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| A Burmese brothel in Mae Sot, Thailand. |
The broker, a human-trafficker, took care of all the expenses
to get me here and the 150,000 kyats advance to my parents. Once I got here in
Maesot I was sold straight to the brothel and now I am a whore.
Though I’d never anticipated to work as a prostitute before
in my young life, right now I just thought of myself as sacrificing my life for
my family back home,” sadly explained the
16-year old Burmese girl, now a prostitute in Maesot, but originally from the
Burmese town of Pegu near Rangoon.
Countless
number of young Burmese women and girls on the border land between Thailand and
Burma are the hapless victims of savage economic crisis brought on by six
decades of military dictatorship in Burma.
Women
organizations studying the affairs of Burmese women frequently stated that
there were tens of thousands of Burmese women being trafficked from Burma to
Thailand every year.
In Maesot
region alone on the border there are thousands of Burmese young women and girls
surviving as prostitutes. Majority have been here working willingly as
prostitutes and supporting their desperate families back home in Burma, but
many were also the victims of unscrupulous human traffickers.
Burmese-owned Brothels in
Maesot
Since 20
years ago Maesot Town had had about thirty brothels with names like Darling,
Ruby, Moustache, Power House, Nant-kyaing-phi, etc. But they all were
Thai-owned and staffed by Thai prostitutes and a sprinkles of Burmese whores.
Even
though there were a few Burmese prostitutes working in those Thai brothels
there was not a single Burmese-owned brothel in Maesot till about ten years
ago. Only then the prostitution business in Maesot began to take a distinctive shape
as strictly Burmese business.
Thae Thae
a young Burmese prostitute working in a prominent brothel in the middle of
Maesot Town bitterly said, “People often said
being a whore is easy job to make money here. They’re completely wrong as it is
not easy at all. In our house customers pay 300 bahts for one fuck. Some other
houses take only 200 bahts. Out of that we and the owner split 50:50.
From our measly share the owner cuts rent, food, electricity,
water, and even the police money. Our life is basically hand to mouth, day to
day survival. Since opening a brothel is illegal here we have to pay so many
people to do our business.
And all these free fucks for local authorities and the Thai
mafia. Police not just take free money from the houses they always fuck us for
free whenever they want. The only difference between Thai Police here in Maesot
and Burmese police in Myawaddy is language, their nasty habits are same.”
She
continued on, “Whenever we have to go
back Myawaddy for some family matters back home the Burmese police,
immigration, people-militia, even the firemen, and other authorities in Myawaddy immediately know who we are and
give us trouble till they get what they want. Just to fuck us free.
In the middle of the day we have to open our legs wide in the
police-gate for them Burmese policemen. Sometimes they even fuck us in the
toilets. Now we have to carry plenty of condoms whenever we are to go back to
Myawaddy. We have to protect ourselves from STDs and HIV-AIDS.
Here in Maesot the Thai police do not arrest us for whoring.
But in Burma if we don’t give police what they want they arrest us and charge
us as prostitute. We could end up in a prison. We are Burmese but Burmese
police is worse than Thai police in screwing us, and they suck us dried.”
Innocent Burmese Girls are
forced into Prostitution
This was
what 18 years old Ma Hnin Si (Rose – not her real name) said of how she was
forced into her current profession.
“I’ve been doing this job for two years now. The broker woman
told us that I could get a maid job in Bangkok paying at least 5,000 baht a
month. My parents trusted her and let her take me. But I never get to Bangkok
and end up here a whore.
When I first got here they never let me go out or see anyone
else. Then one day they forced me to sleep with a rich Thai old man. I was a
virgin then. I still do not know how much the pimps and broker got, but they
sent 300,000 kyats to my parents back home.
Then my mother sent me a letter telling me that they’d received
the money from me. And she also told me to work hard for the family. That
letter almost drove me mad. Anyway, by then I just had to keep doing to keep
everyone happy except myself.
Now all my family and the people from our little town know
what I’m doing here in Maesot. No way I can go back home now. But I still send
money back home whenever I can. For my future I’m now trying to get to a rich
foreign country.
Some older Burmese women working before in our house are now
living in America and Australia. They got contacts with foreign NGOs rescuing
people like me and luckily they got sent overseas. They are now sending back home
tons of money and their parents are becoming rich with houses and businesses.
That’s my dream too. To get contact with a woman NGO and go
overseas starting a new life.”
But there
are only few Burmese prostitutes who can send back home enough money as most
are wasting their hard-earned cash spending on themselves and their loved ones
as they go down deeper into their low lives working as whores in Maesot.
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| Burmese actress Thet Mon Myint. |
“After the whole night working we sleep for a while and then
go to Maesot Bazzar to drink beer, smoke cigarettes, eat, and sing Karaoke just
to be happy and relaxed. In addition to our earnings we get good tips from the
customers. 100 bahts, 200 bahts. We spent that money next day on ourselves and
our boyfriends.
We’re whores but we still have feelings and we still want to
be loved by a man. All of us have own boyfriends. We work at night and during
the days we go out with them and enjoy whatever lives we still have.
But my boyfriend owns me only at day. At night the brothel
owns me. I have to buy him a motorbike and rent a flat to live decent like
everybody else. I love him and if I don’t buy him stuff maybe he will leave me
for some other girl.”
The
Burmese woman owner of a popular karaoke shop in Maesot Bazzar said, “I keep on telling these girls to save money
and to send back home some. But they wouldn’t listen and spent at days whatever
they earned at nights. And their boyfriends, these Burmese boys are no good
boys just sucking money out of these hard working girls.
The girls have to buy them everything. Watches, gold hand
chains, neck chains, rings, and expensive motorbikes. The girls even pay for
their rents. But the girls still have to fight to have own boyfriends. I’ve already
seen too many times in my shop two girls screaming, kicking, scratching, and
fighting for one boy they both love, incredible!”
This was
what Ko Aung who works at a Guest House in Maesot bitterly said of the poor families
of Burmese prostitutes working in Maesot.
“Times are so bad we Burmese do not know what is good or bad
no more. We don’t know what is a good character or a bad character.
We have to call for a Burmese girl if the guest wants one. And
there she comes by a motorbike. All three together on the bike. Father, mother,
and a child. Child is just over one. Father drives the bike. Mother is the
prostitute. While mother is in the room with the guest the father and the child
wait outside. Father giving bottled-milk to his child. When her business is
over they all go back home on the bike, unbelievable!
I’ve seen mother and daughter working together in the same
brothel here in Maesot. If I tell what is going on with our Burmese in this
town, people wouldn’t believe me, unbelievable!”
