Pimps in Dhaka - We're Coming For You

It's beyond disgusting when grown men approach me on the street and offer me minor girls for sex.  It's happened in many Asian cities - in Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong and Mumbai, among others - and now in Dhaka.  Last week I was in Dhaka for a few days, continuing with some meetings to lay the groundwork for our office there, and walking out of a hotel I was approached by a 40-something man who asked me if I needed anything.  I knew instantly what he was offering. 

Because I am starting to investigate and bust these pathetic pimps, and go after their handlers and the powerful people behind him, I stopped to talk with him and asked him what he was offering.  He spoke a bit of English and made his offer clear - he had 14-to-15 year-old girls for sale, right there in Gulshan, the wealthiest part of Dhaka.  Girls from Jessore, the city right near where I've been staying in Khulna.  I told him that I was interested, we traded phone numbers, and I told him I'd get back to him. 

As a law student and intern I worked with several organizations in Thailand and India that partner with the police and local authorities to investigate cases of minor girls in prostitution.  I've participated in some of those investigations, and been part of a small operation to remove minor girls from a brothel in India.  I'm laying the groundwork for Speak Up to intitiate this kind of work in Bangladesh, and to partner with groups in India in particular to repatriate trafficked Bangladeshi girls from India.  It's disturbing, inspiring work, and a challenge that thrills and confounds me.  I'm looking for good people to join me in starting up this next phase of work for Speak Up in Bangladesh.

As this develops, and I wait to figure it all out, I'm left with my thoughts.  Talk is cheap, and when things really get rolling the opposition we'll face will be frightening.  But I want to make myself clear:  we are coming after the men and women who sexually exploit and rape girls for profit in Bangladesh; we will build a network of people who will defeat them; we will send them to prison and free their prisoners; and despite any obstacles and fears, we will not be stopped.

I understand that the forces that drive child prostitution - poverty and the devaluation of girls chief among them - are complex in many ways.  It will take many, many years for the trafficking and sale of minors into sexual slavery is defeated, if ever.  But one thing we can be crystal clear about is that child prostitution is an issue of absolute moral clarity - it is pure evil.  And it must be stopped.

I don't know how it's going to happen, but one thing I know is true: to those who rape girls for profit in Bangladesh, we are coming for you.  And one day, we will win. 

P.S.  And about the pimp in Dhaka.  I don't have a good investigator partner in Dhaka yet, and it's not a good idea to go into brothels solo, so despite the pimps repeated (as in more than 20) phone calls I didn't go with him.  I tried to leave the door open for a future investigation by telling him I was interested but just busy at the moment.  Everyone keeps telling me to not go into those brothels, to be careful, etc.  I respect their caution, but we have to go in one day.  Young girls are waiting for our help.

Comments

[Darshini]

Hey Troy, men were pimping young girls to you in Singapore? Did you report it?

[Troy Anderson]

Hi Darshini - In Singapore it was actually a woman, right outside my hotel, who offered me a young girl who was with her. The girl appeared to be Thai, and looked about 16 years old. I said no, simply turned and walked away. Now I know more about what I would do in such a situation to report it, but then I was so surprised and unsure of what was really happening that I just walked away. I wish I had done something more.

[backpage orange county escorts]

Wow, these young girls definitely need someone to be watching out for them.

So sad, if a grown woman chooses to do that with her life then so be it. If a child is forced to do this, that hurts my heart.

[Troy Anderson]

Hi Orange County - I agree to an extent, but a major problem here is that the adult women who are involved in prostitution in Bangladesh were nearly without exception trafficked or prostituted or sexually abused as minors, forcing them into the work. There really isn't an "adult women are free to choose prostitution" option in Bangladesh. Here, as in much of the world, it invariably involves coercion and exploitation. There really is no freedom to choose for these women.