Sex tourists in Thailand | DW Documentary

[Music] it's just another normal evening In Paya or what looks normal for almost 2 years during the Corona virus pandemic the capital of sex tourism was all but shut down now the red lights back on vulf gang re 74 is out with tick 45 he met her in a bar and not s mom to send me and when you see a hooker a prostitute in Germany you pay twice or three times as much and get half the service or even less but there isn't any prostitution here officially these girls here aren't really prostitutes they call themselves bar girls bar girls there are around 60,000 sex workers In Paya om is one of them she says that four years ago she had a relation ship with a German man and got pregnant he left her she works as a prostitute to earn a living for herself and her family what I would like most is to get out of the job but what should I do there's no work at all in my Village the corona lockdown just made everything even worse I've got to earn money before I can leave here we looked into the dark side of the Red Light Industry and we followed signs that not just sex tourists but German pedophiles have returned to Paya since the city reopened after the covid-19 [Music] pandemic wul gangil and his current escort are at the Beach in In Paya she introduces herself as ticking he wouldn't say he's a sex tourist as much as a Paya lover volf Gang has made a name for himself as the author of books telling erotic Tales of Thailand and unlike most other German men he has no problem speaking about it openly in front of our camera tick agreed to be filmed as well okay vulf gang's been coming to Paya for decades why sometimes even he finds it difficult to explain what is it really that's so fascinating about this I could say the girls here are more feminine friendlier they're more affectionate and smile more they simply enjoy life more than women do in Germany clear to both sides that this is a business relationship right I think it's not just a business relationship there's still the other side the side with feelings and they have to be there too or the whole thing wouldn't work do you see it the same way is it like a business a little bit or how do how do you think about it you can also answer in Thai language if you like tick prefers to silent yeah what's about money money very important yeah okay she barely speaks English yes and I was just about to say that obviously communication is pretty limited so it's difficult to speak of relationship between equals yeah her English is pretty awful but we're working on it and she's very diligent I'm teaching her uh and it's surprising how few words or how little speech you need to have in a relationship like this we're actually supporting the women of isan women who live in poverty and would otherwise be working in rice patties in Northern Thailand and don't forget we are the people who keep the system running who keep prostitution alive prostitution as a form of Developmental Aid wul gang says he doesn't really have any ethical quals about that he's fine with an older man paying for love and sex with a younger woman as long as both sides profit but he's also got a request have pity on the men a great deal has been said about the dark sides of prostitution in Germany too that it's always bad for the women but how bad is it for an older man who's lonely who doesn't have anyone and doesn't have sex anymore and that in a world that's obsessed with sex hardly anybody speaks about how terrible that kind of life is so have pity on the men as well should we take pity on the women too because the job they do is genuinely tough It's Not Just Smiles and pleasantness from what I've seen here in Thailand it isn't as tough as you think they have lots of fun they laugh a lot and do things take trips sit on a motorbike and drive around or meet friends where's the disaster in that I really don't see that here in Thailand om has been a sex worker for 10 years she tells us there was one time she almost managed to get out of the business a client took her to Germany 4 years ago and promised her a future together but when om became pregnant he sent her back to Thailand promising he would soon follow as soon as she got on the plane he changed his phone number and email address she says I came back to Thailand when I was five months pregnant and he simply vanished I don't know why but he refused to accept any kind of responsibility at all how did you feel terrible since then I've hated men from Germany I know they're not all like that but when a client comes into a bar and we start talking where you from from gery oh no goodbye not that I've got something against every one of them but I've learned my lesson and I've got one request don't judge us for our work we're not robbing anyone we're just doing our job true it's against the law but that's no reason to treat us disrespectfully there om Works in various bars where she looks for new clients the fact that sex work is illegal causes a lot of problems most of the women don't have health insurance and during the pandemic lockdown sex workers were barred from all government Aid [Music] programs and that in a country where the sex industry is estimated to bring in billions in annual revenue and account for a considerable percentage of the gross domestic product om says on some nights you can earn good money but on most it's dismal many demand to do it without a condom and two or three of them will want to sleep with one woman that's humiliating for a Thai woman and sometimes clients ask for sexual practices that I reject Not all men are like that but many are no current statistics are available but older estimates indicate that every year 400,000 German men fly Halfway Around the Globe for cheap sex Thailand is the main destination in pataya there's even a German quarter naklua where there's a german-speaking lawyer and a Nell restaurant the brambury restaurant is run by a German owner Thomas zand from Hamburg he's been in Thailand for 15 years and is well connected that's the Crown Prince of Thailand the Crown Prince of Thailand was one of your guests no I've been cooking for him regularly for three or four years he lives in Germany in Munich and whenever he comes with his friends and employees I'm his German cook and I travel with him so that's very nice photograph I was permitted to take with him that's quite unusual you normally aren't allowed to take a picture with him to us it seems as if Thomas feels like an ambassador for Paya tasked with defending the city's image many think this is the world's biggest wh house but it's not there's far more to Paya the erotic scene In Paya no longer makes up the whole city instead it's restricted to three relatively small areas but if I don't go there and I don't see it but it certainly dominates the downtown district no matter where you look there are bars with girls sitting and waiting yes fine but the girls here are in Asia generally wear fewer clothes because of the heat that doesn't necessarily have to do with prostitution even their school uniforms include short skirts because it's so hot and schools don't have air conditioning but you can't tell me there aren't any prostitutes in Paya only girlfriends there aren't any prostitutes the difference legally is that a prostitute names a certain price for a service ahead of time that only happens here on rare occasions but it's still paying for sex right yes certainly but that's fine everyone should get to live their life the way they choose the best thing that's happened in the 15 years I've been in Thailand is that this isn't happening with children anymore that's good 15 years ago that was the biggest problem but not anym is that true even at first glance we have our [Music] doubts walking street is the main Amusement thoroughfare In Paya employees from a private Child Protection Organization are doing their rounds today during Peak tourist season they try to speak with sex workers and tourists regularly can you speak English certainly can what going to do for okay uh uh we are from Human Health Network Foundation and recently we have been reported with the uh crime against the children so if you see any suspicious activities against the children if you think the children might be forced to work during the nighttime with the unpleasant environment you can alert the authority here that's good of you uh can I have a few moment of your time you speak [Music] English so what we hear a lot is that the tourists and people say child prostitution that was a problem 15 or 20 years ago in payan now we have everything under control uh that that's a very tricky question because uh we have been in our own experience we see that from time to time someone can always manage to sneak in and do something bad against the children we have a lot of walk-in cases reporting the incident or any any bad activities against children and especially in this area The Walking Street area is very famous for the night life so it is very crowded very unhealthy for the children do the tourists want to hear these stories uh to be honest uh not not exactly because they are here for very specific purposes as you can imagine but at least there's a thin line between prostitution and shy [Music] prostitution the child protection workers explain that what's called normal sex tourism here in these red light districts creates structures that poses severe threat to children as we were filming this young boy walked down the street lined with bars all on his own his family had sent him out to sell chewing gum to tourists now he's being accompanied home by the child protection group just imagine they're wandering around the street and someone just grabbed them into the very dark corner so this kind of thing we have to create awareness you see uh any children involving with the underage prostitution please do not hesitate to call the hotline 1300 we thank you so much uh we appreciate your cooperation thank you so much many successful advances in the battle against child prostitution seem to be falling short In Paya we we observed children walking hand inand with tourists late at night no one stepped in or even seems to be [Music] surprised we're on our way to police headquarters in Bangkok after several requests the deputy police chief of Thailand has agreed to give an interview he's coming from an important appointment with the interior Minister before our interview he first changed out of his formal dress uniform Surat hakan cultivates a reputation for being tough unorganized crime in the red light districts we filmed in Paya and saw many underaged girls working in the red light zones child protector stellers pedophile criminals select Thailand as Des ation again what do you do against it it's true that child abuse here in Thailand and across southeast Asia is very concerning the children being abused are getting younger and the violence towards them is getting worse our investigative work is difficult especially because those who produce child pornography are using new technologies to cover their tracks the Royal TI police provided us with these videos they show a special task force on the job the tiac unit fights online child abuse a phenomenon that increased massively during lockdown they show children being forced in front of Internet cameras and abused the material is later sold to customers all around the world several dozen children were freed from the hands of pedophile gangs last year family members are often accomplices to the crime the police chief in pataya has some success to report a German suspect has just been arrested on suspicion of child abuse he's accused of propositioning child Pro institutes in a bar these bar districts are high risk areas for children but just today the interior Minister and I have decided we would order every police station in the country to strictly monitor all bars and clubs we do not tolerate child prostitution we just proved that In Paya where we closed a bar with underaged prostitutes the perpetrators are facing tough sentences okay thank you thank you much the deputy police chief thanks us for the interview and we inquire about the German arrested in Paya so I ask if we can follow surprisingly he invites us to film a discussion of the case paya's top police officer has just arrived with new details the closed suspected pedophile joint is called Cobra bar and is located in the middle of paya's pleasure District in the bar we confiscated receipts they were on the table in small wooden holders each could be traced to a girl that worked there the girls testified that they were to have the customers pay for as many drinks for them as possible at the top of each bill each girl noted her nickname that's how we know that 11 females worked in the bar we could identify all of them I can show you here are they over 18 no they're not only one is of age so near all children where are they now we're looking for a safe place where we can house them together the youngest girl we questioned is called an she's just 12 years old she told us she came to Paya with her divorced mother her mother Works collecting garbage and the girl says she would sneak off to the bar to earn extra money for food [Laughter] the investigators were unable to tell us much about the German they had in custody In Paya just that it was a man from Frankfurt he said to have taken underage girls from the bar to his apartment multiple times police were investigating allegations of rape and child [Music] abuse the photographs from the police file show that he was apparently a regular customer at the suspected pedophile bar social workers and therapists were now caring for the freed underaged girls their days in the Cobra bar were desolate the images show the children were apparently forced to drink with the customers until they passed [Music] out om is determined to not let her son grow up in a red light district four-year-old Tim lives with M's mother in the countryside [Music] it that's the route many take In Paya children are raised by their grandparents in the village while their mothers stay in the cities to earn money as prostitutes hello hello although it's a taboo in conservative Thailand it's a way of life for tens of thousands of poor families m is trying to stay close to her son even though she's far away their daily call is a ritual for them both om tells him to keep being a good boy soon mama will be home again Tim's father still lives in Germany om tells us he continues to ignore her calls he has yet to pay a single scent of Child Support I have some documents on my pregnancy from Germany but I didn't know what was in them because it's all in German he had all the official papers but he didn't pass them on to me he only gave me copies he said I didn't need the originals back then the baby had yet to be born and I didn't know what German law was like or what I would have needed to do meanwhile om has taken the documents to a German thae law practice they told her that Tim's father in Germany recognized his paternity in writing before he disappeared now with the lawyer's help om is trying to find the father's new address in order to enforce child support payment above all so her son Tim can go to a better school a few kilometers away on the outskirts of the city is the somewhat more distinguished pataya Beach here we meet Stefan from hessen he calls himself a YouTuber he regularly posts videos online in which he tells his German followers about his life routine and exploits in Thailand this is Stefan and Thai women or in love in Thailand I made this three-part series and thought I was done with the matter but you kept asking what happened next and wanted to hear more stories about the broads of course that's hopefully a story that will end at some point but for now the story continues and today I'll tell you what's happened in the last 2 or 3 months so listen up in the meanwhile Zu announced her arrival from the far north I had a date with mousy on Thursday evening then I went to Clementine who's here In Paya 2 she's a good girl and runs a laundromat you just can't get rid of the women the moral of the story is keep your nose clean and this won't happen to you on your YouTube channel you say at one point don't accuse me of sex tourism completely different moral criteria apply here is that true yes here different moral criteria apply that's absolutely right I'm not a sex tourist and I never was a sex tourist but Paya lives from sex tourism it's a give and take the men come because they want quick cheap sex and it is quick and cheap the women come because they want to earn lots of money fast but your I'm not a sex tourist Spiel isn't very convincing you're still paying women according to set rules so there's a category called short time that means you have the woman for a short period of time for a set amount then there's long time where you pay the woman a higher sum for a day or two days or three days and then there are Partnerships that people look for and if you have a look at Tinder of Tinder but nevertheless a financial factor or payment is always involved no matter if it's long time short time or a partnership money exchanges hands this is Thailand and the slogan is no do no go they don't know the standard of living we have here children are responsible for financing their parents old age so the children have to transfer money to their parents so they can eat and drink and that's why there are so many women working here In Paya but that means the German men here are profiting from poverty look at what you've described they're women from poor families who don't have any other opportunities that's the main point men here that's why there are so many men here uh if it weren't for sex tourism then many families here would be condemned to Poverty so One hand washes the other it's a give and take Asian women are still aware of their role as women the first thing a Thai woman does when she comes to my room is clean up and do the dishes she takes care of a man and the caretaking that men bring to women is paid in Cold Hard Cash so it's a business relationship with traditional gender roles I don't really want to discuss this any further because I know where you're going with it but it's not like that you're still firmly set in your traditional Western way of thinking when you're here you've got to change that we're in Asia we're in Thailand this whole place works differently think the Asian way think the way in the evening Stefan sets to producing his next video clip he's got some 5,000 followers on YouTube but there's competition on the horizon that's hot news she calls herself the queen of Paya she's a sex worker who gives tips about what she says are the best in town and she promotes her colleagues along the way today she's at a phone party her Clips can Garner up to 1 million [Music] clicks we ask if she's here to promote the place or to promote the girls this place or to promote the girl or what is the [Music] idea I want as many people as possible to come to Thailand and to get to know my favorite places and my friends and I want them to see what a beautiful smile Tai women [Applause] have [Music] to and this is what it looks like online here the self-proclaimed queen of Paya is promoting the hotel of her [Music] choice it's a place where sex workers come along with the room wow beautiful girl can you show me your again prostitution is officially illegal in Thailand yet we're surprised at how often it's promoted on YouTube despite the fact I take care number one2 thank you H byebye we decided to take a closer look and find this exact Hotel not only on major booking platforms but also with Germany's largest tour oper operator Tui markets Selena place on its homepage the hotel did not reply to our request for information is the German travel industry earning money from sex tourism in pataya and if it is why are red light hotels being marketed we've asked Tui and are waiting for a reply slums are located right next door to the red light districts today the child protection staff of human help network is back on the streets children from impoverished neighborhoods are the most defenseless and easiest prey for pedophile Predators the children play games that teach them how they can protect themselves from attacks in the red light district they also learn which body parts should not be touched Ted At All by strangers the organization stresses that there's a big difference between adult prostitution and child abuse but there are links we ask if they believe Western travel companies are partly to blame yes definitely because you know for majority of the tourists they are given certain instructions that you have to go uh get the visa like this but one thing that has never been in the picture the tourist is that there are certain moral and traditional issues that you have to respect even though Thailand is very well known for sex tourism but it doesn't mean that you can behave wherever whatever you like wherever you like or to whomever you like when you act when you have interaction with local people there are not prostitutes we have to educate the children that that is not acceptable here in the normal and functional Society [Applause] [Music] here we've been invited to a police press conference in pataya Thailand's Deputy Chief of Police has traveled from Bangkok to report on the latest progress in the fight against illegal sex Studios and child prostitution he tells us that large parts of the illegal sex industry In Paya are in the hands of the Chinese Mafia we use the opportunity to learn more about the man from Frankfurt in custody he recently announced that the Cobra bar In Paya was closed because underage prostitutes worked there you said that a German customer was arrested could you tell us what's happened to the suspect yes I'd be pleased to Witnesses we questioned said he had sex with at least one underaged prostitute he's been charged with child abuse the British owner of the bar is being investigated for human trafficking the German is being held In Paya we're waiting for the trial to [Music] start the deputy police chief's message was clear there will be no leniency for pedophile sex tourists the laws will be applied to their full extent but what he didn't know at the time was that the German suspect would successfully escape from Thailand just 7 Days Later under scandalous circumstances we managed to get in touch with the man after he fled to Germany it came as a surprise that he agreed to give us an interview in Frankfurt he said he paid considerable bribes to get from Thailand to Germany he fled because he believed you wouldn't get a fair trial there but he nevertheless wanted to remain anonymous and would not show his face why are you giving us an interview because I want to show you this Injustice it starts off with the charges they leveled against me it's all in thae so there's no way for me to know what it says I have a document here that ensured I was allowed to leave several people signed it a prosecutor and a judge a police officer initiated the process of course I had to pay a bribe for everything it all cost me far in excess of 1 million Tha bat here's is he shows us a video meant to prove that he really did pay the equivalent of €30,000 in bribes as well as €20,000 for bail and lawyers in order to leave Thailand and this despite the fact that he's charged with sexually abusing children he denies the allegations unfortunately I met many people who demonstrably claimed the girls were underage if you'd like I can show you a video this girl was definitely 15 years old at the time and you simply have to say in your own defense a man just can't see that then and there the youngest one for example let me show you was her here for God's sake exactly at first it doesn't strike you that you're looking at children I must say you really can't tell with thaiwomen I swear I could show you a 30-year-old tioman without any wrinkles but let's be honest that's obviously a child you're showing me in the picture yes it is but by then you must have realized that you'd ended up in a pedophile bar that's right I mean I have to say that AR didn't lie to me she told me right up front the girl was 15 so that would mean the allegations against you are true I have to admit that the accusations against me are true I was in a bar where underage girls were working and I probably took an underage girl back with me but my case is special because the girl threw up several times and went home I really don't want to sugarcoat it I took her from the bar to my place with the aim of having sex with her that's correct but if the accusations are true why do you feel you've been unjustly treated I feel I was treated unfairly by the police because I don't understand how so many underage girls could be working at a bar if I were a pedophile I have to say it would have been easy for me within just a few weeks I'd already seen countless bars where pedophiles were were working and it's easy to go to these shorttime hotels and take a woman with you and nobody would know my name or what I had done at the bar they actually I don't really want to accuse you of anything but you seem to know the scene really well you know how it works you've been visiting Thailand for 30 years traveling to Paya and going out with friends to bars then you just see it and I have to say it almost works like a Livestock Auction the women are just a commodity to be traded and it gets bigger and bigger and all the people there are just adjust it's like an industry then maybe it's not such a good idea to hang around this livestock market correct in future I'd advise anyone against going there after the interview we still had unanswered questions the most urgent being why was this man not under investigation in Germany prosecutors with the appropriate authorities said they hadn't been made aware of the case that's in spite of the fact that Bangkok has two liaison officers from Germany's federal criminal police office who are usually informed about any investigation against German citizens the court in pataya explained that the suspect had departed for a business trip which he had been permitted to do contrary to court orders he hadn't returned to Thailand afterwards the trial is now on hold until the arrest warrant can be executed our question as to why German authorities were not informed remains unanswered we're going to show you an that leaves the question of what Germany's largest travel company has to say about this hotel In Paya Tui replied stating that they hadn't known about the conditions within the hotel they had instead relied on a database of available beds they added that they had now ensured it was no longer possible to book a room at Selena place on the the Tui platform in here we pointed out that tu's website was marketing many other hotels right in the middle of paya's red light district and that serious cases of child abuse were on the rise there the company replied again we've gone back and double checked the hotels on offer and have blocked our database interface with hotels in The District in question with immediate effect additionally we have advised the databases we work with not to include these hotels in their portfolios and to verify to us that they meet eat criteria eat is an internationally active children's rights organization in Germany its headquarters are located in fryberg Jana shrimp and her colleagues have been reminding travel companies of their social responsibilities for decades most have since signed voluntary commitments Against Child prostitution she says it's an encouraging sign that Tui following our research removed all the hotels in paya's red light district from its program she adds that it's problematic that German travel companies are earning money from sex tourism at all I find that a bit surprising quality management is a big thing for all private Enterprises it shouldn't be so hard to keep an eye on issues like prostitution and threats to child welfare but what your research clearly shows is that the threat of perpetrators being discovered is far too low they have nothing to fear and that has to change we won't be able to prevent all crimes committed against children the criminals have too many pentious strategies for gaining access to children to manipulate them and make them dependent but we have to make it harder for them what about the role of the German police how is it possible that no investigations have been taken up against a man who's accused of abusing children and who fled from Thailand to Germany it's shocking isn't it but it's because clearly there was no exchange of information if no official charges are filed in Germany then no investigation can take place you've touched on a real Sour spot there why haven't the ti authorities notified the German liaison officers in Bangkok that would be in line with German law we have this principle of extr territoriality According to which German offenders who commit crimes abroad can be prosecuted in Germany we once surveyed prosecutors and courts in Germany and they searched by hand for how many cases had been processed between 2005 and 2015 using extr territorial jurisdiction there were only 38 they probably didn't find all the cases but still we've got a good legal framework that's not where the loophole is what we have is an implementation [Music] loophole after nearly a year of research we concluded our filming in PTI the sex worker om is still waiting for child support payments from Germany her lawyer is trying to find the new address for the father of her child her chances of getting some money for Tim look good and the sex tourists In Paya for them it's just another normal day or at least what's seemingly treated as normal [Music] [Music] here

2023-12-07 20:19

Other news