Poverty, Corruption Encourage Child Sex In Asia

Bangkok, Thailand (AHN)-Sexual predators choose Asia because poverty, like-minded criminals and corrupt authorities encourage the proliferation of thriving sex industries in Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines.

"It's all a manifestation of poverty that creates the vulnerabilities," says Richard Bridle, deputy regional director for East Asia and the Pacific of the United Nations Children's Fund.

Pedophiles also take advantage of Asian legal systems where cash bribes can lead to charges being dropped or victim's relatives and other witnesses suddenly changing their stories, The Associated Press said.

"Everything here makes the crime easy," said Rosalind Prober, president of the Canadian children rights organization Beyond Borders.

This week airport surveillance cameras taped Canadian Christopher Paul Neil slipping into Thailand from South Korea. Neil was apparently eluding a worldwide Interpol manhunt after allegations that he abused at least a dozen young boys in Cambodia and Vietnam.

Once he is arrested, Neil will be extradited to Canada where sex tourism laws allow prosecution for crimes committed abroad.

Last year, British rock star Gary Glitter received a three-year jail sentence in Thailand for molesting two Vietnamese girls.