As soon as Thailand reopened its borders to tourists, the pedophiles returned. And as poverty in the country has worsened, the successes achieved in the past decades in the fight against pedophile sex tourism are now on the line.
Officially, the child prostitution that once existed in Pattaya has ended. But according to child protection agencies and the deputy police chief “the children who are being abused are getting younger and younger, and the violence that is being done to them is getting worse and worse.”
We invesitgate how the so-called ‘normal’ sex tourism creates structures in the red light districts that acutely endanger children. We speak to the European men who equate paying for sex as a kind of ‘aid’ and hear the point of view of the women forced to sell their bodies. We also follow a case of a German tourist, who allegedly had sex with prostituted children in a bar. But to the surprise of the Thai police, he was able to leave the country by paying a 50,000€ bribe. Surprisingly, he agrees to speak to us and admits to the bribe but claims he could not get a fair trial in Thailand.