Police show a flowchart of how a year-old girl lured a year-old native of Ubon Ratchathani into prostitution in Pattaya. The recent arrest of a year-old girl who procured an underage girl for an Indian tourist in Pattaya highlighted the recent crackdown on prostitution and human trafficking rings whose perpetrators and victims are getting younger, according to police.
Police have vowed tough action against both procurers and customers who are increasingly resorting to Facebook and Line to match underaged victims with customers. Police have launched sting operations and widened their investigation to cover many provinces. On June 5, police nabbed a young procurer and an Indian customer in Pattaya. Three days later the investigators traced the gang north to Nakhon Sawan where they arrested a pimp and six other customers.
So far, the police have pressed three charges against Parmod Kumar who allegedly paid for sex with a year-old girl. The year-old suspect is charged with depriving the girl of parental care and raping her. According to investigators, the year-old victim is a native of Ubon Ratchathani. She was lured through a Facebook page by the older girl who ran a sex service ring in Pattaya.
The victim was first told to stay with "other girls" at a hotel before she was sent to Mr Kumar. The Indian tourist paid the girl 5, baht and the procurer took a 1,baht cut. The victim later escaped and returned home, but the procurer went after her, demanding she return to Pattaya. She accused the victim of stealing her money, prompting the victim's family to file a police complaint which eventually led to the arrest of the procurer and the Indian customer.
Pol Maj Gen Surachate said many victims of the underage prostitution rings based in popular tourist destinations come from the Northeast. These destinations include Hat Yai, Koh Samui and Phuket, where nightlife venues and illegal brothels are common.
