Human trafficking: Sex tourism

Human trafficking exists in every country but it takes different forms in each. These photographs show sex tourism in the beach resort of Pattaya, Thailand. The men are from wealthy countries. They arrive by the planeload, looking to have sex with young girls or, sometimes, boys. This traffic depends on weak or corrupt law enforcement and a ready supply of victims -- women and children whose precarious lives in impoverished rural communities and neighboring countries make them ready prey to traffickers. Some minor girls are sold by their parents. Some of the older ones see the foreigners as a way out of their impoverished and culturally limited circumstances. The men see only an exotic "other," and tend to rationalize their predations by pretending that "the moral values are different here," "it's a different culture," "these girls see things differently." Maybe when the predators are arrested, or shamed, or made to see their victims as -- potentially -- their daughters, sisters, aunts or mothers, will the whole ugly business stop.