Inside the secret workings of the cross-border sex trade

Prostitution industry insiders have given the South China Morning Post an unprecedented insight into the way women and girls are trafficked into Hong Kong.

A member of a vice syndicate boasted of the ruses used to get the prostitutes across the border. He told how a 15-year-old mainland girl was forced to go without sleep for several nights because her bosses feared she looked too young. The girl successfully got into Hong Kong on the visa of a 19-year-old girl after the sleep deprivation.

Such prostitutes are brought in on two-way permits bought from corrupt officials in remote western provinces, the syndicate members say. The visas are issued officially and stamped by local authorities but carry the personal data of other people.

The vice syndicate member said once they got the visas from their middleman who carried out the deal with the officials, the gang would train the girls for several days on how to answer questions from the mainland Customs and Hong Kong immigration officers correctly.

'The girls must memorise their new names, new birthdays and new addresses. They must know what their horoscope is, what their 'home town' looks like and what the area codes for long-distance phone calls there are,' the man said.

A 30-year-old middleman from Guangxi said girls who failed the border checks would be severely punished after being sent back. He said such failure not only meant a monetary loss for the gang, but sometimes could result in the corrupt officials being exposed.

The girls are sometimes forced to pay thousands of dollars in compensation to the gang.