SEX TRAFFICKING OCCURS VIA INFORMAL NETWORKS, ILO, UNDP SAY

Sex trafficking of children in Thailand is largely an industry run by small, informal networks, according to a new report from the ILO in co-ordination with the UN Development Program. It is mainly informal networks that are responsible for trafficking girls out of their villages, and sometimes girls are driven by boredom with village life or even consumerism to leave their villages willingly in an effort to find opportunities elsewhere before being trapped in the sex industry. The report’s findings are seconded by Phil Marshall, manager of the Bangkok-based UN Interagency Project on Combating Trafficking in Women and Children in the Mekong Sub-region . “We tend to think of trafficking as involving sophisticated crime networks, but much of it is really a cottage industry involving small-time profiteers,” he said. (Philadelphia Inquirer)