Concerned community member, Alin Hadsaithong, 55, who works a Christian NGO involved with the village, told The Phuket News that girls as young as 10 years old were becoming addicted to drugs, subsequently leading them into prostitution rings.
Young girls from the Morgen tribe of sea people seem to be among the majority of youngsters getting into prostitution, said Alin.
“The girls who have become prostitutes have done so for various reasons but their problems are all similar,” said Alin.
“One of the girls I have known since she was a baby. She was very good at school; smart and devout in her religion.
She lives with her extended family, including aunts and uncles and a 60-year-old ‘godfather’, who would take her to school every day. He was like a grandfather figure and we respected him very much, until we found out that he had raped the girl, said Alin.
“Her mother desperately wants to move her daughter away but their choices are limited to the sea gypsy village. The girl has changed completely. She stopped going to school and rarely goes home. Now she spends most of her time hanging around at the pier.
Mr Alin’s daughther, Weerawan Hadsaithong, 32, said some of the girls become hooked on drugs such as betel and amphetamine as young as 13., and then turn to prostitution to feed their habits.
“They [the girls] have told me that their customers are mainly local Thai people. Their business has grown through words of mouth. I see people coming here late night for it.”
The girls told Ms Weerawan they get B500 – B1,000 per time. Very few of them have protected sex.
“The very young girls, aged around 10 years old, get introduced to drugs and drink by their friends, who then invite them to do prostitution,” said Ms Weerawan.
Kanvara Chua-On, another Christian NGO worker involved with the village, told The Phuket News that the problem was a very hard one to deal with, without concrete support from local officials.
“We can not blame the children for their mistakes. Often they have been raped by family member or abandoned by alcoholic parents,” said Kanvara Chua-On.
“These [the rapes] are criminal cases, but the children and other family members believe they are second-class citizens with no rights. They are too scared to go to the police or report abuse,” she said.
“It is very sad that many NGOs help the village by donating money for the kids’ education, but once they reach 13 or 14 years old, they quit studying and become prostitutes or get pregnant,” she said.
“Health workers did once give away condoms to the villagers but that’s it,” she said.
“Apart from the increasing number of drug addicts and prostitutes in the village, I am really worried about them catching sexually transmitted diseases. The children start off with a bright future but this is the result if they are not taken care of properly.
Commenting on the issue, Rawai Mayor, Arun Soros, told The Phuket News that the municipality had tried to help the villagers deal with these issues but admitted that it was a tough challenge as the villagers don’t really open up to outside help.
“It is clear there is a drug problem among teens in the village. We have tried to speak with them but there was not much response,” said Mayor Arun.
The mayor said the municipality would work more closely with health workers in Rawai to try and address some of the problems through health and sex-education programmes.
“The Phuket Provincial Social Development and Human Security Office is directly responsible for this kind of problem. We will request manpower from Phuket volunteers to help out,” said Mayor Arun.
The mayor promised that a meeting between authorities and village leaders would be proposed to be held to discuss solutions within the month.