tourism destinations in Thailand while Hat Yai caters for the Malaysians (Brash & Bush, 2012). However, Pattaya is the most famous of them all. According to the Thailand Tourism Authority Pattaya alone received about 6 million visitors in 2012 (Guzder, 2012). The male to female ratio in Pattaya is one to two (Nagle, 2012). The reputation of Thailand as ‘one big brothel’ attracts millions of sex tourists who are eager to experience their wished devoid of the punishment as well as blaze of publicity. In spite of the economic and cultural factors that make Thailand a haven for sexual tourism, political instability in the country has deterred the efforts to regulate the sex tourism industry. Studies have shown that sex tourism is major contributing factor to child prostitution and human trafficking. Additionally, human rights activists argue that sex tourism is as a result of economic, social, and cultural consequences for both the home and destination countries. This makes the women to be easily engage in sexual servitude (Monk-Turner & Turner, 2009). In Thailand, sexual activity is often regarded as a private activity making the society reluctant to intervene or act in case of sexual exploitation. Sex is a considered as a taboo subject. Such attitudes have made the Thai children and women more at risk of sexual exploitation (Polak, 2008). The discussion of sex trade and its related problems in the rural areas is not so confronting since it gives them money they can live for. Sex tourism in Thailand also involves children as young as 8 years old (Nagle, 2012). Child sex occurs as a result of absorption into the adult sex trade. Monk-Turner and Turner (2009) note that commercial sexual exploitation of children is the sexual abuse of a minor in exchange of for money or any other form of compensation that is given either directly to the child or indirectly to a third entity. In Thailand, child sex tourism is perpetuated by those who use their tourist status so as to sexually exploit children. According to academicians, NGO representatives, state officials, children are often lured or coerced to engage in sex trade. Most of these victims are from the migrant population. Even though there are ongoing efforts by the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to fight human trafficking, the Thai government has not adequately tackled the structural vulnerabilities to trafficking that have been created by the nation’s policies on migrant labor. The children from the ethnic minorities including Karen and Akha, travel from Mae Sai to Bangkok, Phuket, or Pattaya to settle momentarily in houses offered by operators who gratify to the foreigner’s demand, most of them regular ‘clients’, just for sex with the children. Although hotels and sex establishments are the major venues for this exploitation, various cases have demonstrated that there is an increasing trend among the sex tourists and foreign residents who rent long-term accommodation to misuse children and create child pornography materials more freely (Bales, 2010).  There are various factors that make children to engage in sexual activity. Some of them may be seeking financial security and want to survive on their own. The other significant factor fueling sexual activity with children in Thailand is the ever increasing demand for sexual contact with children. Opportunistic people take advantage of this demand and generate a constant supply of vulnerable children, therefore, creating a veritable child sex market. As a consequence, the vulnerable children become an avenue of generating massive profits for these opportunists. The other vulnerability factors include lack of education, political instability, dysfunctional families, and lack of awareness. Human trafficking is considered as a natural growth for sex tourism. In homogenous populations Western sex tourists are the conspicuous consumers (Guzder, 2012). The Thai sex industry is closely linked to human trafficking. Most victims of human trafficking are children from the poor families. Most are lured and captured by the traffickers with the promise of offering employment and a source of livelihood (Engstrom et al., 2011). Thailand is a source, transit, together with destination for human trafficking. Most of the internal human trafficking especially of children and women is for sexual exploitation. Most of the brothel owners regard these women as sex slaves, therefore, abuse and exploit them. The ethnic minorities along with women particularly from the Hill tribes are most vulnerable to human trafficking since they lack citizenship and are discriminated by the government. Buhalis and Darcy (2011) assert that the Thai government has shown little efforts to protect local and foreign victims of human trafficking. However, the Thai government encourages the trafficking victims to be involved in the investigation and prosecution of the alleged traffickers; it offers very little incentives to the victims to do so. In spite of the increased efforts by the Thai government to curb human trafficking, an NGO report outlined the various factors hindering the government’s efforts in anti-trafficking comprise of: biases against the migrant laborers; local police corruption, such as, direct involvement in the facilitation of human trafficking; lack of understanding amongst the anti-trafficking officials; lack of comprehensive monitoring system of the state’s efforts; the courts lack human-rights based approach to labor cases; finally, systematic disincentives for trafficking victims. Government efforts towards sex tourism Sex trade forms the basis for sex tourism, and the legalization of sex trade till the 1960 gave the roots for success of sex tourism. The Thai government should strive to erase the nation’s tag as a ‘one bid brothel’ and project the country as a family tourism destination. This is because using gains from sex trade for national gain is not regarded as a proper way of improving the economy. The city authorities as well as the Thailand Tourism Authority need to promote active tourism, such as, parasailing, trekking, rafting, canoeing, bicycling, and elephant riding which is an emblem of Thai culture. The government should work with Thai Tourism Authority to promote the cultural norms and values of the Thai people. Various countries across the world have enacted laws to prevent child sex tourism. The Code of Conduct for the Sexual Exploitation in Travel and Tourism is a global body that made up of members of the tourism industry as well as children’s experts with the goal of eradicating the practice of child sex tourism. In Thailand, it is estimated that children make up to 10% of prostitutes in the nation (Peracca, Knodel, & Saengtienchai, 2008). In this regard, Thailand needs to create adequate legislation to avert and punish the grooming of children for sexual purposes. It is very important to enact legislation that define child pornography and prohibit its production, distribution, sale and custody and punish those who knowingly access and view child pornography. Children from the northern hill tribe are most sexually exploited. Most of these children are vulnerable to internal trafficking because the state policies discriminate against them in citizenship and education, therefore, living in poverty which pushed them to engage in sex trade to earn a living. The Thai government should come up with educational programs that are aimed at providing educational opportunities, social welfare programs, applications for citizenships programs, and health services for to these minorities’ children and women (Edwards, 2012). Most women and children who engage in sex trade are from the rural families (Polak, 2008). The government should also support agricultural activities in the rural areas to prevent the rural families from selling their children into labor at a tender age. The money generated from these agricultural projects could assist the families earn a better living. The Thai authorities, judicial system and the law enforcement agents should make sure that the procedure of arresting, investigating, prosecution, and conviction is not liable to gaps which may prevent its unfolding in addition to running contrary to the rule of law at any given time (Davidson & Taylor, 2011). The state should also limit the networks that advertise the sex services in Thailand to men especially in from the Middle East, Japan, North American, Western Europe, and Australia. The Tourism Authority of Thailand needs to work with the tourist police in order to detect and prosecute the sex tourism operators who are found guilty of promoting and organizing sex tours. The government should encourage international support from international organizations, such as, UNICEF to initiate projects with hotel service providers to offer job training in hotel work, especially from the young people from poor rural families. Thailand is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Children. Even though its laws on child prostitution are fairly comprehensive, the enforcement of The Penal Code Amendment Act addressing child prostitution remains weak. As a result, the government should ensure that it strengthens the law on child prostitution. Those found to engage in sexual activity with minors to be given severe penalties. Additionally, parents who also permit their children to engage in prostitution ought to be punished by law. More efforts also need to be put by the national government in order to reduce the demand for child-sex services by working in close collaboration with the private sector, for instance, it should encourage the private sector to adopt and also implement a Code of Conduct for the travel and tourism sector. The Thai government ought to come up with effective mechanisms that will enable detect the movement of child-sex offenders both local and foreign so as to enhance the protection of the children from commercial sexual exploitation, like, the establishment of a registry for child sex offenders (Berardi, 2009). There is need for intensive government support to help in the implementation of corporate social responsibility tools and independent monitoring in the private sector. This will assist the tourism industry in the development of new tourist destinations including stopover villages along the ecotourism trail and seaside resorts, especially in regions like Pattaya. Thereafter, an evaluation needs to be conducted to analyze the economics of return for the projects based on the arrival of tourism flows. Thailand should create a body that will be in charge of coordinating the anti-CSEC (commercial sexual exploitation of children) activities that are carried out by NGOs, state agencies, and the private sector at the national and international levels to make sure policy standards are met across the nation. The government needs to work with the NGOs, Tourism Authority of Thailand, stakeholders in the tourism industry, and international organizations to offer employment as well as skill opportunities to the young people in order to widen their options and also come up with rehabilitation programs for prostitutes. The Thai government needs to form partnerships with other nations so as to foster trans-national police coordination in order to arrest those people who go sexually abuse children way from their home countries. The proposals may include extradition of the offender, tough legal sanctions, and also seizure of the offender’s property. This will assist the government in reversing the nation’s image as a haven for pedophiles and sex tourists (Guzder, 2009).  The Thai government ought to adopt and put into action the Ministry of Justice and Senate Sub-committee recommendations on developing the coordination and sharing of information in the administration of justice for suspected child sex tourism offenders (Embassy of the United States, 2003). Due to abject poverty and unemployment, the government needs to create alternative employment opportunities with the revenue it get from legitimate tourism activities. Provision of financial support will push the population from accepting disrespectful employment opportunities (UNIAP, 2011). The government should also try and erase the global stereotype that Asian women are exotic and erotic something which attracts the sex tourists, thereby flourishing the country’s prostitution industry. Women also need to be empowered so that they do not become desperate enough to engage in prostitution. The Thai government needs to offer travel advisories to the tourists to boycott the travel agencies that sell and condone sex tours (Fennel, 2006). Awareness programs also need to be initiated to educate the public on the dangers of engaging in prostitution. This can be attained by encouraging volunteers to come on board and support the awareness programs. Thailand is a source and destination of women and children trafficked with an aim of commercial sexual exploitation as well as forced labor (Amir, 2006). The illegal immigration to Thailand offers the traffickers with the opportunity to convince the migrants into involuntary sexual exploitation (Gozdiak, 2008). The Thai government needs to pass comprehensive anti-trafficking legislations. These laws should criminally out-law all forms of trafficking, such as, money or people, and prescribe stringent penalties for the offenders. The Thai government should also work with NGOs and international organizations to raise awareness of trafficking with specific focus to the migrant workers in high-risk industries, such as, prostitution, and also within the Thai community. The Thai government should enforce the Prevention and Suppression of Prostitution Act, B.E. 2539 (1996) to discourage prostitution and The Entertainment Places Act which places responsibility on owners of certain entertainment joints. The Thai government is recommended to adopt the following measures with regard to human trafficking (UNIAP, 2011): The Thai government needs to ratify the Trafficking Protocol and enhance the realization of the ASEAN Declaration against Trafficking of Women and Children. Increase the ongoing efforts of establishing the trafficking victims among the vulnerable population, especially undocumented deportees and migrants. Boost the efforts to investigate and prosecute those found guilty of engaging in labor and sex trafficking. Enhance the efforts to investigate and prosecute those found guilty of engaging in human trafficking related corruption Make sure that the offenders of the fraudulent labor recruitments receive harsh criminal penalties. Advance the procedures for implementing ways in which to permit the adult traffic victims work and live outside of shelters. Offer legal alternatives to the elimination of trafficking victims to places or countries where they would experience retribution. Enhance the efforts of regulating the fees and brokers involved in the process of authorized migrant workers so as to reduce the susceptibility of migrants to human trafficking. Increase awareness efforts on anti-trafficking to the employers and those clients who are involved in sex tourism. Conclusion Sex tourism in Thailand is a complex global problem which requires to be addressed both in Thailand s well as the Western nations. Most tourists view Thailand as a destination of sexual exploits but they do not know the reality behind this industry. Of the 500, 000 people of the total 59 million of the Thai population are infected with HIV/AIDS due to prostitution. The sex tourism in Thailand is propelled by acute poverty. Sex tourism in Thailand is comparative to all other forms of prostitution where the rich men buy the poor women. Sex tourism in Thailand has led to increased cases of women and children trafficking who are lured into participating in sex trade. There are also increased cases of child prostitution and pornography in Thailand. The government also needs to develop laws that will regulate the sex tourism industry. This is because currently, there are now specific laws that prohibit sex tourism. The Thai government should promote active tourism including elephant riding, canoeing, and bicycling to make Thailand a family tourist destination. Correspondingly, formulation of laws prohibiting human trafficking and prostitution will address sex tourism. However, the Thailand culture and religious beliefs, political instability, corrupt state officials, acute poverty, and unemployment remain stumbling blocks to the regulation of sex tourism industry in Thailand. Sex tourism is still beneficial to the government since the people who come to buy the sexual services use airlines, visit restaurants, use taxis, rent hotel rooms, visit parks, temples, and beaches. These service industries generate income to the government. In this perspective, the revenue got from the booming sex tourism could be used for other developmental projects to improve the livelihoods of the rural population which is mostly affected by sex tourism. References Abramson, P., & Pinkerton, S. (2006). Globalization and feminist activism. London: Cengage Learning. Amir, D. (2006). Trafficking and the Global Sex Industry, New York: Lexington Books. Bales, K. (2010). Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy. Los Angeles: University of California Press. Berardi, G. (2009). “Emerging Trends in the sexual exploitation of children and adolescents in tourism and travel in Southeast Asia,” ECPAT International. Brash, C., & Bush, A. (2012). Thailands Islands and Beaches. 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