 | | Around the beginning of August 2009 Phnom Penh’'s morals police set out to clean up the city’s image. This was prompted by a downgrading of the country’'s status by an international anti-trafficking group. As a result new legislation was passed which made every hostess-bar owner subject to prosecution.
Prostitution is legal but anyone else who has any part – bar owners, brothel owners, etc. – can be targeted. Bar fines had to be given new names – like cocktails or additional drinks - and re-engineered to eliminate paper trails. Other subterfuges have also been devised, like you leave after paying the bar fine and she follows along a few minutes later. Most brothels that were closed down in the initial stages of the crackdown have reopened; a little ‘tea money’ for the police does it almost every time.
Within a ...
|
|
