Update: Child victims of sex trade in Cambodia

Chris Hansen Correspondent • Profile

PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA - To a foreign tourist, this Cambodian village may look like a typical sleepy town. A few outdoor cafes. Farm animals in the alleys. And friendly children.

Po: Hello.

And even though these girls appear to be happy, they have little to celebrate.

They are child sex slaves.

Girl: One girl, 30.

Dateline: One girl, 30? And two girls?

Girl: 60.

Trapped in brothels where they're exploited, abused, and raped by the adults around them...

Bob Mosier: Mr. Kha, I've heard a lot about you.

The disgrace of a nation, the shame of the world.

Madame Lang: No. She virgin girl.

It's a tragedy our undercover cameras first captured in March 2003.

Five years ago, we came to Cambodia to investigate the sale of children for sex.  What we found was absolutely horrifying: children as young as five being trafficked to Europeans and Americans for as little as $30. 

This is one of the girls we met back in 2003. Her name is Loeum.

Dateline: How old are you?

Loeum: 10.

Dateline: How old?

Loeum: 10.

She should be in elementary school, instead she's being offered for sale for sex.

Tonight we're going to tell you the moving story of Loeum and other girls like her.

Dateline: What's your name?

Tau: Tau.

Tau who says she's also 10, and some who are even younger.

Yau: Yau.

Yau.

And this little girl - Tieng.

When we first meet these girls - in 2003 - we're in Cambodia undercover because we've heard that this country is a magnet for people who prey on the young and innocent.  

Who travel here from thousands of miles away, so-called sex tourists.

We've decided to follow their trail and infiltrate their perverted world.

Dateline: I just look.

It's the only way to expose their crimes, crimes the whole world abhors.

President Bush at U.N.: There's a special evil in the abuse and exploitation of the most innocent and vulnerable.

Combating sex trafficking has been an important priority for President Bush. For help, his administration has turned to people like Gary Haugen, a former federal prosecutor who runs a human rights group called the International Justice Mission.

Gary Haugen: This is the kind of brutal ugliness that is sort of hard to open your eyes to. But once you do, I think as a human being, you've got to take responsibility for it.

Haugen's group uses tactics that are considered controversial by some in the human rights community.

Chris Hansen: You basically run a sting operation.

Gary Haugen: Sure. 

He sends his investigators undercover to gather evidence of sex slavery in other countries, then takes the evidence to local authorities to persuade them to take action. Their work has helped rescue more than a thousand women and children around the world, including these women from a dungeon in India.

It's 2003, and Haugen's target is Cambodia. Our Dateline team is going along with his investigators.

We find a nation still suffering from the trauma of the 1970s and 80s, when an estimated 2 million Cambodians died because of war, famine, and a ruthless dictatorship. 

But there are also signs of recovery here - more tourists, for instance.

Like Jerry Albom, a doctor from Oklahoma our camera crew meets up with in the heart of the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh.

He says he likes the country so much, he visits several times a year...

Jerry Albom: The Cambodian people have been most welcome, and most courteous at all times, and they've got some of the most remarkable architectural finds here, most notably the temples of Angkor Wat.

But it's not only the legendary temples of Angkor Wat that draw Dr. Albom to Cambodia. With our undercover cameras we soon find out like thousands of other tourists, Dr. Albom is here for another purpose.

This is Martinis. It's a nightclub where young women outnumber men 10 to one. Many of the women are for sale.

Man: I think you like me.

It's also a favorite hangout of Dr. Albom, as we witness more than once during our stay.

Even though prostitution is illegal in Cambodia, finding a girlfriend for the night at Martinis takes just a few words, a few dollars, and a stroll out the door.

But the action at Martinis pales compared with what else we see in this country...

Everyone here seems to know about the child sex trade.

Dateline: Hi.

Even this motorbike taxi driver right outside our hotel.

Dateline: Speak English?

Driver: Yeah, I can speak.

He offers to show us.

Driver: Many, many, many girls.

Dateline: Young girls?

Driver: Yes.

Dateline: How young?

Driver: Young, maybe, uh,... 12.

Dateline: 12?

Driver: Yes.

Dateline: No problem?

Driver: Yeah. No problem in Cambodia.

But children being sold for sex is a big problem in Cambodia - thousands of them - condemned early on to a life of slavery.  Is there a way to help any of them escape that dismal fate? We're about to find out, as we take you inside a dangerous mission to rescue the children.

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