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Myanmar migrants turn to prostituti



Myanmar migrants turn to prostitution in Thailand after labor crackdown 

AP, Mae Sot,  27 December 1999.    Young Myanmar women deported from 
Thailand in a crackdown on illegal labor are returning to work as prostitutes, 
as they can no longer find jobs in factories, health workers said Monday. 

Karaoke bar owners and pimps in this northern Thai border town are hiring 
growing numbers of hostess girls from Myanmar, forced by financial 
necessity to sell themselves for sex. 

Health surveys show that eight in ten of them are likely to contract the 
HIV virus that leads to AIDS. 

''I know the dangers of AIDS but I have no choice,'' said a tearful 18-year 
woman from the eastern Myanmar town of Thaton, who did not want her 
name to be used. ''I must send money to my parents or they will starve.'' 

In November, she was deported with thousands of other migrant workers 
from Mae Sot where she had been working in a garment factory for the past 
year. With no place to go, she sneaked back across the river border two 
days later, and ended up as a bar girl. 

''I'd never done anything like this before. I couldn't find work in a factory 
so I contacted a 'mamasan','' she said, using the Thai term for the female 
owner of a bar who procures girls for prostitution. 

Before the crackdown as many as one million migrants from Myanmar, 
Laos and Cambodia were working in Thailand. Over 50,000 from Myanmar, 
also known as Burma, worked in factories and farms around Mae Sot, which 
lies 370 kilometers (230 miles) northwest of Bangkok. 

Over 20,000 have been deported from Mae Sot since the start of November, 
but many have returned in the hope of finding new jobs, despite continuing 
raids on farms and factories in the district. 

One mamasan said around 80 Myanmar women, many from the Mon and Karen 
ethnic minorities, have recently joined 100 others from Myanmar already 
involved in the flesh trade in the town. 

''I supply more than 20 factory girls to my customers. All of them are
teenagers 
and virgins,'' said the mamasan, who also requested anonymity. ''This means 
they can earn good money.'' 

Girls aged 15-18 earn between 500 and 800 baht (dlrs 12.50 and dlrs 20) for a 
session, and up to 500 baht (dlrs 12.50) extra if they agree not to use a
condom. 

Workers in factories get only between 40 and 70 baht (dlr 1 and dlrs 1.75)
per day. 

World Vision, an international aid group that runs an HIV-awareness program 
for Myanmar women at the local hospital, confirmed that over the past two 
months, former factory laborers had been recruited by Mae Sot's 15 karaoke
bars. 

''The (bar) owners and prostitutes cooperate with us but the number of HIV 
positive people are increasing steadily,'' said World Vision official Phenay 
Pheapatapee. 

Dr. Witaya Swaddiwudhipong of Mae Sot hospital said that the HIV infection 
rate among Myanmar prostitutes was 82.4 percent, compared with 28.1 percent 
for Thai sex workers. 

Myanmar women are especially vulnerable because of ignorance of the risks of 
unprotected sex and because of the lure of extra money for not using a condom, 
said Winmit Yosalawin of World Vision. 

But prostitutes were sometimes forced into unprotected sex by clients, who are 
often drunk and occasionally threaten girls with guns, Winmit said. 

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