This content was first published by Radio Free Asia, and it is now being reprinted with permission.
During a assault in northern Laos that led to the arrest of the hotel’s two owners, police said a police officer told Radio Free Asia that they learned that 19 young girls and women were selling sex at a cafe.
A community established in Khammouane country’s Hinboun neighborhood, who like many other sources in this document requested secrecy for security reasons, claimed some of the girls were as young as 13 years old.
” The restaurant has been shut over”, the police official said. ” For the girls and women, we only told them to go back home to their families. We did n’t fine or punish them”.
The restaurant owners may be charged with human smuggling, he said.
According to the town standard, officials visited the restaurant on June 7 because of its noisy sound. He claimed that there are three additional restaurants in the community that are also suspected of providing prostitution.
The girls and women were instructed during a re-education program that they were told that providing sexual services was against Chinese history and law before they were sent home to their families.  ,
In a picture of the meeting seen by RFA, Soukkhaseum Sitthideth, leader of the Lao Women’s Union of Khammouane state, stated that the goal of today’s session is to ensure that the individuals understand the government’s and party’s policies.
Our girls and women have changed in the modern age, she said, despite the traditional traditional stereotypes of Chinese women. Our culture and tradition have been impacted by the modifications. Many of our girls and women have embraced a new way of life.
Laos faces many challenges when it comes to fighting human smuggling, including never having the , resources to properly account enforcement , against those who method or power young people into illegal work.
Also, some Laotians are in desperate financial precarity as a result of the COVID- 19 crisis and its aftermath, which has left them with a sluggish economy and rabid unemployment.
In , February, authorities near Vientiane raided , bars, restaurants and music bars along a busy roadway and found 47 sexual workers, including four women under 18 years old.
In that case, police also determined that most of the girls and women were from poor, rural families, an officer said at the time.
