Global Issues

Laos

• Source, and to a much lesser extent, a transit and destination country for women and girls subjected to sex trafficking.

• Women pay broker fees to obtain jobs in Thailand, normally ranging from $70 to $200, and subsequently subjected to conditions of sexual servitude and forced labor in Thailand’s commercial sex trade.

• Small number of Lao women and girls reportedly are subjected to conditions of trafficking in China, where some are forced to marry Chinese men.

•  Laos increasingly a transit country for Vietnamese, Chinese, and Burmese women who are subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor in Thailand.

• Some Vietnamese women are subjected to forced prostitution in Laos. • Trafficking within Laos also remains a problem, affecting young women and girls forced into prostitution.

• Laos may be increasingly a destination for sex tourists from Asia.

 

Advocacy:

• Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers is a coalition of sex worker groups and projects working on issues of HIV and human rights for female, male and transgender sex workers across Asia and the Pacific.

 

Sources: U.S. Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report 2011