Battambang provincial police are urging the provincial governor to shut down all brothels in the province, police said Wednesday, just days after 14 prostitutes were rescued in a brothel raid. Seng Son, police chief of the Battambang provincial anti-human trafficking office, said police sent an appeal to Governor Prach Chan on Monday, calling for the closure of some brothels in the province.
Seng Son said, however, the other prostitutes told him they were not detained or forced to have sex with customers.
Sex trafficking is on the rise because the authorities fail to arrest offenders, Thearom Nuon said. And even if they are arrested, he said, they are often not convicted. On Tuesday, the US State Department released a report that blamed endemic corruption and an ineffectual judicial system for hampering the fight against human trafficking in Cambodia.
On Wednesday, Seng Son said Battambang province is a crossroads where victims are being trafficked to Thailand to serve as prostitutes. He said Battambang has about 1, prostitutes.
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