The Trade in Human Beings for Sex in Southeast Asia

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This book represents one of the first attempts to take on the complex problem of human trafficking by adopting multiple, interdisciplinary, international, wide-ranging research strategies in order to produce a variety of perspectives. Work began in mid 2005, with the initial call for contributions. The aim of the book is to present a general up-to-date statement on the question of human trafficking for the purposes of sexual slavery and prostitution, as well as to describe local mentalities that may abet or hinder trafficking and prostitution. The geographic scope encompasses the Southeast Asian nations of Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Burma and Malaysia, in addition to China. Because the components of sex-related trafficking in Southeast Asia extend beyond each country itself and to neighboring countries or further, as is seen for example in Cambodia, a study of the problem requires a broad regional scope. In taking into consideration the important cultural and social aspects that shape local mentalities, the contributors have striven to identify particular geographic areas within the countries observed. Such specific and expert angles highlight the general situation in Southeast Asia as to the trafficking in persons, with the end aim being a proposal of possible solutions. The writers also have attempted to provide a diachronic picture of prostitution as it has existed in three countries-Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia-over the past 50 years. These efforts have been made possible thanks to existing French archives and to additional financial support provided by the Spanish foundation ANESVAD. In the case of Laos, French historian Maxime Guilmin made use of the Fonds Deuve, essentially police archives spanning the  period 1945-1963 and deposited at the Mémorial de Caen pour la Paix, in Nor. mandy, France. For his study on Cambodia, Swiss historian Greg Muller, a highly regarded specialist in the National Archives of Cambodia, conducted specific research using the archives' rich resource of knowledge so as to connect the past to the present. A third expert, French historian Marie-Corinne Rodriguez, undertook research at separate national archives of Vietnam, in Hanoi and Saigon, in addition to investigating of archive records located in Aix-en-Provence, France. The editors of this book endeavored to produce a practical document. For that reason, specialists from throughout the world were asked to contribute short articles in English containing material based, if possible, on original field research. Thus the book includes contributions from American, Australian, English, French, Italian, Japanese and Thai scholars. Moreover, the editors determined that, owing to the complexity of human trafficking in Southeast Asia, in order for the project to yield meaningful recommendations, an interdisciplinary and international approach should be selected. The complexity of the subject and the fact that it touches on so many aspects of human nature-physiological, psychological, social, political, legal and cultural-required incorporating many disciplines from the social and human sciences, among them cognitive, social and cultural anthropology; ethnol-ogy; sociology; politics; psychology; economy; law; history; geography; statistics; linguistics; demography; as well as medical and paramedical sciences. On the question of representing the spatial, linguistic, political, religious, and cultural diversity that exists in Southeast Asia, the editors saw fit to study the major-ity populations (Thai, Burmese, Malay, Viet, Lao and Khmer societies), with a focus on international border areas. Other matters addressed include the Chinese diaspora and the case of Muslim and other religious minorities in mainland Southeast Asia. The articles herein examine what is termed "external trafficking" and "internal trafficking". The former refers to, for example, Burmese women immigrating to Thailand; Chinese women being trafficked to Laos; and Vietnamese women working as prostitutes in Cambodia, Thailand, or Malaysia. Examples of internal trafficking include rural Khmer women directed to urban areas in Cambodia; rural Vietnamese sent to work as prostitutes in Ho Chi Minh City; and Thai women from Isan, the Northeast region of Thailand, trafficked to other parts of Thailand including Bangkok as well as to the country's southern region along the border with Malaysia. The data presented in this book provides invaluable help toward elucidating the complex issue of human trade in Southeast Asia. However, in order for the project as a whole to assist communities in understanding the phenomena according to the social, political, and cultural realities, the specialists involved recognized that

Dr. Jean Baffie, a modern Thailand and Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia French specialist, graduated in Sociology from the universities of Montpellier and Paris VII, where he received his PhD. He learned the Thai language in INALCO (Paris) and lived in Thailand for fourteen years (1978 to 1992), before being recruited by the French Research Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) to serve as a Thailand spe-cialist. His publications and contributions focusing on Thailand and the Philippines include: Hainan. De la Chine à l'Asie du Sud-Est (Wiesbaden, 2001); Thailand's Rice Bowl: Perspectives on agricultural and social change in the Chao Phraya Delta (Bangkok, 2003); Atlas of Thailand. Spatial Structures and Development (Chiang Mai, 2004). He is currently co-editing Prostitution in Southeast Asia and The Chinese in Vietnam. Presently the director of the Maison Asie-Pacifique (MAP, CNRS and University of Provence) in Marseilles, he is also, with Pierre Le Roux, the co-founder of the International Observatory on Slavery and Human Trade. He formerly served as the director of the French Institute for Research on Southeast Asia (IRSEA, CNRS & University of Provence), from 2004 to 2008.

Dr. Gilles Beullier is a French (M.D.), Paediatrician and Victimologist, with the Gabriel Martin Hospital Centre (St-Paul, La Réunion, France). A fellow of the "Comité de Pilotage de l'Unité régionale de Victimologie de La Réunion", he has been develop-ing the hospital's capacity to welcome and take charge of sexually abused children. As a member of the Réseau Asie "French-speaking experts network on Asia", French National Center for Scientific Research, Maison des Sciences de l'Homme de Paris, and Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris), he contributed to several scientific books on inter-cultural psycho-criminology and victimology.

The Trade in Human Beings for Sex in Southeast Asia brings together 28 senior scholars and experts hailing from all over the world in various disciplines: Ethnology and Social Anthropology, Sociology, Geography, Political Science, Psychology, Psycho-Criminology, Medicine, Law, Economics, History, as well as Humanitarian assistance to give a general statement on slavery, prostitution and trafficking in persons in this region. In recent years, prostitution and trafficking in women and children for the purpose of sexual exploitation has been steadily increasing at an alarming rate. Underlying reasons are not only the ongoing process of globalization and the lagging behind of the concerned emerging countries, but also a number of cultural factors specific to this region. The problem's background is given in Part 1: A look at the past; Part 2 provides the data from field studies in human trafficking and prostitution; Part 3 deals with additional related problems and suggests possible responses. This indispensable work covers all aspects of a complex social problem and offers some suggestions on how to deal with this it.