If no one passes muster, the men head to one of dozens of bars and karaoke lounges that offer boys for sex. The rates range from 2,000 baht ($62) for an hour to 5,000 baht for longer, in a back room or in the client’s hotel, Russell said. “Why does this not shock and enrage people as much as it does when it’s girls?” said Russell, whose drop-in center is for boys in Chiang Mai’s sex industry.
“They are no less vulnerable and abused than girls who are trafficked into sex work. Yet it is much more hidden, so there’s much less sympathy, and far fewer resources for boys,” she said. Thailand is a source, transit, and destination country for children trafficked for sexual exploitation. Thailand has more than 123,530 sex workers, according to a 2014 UNAIDS report. Of these, at least 40 percent are under 18, and a significant number are boys, according to rights groups.Ĭhildren are trafficked into Thailand from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam. Victims from Bangladesh, Pakistan, North Korea and China also transit through Thailand en route to the United States, western Europe and Russia, activists say. “We are aware that there are boys also in the sex trade,” said Krittat Uamson, deputy director of the justice ministry’s human trafficking division in Bangkok.
