Update: Child victims of sex trade in Cambodia

March 2003. A Dateline producer and cameraman are undercover with human rights investigators in Cambodia posing as tourists looking to have sex with children. A human rights investigator we'll call Robert, is acting as their sex tour guide. He's a police detective from New Zealand. We agreed to protect his identity.

Robert: As far as anyone here is concerned, I'm a sex tour operator or broker who is coming here on behalf of a lot of wealthy westerners, in particular American men. And I'm here to set up this sex experience for them.

Robert: Do you have a cell phone number?

Robert has developed local contacts who know where to go and who to see.

All it takes is a quick phone call for this man to arrange a visit to a brothel in Phnom Penh.

Interpreter: Thank you. She's waiting.  

Robert: She's waiting?

Interpreter: Yes.

The producers and investigators arrive across from what looks like a local café, but it's really a brothel. The owner is a woman who goes by the name Madam Lang.

Dateline: Hi.

Dateline: Hi there.

Investigator: Hey.

Dateline: How are you?

Dateline: Hi.

Robert: She organize all girls for us.

She's eager to do business. She leads the group through the cafe and up a back staircase to meet some girls for hire. And when she says they're girls, she means it literally: young girls, younger than we even imagined. And as an extra attraction, she says they're still virgins.

Madame Lang: No. She virgin girl, not yet open.

Many sex tourists come to Cambodia for exactly that reason, and they're willing to pay a premium. Madam Lang tells us her virgins go for $600 - and for that price she says we can take this girl back to the hotel and keep her there for up to three days. 

Investigator: What's her name?

Girl: Mai.

A few minutes later, she brings out this girl, another virgin.

Interpreter: She never do nothing.

She's 15 years old, and she looks paralyzed with fear.

Our crew was there with hidden cameras.

All this comes as no secret to the Cambodian government. Mu Soc Hua served as Cambodia’s Minister of Women's Affairs.

Chris Hansen: Cambodia has a lot of problems. Where do you rank the child sex trade?  

Mu Soc Hua: I rank sexual trade, sexual exploitation of our children on the top of my list.

Chris Hansen: Is there any way to even attach a number to this to say how many children?      

Mu Soc Hua: Around 30,000.

Chris Hansen: 30,000.

Mu Soc Hua: Yes.

Chris Hansen: That's a staggering number.

Mu Soc Hua: Yes. Yes.

The problem is driven by Cambodia’s extreme poverty.

Interpreter: Virgin.

Some parents are so desperate that they sell their own children into slavery.

It’s happening all over Cambodia, but there’s one place that is notorious, a run down village on the outskirts of Phnom Penh. Any taxi driver can tell you it's the place to go if you're looking for the youngest girls.

Dateline: Young, young girl?

Driver: Oh, young girls, uh, the 11 Kilometer.

Dateline: Uh-huh. What's the name of that place?

Driver: Uh, Svay Pak.

Svay Pak is a 20-minute drive and we're on a dirt road dotted with cafes and gated storefronts. 

Bob Mosier: Stop right here.

It takes just a second for a pimp to approach.

Bob Mosier: Hey man.

Man: Hello.

Dateline: Hi. How you?

Everyone in Svay Pak assumes we are here for sex. When we sit down at one of the cafes, we're greeted by a young hustler named Po.

Po: New girls, too much for you.

Bob Mosier: Too much?

Po: Girls. Too much girls, too much.

He's only 15, but already a real operator. He tells us he's grown up in the village and introduces his mother, who knows exactly what he's up to and takes a cut of the money he brings in.

Po: Okay. You give me, I give Mama.

Po says he can get us girls who are even younger than the ones we saw at that brothel in the city. And despite all we've seen, we're stunned at just how young he says they are.

Po: 8, 8.

8-year olds. It's hard to believe. He tells us to come see for ourselves.

Along with a human rights investigator, we follow Po through some alleys into a ramshackle house.

We think we've already seen it all. But who could be prepared for this?

Po: New girls, new girls.

Girls - some so young they could be in kindergarten - are all for sale.

Throughout the village, we see the same scene at one brothel after another.

Dateline: Hi. How are you?

Over the course of several visits, we meet dozens of children. 

Including those girls we mentioned earlier.

For girls their age, they know far too much.

This girl, Tau, tells us that at age 10 she's old enough oral sex, but not intercourse.

Tau: Big girl.

That's for older kids.

This pair says they too know how to perform oral sex. 

And they even tell us how much it will cost.

Girl: One girl, 30.

Dateline: One girl, 30. And two girls?

Girl: 60.

That's 60 American dollars. A pimp says if two girls aren't enough, how about three?

Boy: Three girl. Happy, happy, happy New Year. Happy, happy.

Dateline: How much three girls?

Boy: Three girl, 90.

This girl promises we'll be happy.

Girl: After if no you like, no you pay.

After a visit to Svay Pak, the grim reality has set in for human rights investigator Bob Mosier. In 20 years as a cop, he says, he's never seen anything like this.

Bob Mosier: You have an 8-year-old or 9-year-old little girl who's looking at you smiling, ok, realizing that you're going to, uh, in just a few moments possibly, probably engage in a sexual act that they're gonna get money for, and they're smiling about it. I mean I see a smile like that on my kids' face when they're find out that they're gonna go to Disney World or something like that.

But the tourists in Svay Pak are a far cry from the ones you see at Disney World, and they're not anxious to talk about why they're here. In a back alley, our producers run into this visitor from Europe.

Dateline: So what do you do down here, chief?

Visitor: Um, I have a friend down here to eat.

Dateline: Uh-huh.

Visitor: Uh.

Dateline: You come down to Svay Pak to eat?

Visitor: Um, no it's nice, just nice area.

But a human rights investigator with a hidden camera found a visitor who was willing to admit he's not here for the scenic beauty or the local cuisine.

Jerry Albom: Okay. It's the first time here?

Investigator: Yeah.

Jerry Albom: Okay. Come here for a sec.

Investigator: Yeah.

When the camera was hidden, this American prowling Svay Pak was happy to brag about his exploits.

Jerry Albom: Usually I buy out three girls for 50 bucks. Take 'em for the whole night.

Look familiar? He should. He's Jerry Albom, the same American doctor we met up with on our arrival in Phnom Penh. And now we know for sure he's interested in more than this country's historic temples.

He says he doesn't go for the youngest of girls - he prefers teenagers.

Jerry Albom: I mean, 15, 16 and older. Maybe a 14-year-old might sneak in if you can't tell the age, but, you know I don't take the little, the really little ones --

Investigator: Ok...

Jerry Albom: --back. And that's just a little bit of discretion on my part.

Gary Haugen: He expresses just the whole disgusting arrogance of the whole thing.

Jerry Albom: I think I'm going to go cement a deal for tonight.

Human rights activist Gary Haugen says he'd like to see people like Dr. Albom and the pimps who supply him out of action.

Gary Haugen: The bad guys are committed to what they're doing, somebody has to be as equally committed as the perpetrators to making sure that they stay in trouble every single day.

Haugen has a plan: He wants to mount a daring operation, to bust the pimps and to rescue the children. Now the question is: Can he put his plan into action?

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