Child Sexual Expolitation Statistics

Burma (Myanmar)

* In 1996, there were almost 200,000 foreign children from Burma, Laos and Cambodia who had been trafficked into Thailand for prostitution and work at construction sites and sweatshops. (CATW Fact Book, citing "Trafficking of children on the rise", Bangkok Post, 22 July 1998, citing IPSR)

* The number of Burmese women and girls travelling to Thailand through Mae Sai to enter the sex industry is increasing. 60% of them are under 18 years of age. (CATW Fact Book, citing Aphaluck Bhatiasevi, "Influx of Burmese sex workers", Bangkok Post, 2 June 1997)

* Thai officials estimate that there are 20,000 women and girls trafficked from Burma into Thai brothels with 10,000 more imported each year. (CATW, Dorchen Leidholdt, Coalition Report, 1997)

* There are at least 50,000 Burmese girls and women working in Thailand as prostitutes at any one time. ("Report Cites Burma’s Child Rights Abuses", ECPAT Bulletin, Vol. 4/1, 1996-97)

* Women from Burma's Shan state and China's southern province of Yunnan constitute 16% of the 77,000 women in the sex industry in Thailand.(CATW Fact Book, citing "Academic urges action in war against flesh trade", The Nation, 28 May, 1997, citing IPSR, Kritaya Archavanitkul, The Passage of Women in Neighbouring Countries into the Sex Trade in Thailand)

* 50% of the prostituted women in Chiang Rai are Burmese. Thousands of indigenous Burmese women from Shan State in the north and from Keng Tung in Eastern Burma have been sold into brothels in Bangkok and throughout Thailand. (CATW-Asia Pacific, Trafficking in Women and Prostitution in the Asia Pacific, 1996)

* From Burma, it was estimated in 1994 that as many as 20,000 to 30,000 women and girls had been trafficked primarily into brothels in Thailand, with 10,000 new recruits being added each year. (Tanya McQueen, "A Modern Form of Slavery: Trafficking and Child Prostitution in Northern Thailand", Child Workers in Asia, April-June 1999)

* Reports suggest that 40,000 Burmese women, some of them very young girls, were forced into prostitution in Thailand, then murdered once they became 'unusable.' (CATW, Burmese Women Forced into Prostitution, Coalition Report, Fall 1992)

* Girls are lured from Burma for the sex markets in Thailand or to be diverted to Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan. ("Human Trafficking: Gangs make Thailand a regional hub", Bangkok Post, 6 September, 2000, reprinted in Stop Trafficking Archive, September 2000)

* Trafficking in women and children is a severe problem. Burma is a source country for thousands of women and young girls who are trafficked into the commercial sex industries of neighbouring countries. There are reliable reports that many women and children in border areas, where the government's control is limited, were forced or lured into working as prostitutes in Thailand and China. (US Dept of State, Human Rights Report, 1999)

* Child prostitution and trafficking in girls for the purpose of forced prostitution - especially Shan girls who were sent or lured to Thailand, continues to be a major problem. (US Dept of State, Human Rights Report, 1999)

* Malaysian police believe that the overwhelming number of prostitutes in Malaysia are foreigners from Indonesia, the Philippines, Burma, Thailand, and China. These women often work as karaoke hostesses, guest relations officers, and masseuses. (US Dept of State, Human Rights Report, 1999)

* Child prostitution of young females, especially from ethnic minorities, is rampant. (US Dept of State, Human Rights Report, 1998)

* Since Burma’s turn to a market economy in 1988, prostitution has increased. Some blame the promotion and growth of tourism. (CATW Fact Book, citing "Myanmar tightens laws against prostitution", Reuters, 7 April 1998)

* Girls from Burma, aged 12-18, are in more demand for the sex industry in Thailand since traffickers are luring fewer girls from northern Thailand. (CATW Fact Book, citing "More foreign workers join sex industry as fewer Thai girls enter flesh trade", Bangkok Post, 24 November 1997, citing Wanchai Boonphacra of CPCR)

* There is a reported increase in the number of children of both sexes working in Burma's expanding sex industry. (Human Rights Watch/Asia, "Burma: Children's Rights and the Rule of the Law", submission to the UN CRC, January 1997)

* The number of Burmese, Cambodian, Vietnamese and Chinese children enticed into or forced into prostitution in Bangkok and other cities in Thailand, increased during 1997. (EI Barometer, 1998)

* A 1996 study, conducted at 40 commercial venues in Bangkok, Kulachada and Chaipipat, found trafficking women and children from the Mekong countries - China, Burma, Laos and Cambodia to be increasing. The largest groups of newly trafficked women into the sex industry are from Burma’s Shan state, and minority women from the Northwest border areas. ("New law targets human trafficking", The Nation, 30 November 1997)

* 20,000-30,000 Burmese women are in prostitution in Thailand. (CATW-Asia Pacific, Trafficking in Women and Prostitution in the Asia Pacific, 1996)

* The military and political situation in Burma, has led to an increase in migration, which has made women extremely vulnerable to trafficking for prostitution. (CATW Fact Book, citing SANLAAP India, Indrani Sinha, "Paper on Globalization & Human Rights")