Sao Darly

I read a very disturbing news about sex trade in Laos from Radio Free Asia. Of course the culprit of the problem is poverty. While I understand prostitution is the oldest form of profession, the Lao girls and women should have a choice on choosing this type of job. I don’t think the majority of them would freely select this line of work as a career if they have more options available to them.

Survey Shows Grim Reality of Lao Sex Trade
2007.02.08

BANGKOK—Lao women seeking to escape poverty and poor education are increasingly ending up as sex workers in Laos and neighboring Thailand, mainly to support their families and themselves, experts say.

Though many consider it “bad work,” they believe prostitution amounts to the best economic opportunity they have, according to a survey of sex workers conducted last year in the country’s capital, Vientiane.

Many are children when they start, trafficked or tricked into the sex trade.

“Every one of them said they don’t want to do it,” Thatsaphone Sombandith, a Lao researcher who conducted the survey, said in an interview. “They say it’s necessary because of poverty, because they have nothing to live on.”

With an estimated per capita income of U.S.$460 in 2005, Laos is one of the poorest countries in East Asia. Classified by the United Nations as a Least Developed Country in 2004, 71 percent of its population live on less than U.S.$2 a day, and 23 percent on less than U.S.$1 a day.

Lao women, many of whom work in bars called “little shops,” come from different provinces to work in Vientiane, Thatsaphone said. “They come from Luang Namtha, from Luang Prabang, from Sayaboury…from Khammouane.”

Vulnerable to disease

Many become infected with sexually transmitted diseases, Thatsaphone added. “Depending on the place, on the area of the shop, they get infected,” Thatsaphone said. “Almost the entire shop is infected.”

If Lao women could be helped to learn a trade, perhaps as beauticians or weavers, and move on to higher education, this would reduce the number who engage in sex work, Thatsaphone said.

Low levels of education have been identified as one of the greatest barriers to sustainable development in Laos. While education to 18 is free, there aren’t enough classrooms and educational supplies to make this a reality.

As a result, only 77 percent of Lao men are literate, while only 60 percent of women can read and write.

Soudalai Onavong, a Lao provincial health official, said that in Laos’s Khammouane province, sex workers “most often are found near the large construction projects” such as the Nam Theun II hydroelectric dam or the cement works at Nakai.

In Savannakhet province, according to the head of the provincial health department, Lao women—along with women from Vietnam and Thailand—provide sexual services along Route 9, Laos’s so-called “East-West economic corridor.”

For a complete story, please visit RFA Lao News Service.