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Published on Mar 29, 2002 The Nation

More students joining the flesh trade

More secondary school and university students have joined the flesh trade during the long summer school holidays, a university lecturer has found in a survey.

Associate Professor Sompong Jitradab, director of Chulalongkorn University's Centre for the Study of Underprivileged Children, said a field survey by officials from his centre found that more students went to Lumpini Park to solicit for prospective customers.

Young and good-looking students could be seen standing by electricity poles that line the pavements around the park from 9pm onwards, he said.

"It used to be that those who hung around for patrons at the park stood far from one another. One pole was taken while the other was free. But now, all poles are taken by these freelance prostitutes," Sompong said.

"It has been known before that women who were in need of extra cash would go to Lumpini Park to earn the money. But now, their numbers have increased and students have joined the bandwagon. The number of students increased during the school holidays."

His officials interviewed the sex workers and found out that they came to wait for customers an hour earlier than previously. The interior minister's policy of closing entertainment venues at 2am had prompted them to work earlier to increase their prospects of finding customers.

Sompong said the survey also found a disturbing trend among the young freelancers: they could not stand customers using condoms after they had serviced their third customer for the night.

"It's frightening to know this. After the third customer, the young prostitute would [often] ask her customer not to wear a condom because she could not stand the pain from the condom," he said.

Sompong said the survey showed the customers were usually middle and lower class.

"They would blink the headlights of their car to signal their intentions and then ask if the girls are offering themselves for sale. If they can settle on a price, which is usually between Bt400 to Bt500 per short session, they would take them to motels in the Klong Toey area," the director said.

He said a girl would cater to between four and seven customers a night.

Sompong said that if the government wants to help the freelance prostitutes at the park it should refrain from using drastic measure to suppress their activities and should try to find an alternative way for them to earn money.

He said the drastic crackdown would drive the poor women to other places.