Sorry for the late reply, I was off at summer Camp.
This is a very sad and sickening situation, which is rather evident in SEAsia, it hits you in the face.
While travelling through Cambodia and Northern Thailand, it was very evident.
A lot of women get trafficked through the Mae-sai border because its easy enough for them to do. If the Thai's want to go shopping for the afternoon, all they do is cross on over, likewise for the Burmese. So the women from Myanmar and trafficked into Thailand and quite often will work in Brothels in Mae-sai, which is sad, because they can just look over the very small river and see their home country.
Women from Vietnam are constantly sold to Cambodia, there are whole 'sex districts' specialising in Vietnamese women. These women are selling their bodies for $1US. They live and work in the tiniest of wooden shacks, often with just a naked light bulb and a bed in the room. They service their clients in the same room that they live in, and often thats the only place they are allowed to spend their time, until they have payed back their 'debt'. Their debt is built up from the pittance their parents get, to the traffikers fee, border control 'shush money', the fee for selling the girl to the brothel, and then the ongoing costs of keeping the girl alive while she is still in good working order, which more often than not ends at around the age of 20.
These girls will start their work from an age as young as 9, maybe in some cases even younger. Sure there is a big crack down on Paedophiles in Cambodia, and you can report cases should you see one arise, but more often than not, these precious young girls are kept in a dark dark room where nobody would be able to find them, should anyone come knocking on the door and snooping around. They are kept in this darkness until they look of an age that wont astound the authorities.
The only benefit to this is that they dont have to show their faces outside of the brothels, and that their skin will go lighter, which brings more money.
Young teenage girls will sit outside of their wooden shack brothels best resembling a rickety old bus stop, and walk around with full very thick makeup and high heels, and short skirts. To drive past them you dont actually think that this seems to affect them, but in reality they are just amazingly good actresses. If they dont service a certain amount of clients in a day then they will get beaten. So of course they have to look inviting and tempted 24/7. Often thats the hours they will work too. Even if they were allowed the priveledge of a day off, they are not allowed to go anywhere. If they dared try to escape they would be killed. In a country like Cambodia its not difficult considering every second person carries a gun. Nor so when you cant trust the officials either. If they can make even a dollar more than their normal wage to do something illegal... of course they are going to seriously consider it.
It's prominent in Mumbai too, and they will traffick women from Bangladesh.
Often trafficked women dont know where they are going, the person taking them to their fantastic new life seems to know everyone along the way. They will stop in at a 'friends' house for the night, and be fed amazing food, and this maze of deciet and lies continues as they try to disorientate the poor girls. Its not until they are actually delivered at the door of the brothel they have been sold to, that their 'travelling friend' will turn nasty and walk away.
From then on, its 'seasoning time' where the girls are slowly introduced into the work, not always, sometimes they are forced to service many clients in the first day.
Virgins are treated a lot more carefully until the Brothel can get the highest bidder, then after that, she is just a common $1 hooker. For her virginity a sex slave could maybe make $15-$20 but she wont see any of that. As long as she is in the Brothel its very rare that she will see any money at all.
Often girls are checked for tips, to make sure they arent hiding any money.
On the rare occasion some clients have helped the girls to go back to their families, but of course they cannot live a normal life. There is only one thing they know how to do now, and the rest of the community is aware of where she has been, and what she has been doing.
Its a very sad life for them, and Im sorry that this ended up being very long, and possibly not easy to follow. Anyway its something that saddens me to know end, and if I can help them when I go back next year I will.
Of course not all of the girls want to be helped, some of them have willingly sold themselves, and often these girls are sucessful, and can bargain their wages, they can afford to send money back to their families. However that is not the case for all of the girls, and its very difficult to tell by looking at them whether they are being forced, or are doing it for themselves.
A couple of good books (Cant remember the names of the Authors though) are:
Sex Slaves ~ some of it has got very strong feminist views, which is not necessarily backed up appropriately, but then the raw facts are of a truer nature, and not just for the authors peice of mind.
Off the Rails in Phnom Penh-Girls, guns and ganja ~ This book shows a male side of the treatment of prostitutes, feminists would scream, but it is an interesting way to see how the men treat the women, and not the local men, this is about Western men, living in Phnom Penh, some purely for the women, others for the gear.
You're right about that Duo. Most people who are runaways and orphans are at high risk to be victims of trafficking. Governments all over are just now addressing the problem, but what ridiculous is the debates on what should be considered human trafficking. I mean really, do you have to argue about something like this? I really dislike the the pshycological manipulation these vicitims are put through. What happens is, someone will come to your house and say "Well, I know where you're son or daughter can make a whole bunch of money abroad." And because most of the victims are in poverty and are possibly desperate, they'll easily take the chance for what they think is a better life. But as soon as they end up in another country, they're suddenly told that they have to provide sexaul services, work in a facotory for long hours and possibly never get paid for them. This will piss you off, and they're making money off it.