'Before they can pay off their debts, their parents come and borrow more money from their brothel owners'
HANH'S WORLD IS a small one. Since travelling 100 kilometres from her native Vietnam to the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, she rarely strays more than 100 metres from her current home. In fact, the small concrete chamber in which she sleeps is also her workplace.
There, for the past two years, the 18-year-old - who looks closer to 16 - has provided sex to up to 10 male clients a day. Hanh is one of more than 250 ethnic Vietnamese sex workers in Svay Pak brothel village. Also known as Kilometre 11, its distance from the city centre, the village is a haven for locals, foreign businessmen, expatriates and tourists in search of sex for as little as US$3 (HK$23) a time.
Svay Pak's 19 brothels need not masquerade as karaoke bars or massage parlours; each is distinguished simply by its number on a dusty, pot-holed road.
A few days before a major public holiday, many have their metal shop-front shutters closed as chronically underpaid police are eager for any chance to extort funds for the ensuing festivities. Those establishments with their grates ajar display huddles of heavily made-up girls, many of whom look no older than 15, attempting to lure clients with waves and giggles. But it is mid-afternoon and business is slow. Now and again girls stroll across the street to flirt with men sitting on plastic chairs outside a makeshift cafe.
The contrast between the diminutive sex workers and their most conspicuous clients - white, middle-aged, corpulent men - is striking. The deep distaste Hanh feels for her job does not detract from her willingness to work. For it is only by servicing clients that Hanh can pay off the US$500 debt she owes her 'mamasan', or brothel owner, and return to her family. For most parents it would be hard to imagine a worse fate for their daughter than Svay Pak.
