Greyman Blog

Usually Grey Man operations in Thailand involve the rescue of ethnic minority or hill-tribe children who have no citizenship and therefore are easy prey for traffickers. Sometimes children are Burmese or Laotian and trying to support themselves and their families, but occasionally we rescue Thai citizens as well. A recent case involved three Thai girls and highlights a worrying trend. Two of the girls were 16, not working and simply wanted to make some cash to pay for mobile phones, smart clothes and entertainment.

Consumerism and materialism are increasing factors in the movement of Thai girls into prostitution, with a number of Thai schoolgirls and university women entering sex work to fund their lifestyles.  It is also an increasing factor in trafficking of children from the ethnic minorities as they, their parents, or both, simply want to acquire the material benefits of the modern world. This can mean anything from a new car, motorbike or TV to a mobile phone, dresses, shoes and jewelry.

However, in this recent case, the third girl, Peng (not her real name) had run away from home because her grandmother wanted her to go to school in another province where the education was free. To go to this school Peng had to live with her grandmother whom she did not like. Peng’s mother was widowed and poor so she encouraged the move to the free school. Peng, who was fifteen, did not want to leave her usual school and was very unhappy so she ran away from home and fell in with her two friends (the sixteen year-olds mentioned above).

Peng - another successful rescue

Two days later they encouraged Peng to come with them to a new job where they could make a lot of money quickly, so Peng joined them. Little did she know that the two older girls had been recruited by a 21-year old sex worker and her virginity was about to be sold for 10,000 baht (AUD$450) of which she would receive 2500 baht (AUD$112) and the older girls would be paid 2000 baht each to have sex with clients.

This story could have had the typical tragic ending where Peng, who did not know she had been sold, would have resisted and been raped. The damage done to her would have resulted in her manipulation by the pimp and, with her self-esteem damaged; she would have become another statistic. A girl with a bright future damaged beyond repair, continuing on in sex work and possibly dying young from AIDS like so many before her.

Luckily, and unknown to the pimp, the client was The Grey Man and the pimp was about to become a victim of one of our sting operations. Our operatives met the girls in a hotel room, and to make a long story much shorter, the police arrested the pimp. The girl’s parents were called. Social workers working with The Grey Man interviewed the girls and discovered Peng’s story. Her mother was shocked when contacted and she came to pick Peng up.

They both sat down with a social worker and an hour later Peng’s mother agreed to let Peng stay at her school and move in with an aunt she loved to minimize expenses for her mother. The mother was extremely relieved that her daughter had not become another victim of the sex trade. The story made the front page of the local newspaper but as usual we asked not to be mentioned and allowed the police to take the credit, richly deserved, as they did a great job.

This story could have ended so very differently but luckily Grey Man operatives are in the front line against trafficking, protecting girls like Peng and we are grateful to all of our supporters who allow us to keep them there. Thank you.

John

Grey Man received intelligence in March, 2006 about a pimp (a lady boy, trans-sexual called Nom) who was offering underage girls.  A sting operation was put in place and he turned up with a number of under-aged girls but unfortunately got cold feet and left before the operation was concluded. 

Two years later after receiving intelligence from a reliable source we again came across the pimp and again attempted a sting.  It took our operatives 6 months to build trust and we had to accept over-aged (over 18) girls during this time (no sex was involved) and found that all of them had become sex workers because they were in debt to the pimp.  Even when some of them had paid off their debt they were too frightened to leave and many showed us the signs of physical abuse from Nom that kept them working for him.

In October, last year, Nom finally offered us a young girl.  He said she was a grade 8 school girl (aged 14) and asked for 3500 Thai baht ($US100) for short-term sex (1 hour) with her.  Grey Man authorised our operatives to conduct a sting operation in conjunction with local police.  Unfortunately, Nom turned up with a girl who was not a school-girl at all.  We were sick of dealing with him by this stage and decided to get him off the streets once and for all and to protect the girls that were indebted to him and whom he had abused.

The sting went ahead and Nom was arrested.  From her Thai ID card the girl turned out to be 21 years old. She stated the reason she ended up as a sex worker was because she owed Nom money that she borrowed to pay for her education.  We asked a social worker to contact her parents and she was taken back to her family.

Police and Grey Man personnel arresting Nom the pimp

Although our brief is the rescue of children from the sex trade, we will also rescue adult women from sex work if they have been trafficked or forced into it.  We will also rescue those trafficked into other abusive forms of labour if the situation presents itself.  This case took some time but in the end we got an abusive pimp off the streets (he is awaiting trial), rescued a woman from prostitution and also freed her and her friends from debt bondage and the abuse of Nom.  This case took up a lot of Grey Man resources but demonstrates that we will pursue the perpetrators and rescue the victims wherever the opportunity presents itself.

John