Demand for virgins fueling Cambodian sex trade, says IOM

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia -- High demand for virgins from mostly Asian clients is fueling the flow of underage girls into Cambodia's sex trade, the International Organization for Migration has said in a report.

About 38 percent of the women and girls surveyed working in the sex trade here entered the industry by selling their virginity, IOM found, while 85 percent of the clients paying to sleep with them were Asian men.

"The commercial sale of virginity is one of the major routes into commercial sexual exploitation," the group said in a report released earlier this week.

"This trade clearly shapes the patterns of trafficking within Cambodia ... it is arguably the largest factor contributing to entry into commercial sex."

Non-Asian foreigners accounted for nine percent of customers paying for sex with virgins, IOM said, while the other six percent was unknown.

More than half the Asian clients were Cambodian men, with the other half made up of Chinese, Taiwanese, South Korean, Japanese, Thai, and Filipino men.

Most women were 16 or 17 years old when they sold their virginity, and the majority said they entered prostitution willingly. But others told IOM they were tricked by family and friends.

"There was a high use of force and incapacitation through drugs or alcohol at the time of commercial sex," the humanitarian group said.

People were increasingly picking up virgins in high-end karaoke bars, massage parlors, and other entertainment establishments in the country's urban centers, IOM said, whereas before the trade was found mostly in brothels.

IOM surveyed 203 women and girls working in the sex trade in the tourist hub of Siam Reap, the seaside town Sihanoukville and Koh Kong province, which borders Thailand.

Cambodia has struggled to shed its reputation as a haven for pedophiles, putting dozens of foreigners in jail for child sex crimes or deporting them to face trial in their home countries since 2003.