Children at the government boys' home in Rayong province, miles east of Bangkok, pose for this November 23, file photo.
The Rayong home is one of several charities year-old hotelier Sopin Thappajug, who says she wants to make Pattaya a "family-friendly" destination, has been helping. TAT says on its Web site www. There has been a steep jump in the number of sex tourists and child prostitutes in Pattaya in recent years, social workers say. Two decades ago, the town had bars. Now there are more than 20,, mostly sidewalk bars with a few stools and scantily-clad, overly made-up girls — many as young as There are no official figures for the numbers of street children or child prostitutes in the town of , people, but one child welfare agency estimates 2, children wander the streets of Pattaya selling everything from sweets to sex.
Some pimps set up arcade games in shops to lure boys into prostitution. Young boys become addicted to the computer games but soon run out of money, said Supagon. So they pay upstairs by having sex with western tourists, said Supagon, who has led police on raids of brothels to arrest pedophiles.
At any time, there may be as Western men hanging out at bars on one strip, waiting for boys to be delivered by brokers. Police turn a blind eye, he said. A year-old woman hotelier, who has built a business empire in Pattaya, is now trying to clean up the town. The sleaze in Pattaya and nearby towns drove Sopin to become active in social work and raising funds for charities through golf tournaments and other events. Sopin hires former child prostitutes to work in her businesses and has helped set up a network of social workers.
The social workers fan out through villages around Pattaya warning parents and children against human traffickers looking for new recruits for the sex industry.
