Svay Pak

Svay Pak (IPA: [swaɪ päk];[1] Khmer: ភូមិស្វាយប៉ាក) is a village of overseas Vietnamese in Cambodia, north of Phnom Penh. The village has been renowned as a destination for adult and child prostitution, and while the latter has been cracked down upon, its prevalence as of 2017 was disputed.

Svay Pak ភូមិស្វាយប៉ាក
village
Svay Pak Show map of Cambodia Svay Pak Show map of Southeast Asia
Coordinates: 11.646719°N 104.871515°E / 11.646719; 104.871515
Country	Cambodia
District	Russey Keo
Area
• Total	3.68 km^2 (1.42 sq mi)
Population  (2008)
• Total	16,446
• Density	4,466/km^2 (11,570/sq mi)

Geography

Svay Pak is located eleven or twelve kilometres (6.8 or 7.5 mi) north of the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh,[2][3] in the district of Russey Keo,[4] at coordinates 11.646719°N 104.871515°E / 11.646719; 104.871515. As of July 2019, the village had a square footage of 3.68 square kilometres (1.42 sq mi);[5] in January 2003, Svay Pak had a diameter of 150 metres (490 ft).[6]

History

The afternoon of 20 August 1995 saw a fire sweep through Svay Pak. Approximately 300 houses and a Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) clinic were burnt down, but the only loss of life was a village dog.  Non-governmental organizations Concern and MSF committed to helping residents (the latter promised to rebuild its clinic) alongside local philanthropists. While some locals accused the fire brigade of extorting them for firefighting services, local official Hou Samon said that the village roads were too narrow to accommodate the fire engine; Samon said that the local government planned "to discuss letting the home and brothel-owners resettle in the same area, but first all the roads would have to be widened."[7]

In 2000, the only industry in Svay Pak other than prostitution (and the support thereof) was fishing.[8] As of 2004, the village's residents were Vietnamese Cambodians, and those not working in the prostitution industry had "tenuous citizenship status".[9] The population in 2008 was 16446 people, a 3.03% increase from 1998's population of 12197.[5] In late 2019, Svay Pak had one of the four primary schools (Vietnamese: Trường tiểu học Svay Pak, lit. 'Svay Pak Primary School') built by the Khmer-Vietnam Association for Vietnamese populations living in Cambodia.[10] After a November 2019 fire, the Vietnamese embassy in Phnom Penh, local businesses, and philanthropists contributed 150,000,000 Vietnamese đồng to rebuild houses for affected Vietnamese Cambodians in Svay Pak.[11]

Sex work

Prostitution has been prevalent in Svay Pak since at least 1995,[7] and was once "one of the most notorious places in the world for sex slavery."[12]

Adult prostitution

After the Cambodian–Vietnamese War, Svay Pak's political corruption and instability led to local authorities extorting brothel owners, while the sex workers themselves "experienced raids, arrests, and rape from armed military and civil police forces operating under loose governmental control." Furthermore, managers in Svay Pak subverted the Cambodian law requiring 100% condom-use for brothels, resulting in a 19% rate of HIV for workers in 2000. Though prostitution in Cambodia was not illegal in 2004, other factors contributed to "de facto criminalization" of the industry.[9]

In May 2000, there were 24 brothels employing approximately 320 women on two main Svay Pak streets. By March 2002, as a result of decreasing demand, there were only 17 brothels and around 279 sex workers. Clients included local Vietnamese, Khmer, Chinese, Japanese, Australians, North Americans, and Europeans. The Southern Vietnamese teens and 20-somethings working in these brothels followed established migration routes into Svay Pak after intermediaries, sometimes the girls' and women's families, were paid US$50–3,000 (equivalent to about $68–4,061 in 2019). Servicing 14 clients per week, workers could repay this debt in 6–24 months, resulting in high turnover—half of Svay Pak's sex workers had been there for six months of less.[9]

Child prostitution

Gary Haugen of International Justice Mission (IJM) wrote that in 2000, Svay Pak was a lawless village where "tiny, elementary-school-age girls" were prostituted to the public in broad daylight. One or more girls shared individual 6-by-8-foot (1.8 m × 2.4 m) cubicles where they served Western child-sex tourists.[8]

In 2002, child prostitution was bustling in Svay Pak, driven by child sex tourism from the Western world after child prostitution in Thailand was cracked-down upon. The Daily Telegraph supposed that any sex tourists in Svay Pak were there for the children, for if "a man wants an older girl then there are plenty on offer in the brothels and bars of Phnom Penh." The majority of the children were overseas Vietnamese, sold into prostitution by destitute families. Between the ages of six and 13, girls' virginity was sold for "hundreds of dollars"; prostituted repeatedly, the price diminished until reaching a low of GB£3 or US$4.84 (equivalent to £4.92 or $6.88 in 2019). At the turn of the 21st century, clients of child prostitution in Svay Pak expressed little fear of authorities because the police were compensated by the brothels; foreigners were only arrested if "a bribe is missed, or an example needs to be made of someone".[3] In 2003, Svay Pak saw up to 50 clients per night for child prostitution.[13]

After two years of pressure from Women's Affairs Minister Mu Sochua, women's rights groups, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, action was taken on the problem of child prostitution on Svay Pak. On 22 January 2003, Svay Pak's child brothels were raided by police. Dozens of pimps and clients were present during the raid, but none were arrested; the raid was "widely advertised in advance", and all but a few of the children had been moved to the towns of Siem Reap and Sihanoukville beforehand. By 29 January, Svay Pak was described as "a ghost town" by the Asian Human Rights Commission;[13] by March, however, a joint Dateline NBC–IJM investigation found that Svay Pak was "the place to go if you're looking for the youngest girls." That year, IJM founder Gary Haugen worked with Cambodian officials to mount an operation to rescue children and arrest perpetrators; despite problems arising from police bribery, "a dozen suspected pimps and madams are in custody, and 37 girls [were] rescued, many under the age of 10." Upon returning to Svay Pak six months later, Dateline members were again offered prostituted children; Minister Sochua was not surprised by the reversion, blaming "extreme poverty and widespread corruption".[14]

When Dateline followed-up in 2008, the show reported that "Svay Pak is a changed place. […] Many of the brothels have closed their doors and moved out of town, replaced by restaurants, a phone store, even a children's community center serving children, some of the same children who were once exploited here."[14] However, in 2011, CNN reported that while pimps no longer swarmed every foreign man who came into town, and children were not to be seen prostituting themselves from streetside windows, the child-sex industry remained; volunteers with Agape International Missions (AIM) were still rescuing girls from the now-underground trade.[15]

In May 2015, The Washington Post published an op-ed by Holly Burkhalter, the "vice president of government relations and advocacy for [IJM]." Burkhalter pushed back against the narrative that IJM and Dateline exposed in 2003, and proclaimed that Cambodian law-enforcement had rid the nation of child sex tourism (CST) in the face of international embarrassment and US Ambassador Charles A. Ray's threat of discontinuing United States foreign aid. Burkhalter detailed government efforts and statistics to back-up her claims of CST eradication.[16] Thirteen days later, the Post published a contrasting op-ed by AIM's Donald J. Brewster. Writing from Svay Pak, Brewster claimed that the village's criminals have simply adapted to the government's efforts, and continued to prostitute children aged 6–16. Agape International, Brewster wrote, had rescued 32 children from sex-trafficking in the preceding year, and "[t]he highest levels of Cambodia's anti-trafficking police agree" with his evaluation of the continuing crime in Svay Pak.[17]

ABC News traveled to Svay Pak in 2017 and found much the same situation as described by Brewster two years prior: though the number of children in sex work has dropped to 1–2% from 35% of those so working, Western men still solicited preteens for sex and the local SWAT equivalent continued to raid underage brothels.[18] Later that year, CNN collaborated with AIM for an article that caught-up with a young woman (Sephak) who was prostituted out of Svay Pak as a child.[19] In response to these stories, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen accused the non-governmental organization of exaggerating the sex trafficking in Svay Pak, announced a police investigation into AIM, demanded that US ambassador William A. Heidt do the same, and ordered—with "the force of law"—the charity group to leave Cambodia. Cambodian official Huy Vannak suggested that the government reaction against AIM may have stemmed from CNN accidentally implying that Sephak was ethnically Cambodian as opposed to being overseas Vietnamese (CNN issued a clarification).[20]

References

1. Svay Pak. Robert Bilheimer. 21 December 2010. Retrieved 23 January 2020.
2. Haugen, Gary A.; Hunter, Gregg (2005). "What If?". In Etue, Kate; Bence, Evelyn; Wiseman, Deborah; Weller, Lauren (eds.). Terrify No More. Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson. pp. 1–3. ISBN 0-8499-1838-3.
3. "'It's like a sweet shop: if this girl's not right, get another'". The Daily Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group. 15 September 2002. ISSN 0307-1235. OCLC 49632006. Archived from the original on 25 January 2019. Retrieved 3 April 2019.
4. Kongkea, Buth Reaksmey (12 July 2019). "Drug traffickers sentenced". Khmer Times. Retrieved 29 May 2020.
5. "Svay Pak (Urban Commune, Cambodia)". City Population. Archived from the original on 6 December 2015. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
6. Haugen, Gary A.; Hunter, Gregg (2005). "Building a Network". In Etue, Kate; Bence, Evelyn; Wiseman, Deborah; Weller, Lauren (eds.). Terrify No More. Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson. pp. 114–120. ISBN 0-8499-1838-3.
7. Chheng, Heng Sok (25 August 1995). "Village of brothels burns to the ground". The Phnom Penh Post. Svay Pak: Michael Hayes. Archived from the original on 13 October 2016. Retrieved 10 July 2019.
8. Haugen, Gary A.; Hunter, Gregg (2005). "The Girls of Svay Pak". In Etue, Kate; Bence, Evelyn; Wiseman, Deborah; Weller, Lauren (eds.). Terrify No More. Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson. pp. 4–5. ISBN 0-8499-1838-3.
9. Busza, Joanna (January 2004). "Sex Work and Migration: The Dangers of Oversimplification: A Case Study of Vietnamese Women in Cambodia". Health and Human Rights. Harvard University Press. 7 (2): 231–249. doi:10.2307/4065357. ISSN 1079-0969. JSTOR 10790969. LCCN 94648723. OCLC 243563202.
10. Nguyễn, Hiệp (4 November 2019). "Học sinh Việt kiều tại Campuchia khai giảng năm học 2019-2020" [Overseas Vietnamese students in Cambodia start the school year 2019-2020]. Nhân Dân (in Vietnamese). Communist Party of Vietnam. Archived from the original on 7 November 2019. Retrieved 7 November 2019. Sáng 4-11, Trường tiểu học Hữu nghị Khmer-Việt Nam Tân Tiến ở quận Chbar Ampov, Thủ đô Phnom Penh đã tổ chức Lễ khai giảng năm học 2019 - 2020.
11. Nguyễn, Hiệp; Son, Xinh (20 January 2020). "Trao nhà mới cho các gia đình gốc Việt bị hỏa hoạn tại Cambodia" [Giving new homes to Vietnamese-born families suffering from fires in Cambodia]. Nhân Dân (in Vietnamese). Communist Party of Vietnam. Archived from the original on 21 January 2020. Retrieved 21 January 2020. Sáng 20-1, tại Thủ đô Phom Penh, Đại sứ quán Việt Nam phối hợp Hội Khmer - Việt Nam tại Cambodia, tiến hành bàn giao ba căn nhà mới dựng lại cho các gia đình người Cambodia gốc Việt bị hỏa hoạn.
12. Kristof, Nicholas D.; WuDunn, Sheryl (2009). Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. New York City: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 978-0-307-26714-6.
13. "The Younger the Better: 19,250 Children Trapped in Cambodia's Sex Industry". Human Rights Correspondence School. Asian Human Rights Commission. 29 January 2003. Archived from the original on 30 March 2010. Retrieved 3 April 2019.
14. Hansen, Chris (25 July 2008). "Update: Child victims of sex trade in Cambodia". Dateline NBC. Phnom Penh: NBC. Archived from the original on 29 December 2018. Retrieved 5 April 2019. Dateline investigations have helped put some child predators in jail — and given some children half a world away a new chance at life
15. Sidner, Sara (24 October 2011). "Cambodian village has disturbing reputation for child sex slavery". CNN. Archived from the original on 22 January 2018. Retrieved 5 April 2019.
16. Burkhalter, Holly (8 May 2015). "A safer home for Cambodia's girls". The Washington Post. Fred Ryan. ISSN 0190-8286. OCLC 2269358. Archived from the original on 17 January 2016. Retrieved 25 April 2019.
17. Brewster, Donald J. (21 May 2015). "The fight against child sex trafficking in Cambodia is far from over". The Washington Post. Fred Ryan. ISSN 0190-8286. OCLC 2269358. Archived from the original on 11 November 2017. Retrieved 29 May 2020.
18. Kapetaneas, John (13 March 2017). "Reporter's notebook: Covering brothel raids and Christian missionaries rescuing girls in Cambodia". ABC News. Archived from the original on 9 November 2018. Retrieved 10 July 2019. ABC's John Kapetaneas is a producer for 'Nightline.' This is his account of a report he produced with ABC's Bob Woodruff and Karson Yiu.
19. Field, Alexandra; Tham, Dan; Tutton, Mark (6 September 2017). "Life after trafficking: The girls sold for sex by their mothers". Svay Pak: CNN. Archived from the original on 27 June 2019. Retrieved 10 July 2019.
20. Wallace, Julia; Vannarin, Neou (1 August 2017). "Cambodian Leader Orders U.S. Charity Shut Down Over Sex Trade Report". The New York Times. Phnom Penh: Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr. p. A5. ISSN 1553-8095. OCLC 1645522. Archived from the original on 20 March 2019. Retrieved 10 July 2019.

Further reading

• Busza, Joanna; Schunter, Bettina T. (May 2001). "From Competition to Community: Participatory Learning and Action among Young, Debt-Bonded Vietnamese Sex Workers in Cambodia". Reproductive Health Matters. Taylor & Francis. 9 (17): 72–81. doi:10.1016/S0968-8080(01)90010-2. ISSN 0968-8080. JSTOR 3776400. LCCN 95640764. OCLC 231973069. PMID 11468849.