If no one passes muster, the men head to one of dozens of bars and karaoke lounges that offer boys for sex.
Once the deal is done, the boys move to a side alley to wait for their clients. The boys, aged from 14 to 24, walk in pairs for greater safety, making eye contact with the men, who then communicate their choices to the man with the mobile phone. “The dialogue in Thailand - and around the world - is focused on women and girls, because the general perception is that boys are big and strong, and that they can take care of themselves,” said Russell, pointing out the deals being done. No one would connect the boys to the older, white men - and a pair of Chinese 40-somethings - seated under a tree, or to the young man with the mobile phone leaning on a parked motorbike.īut for Alezandra Russell, founder of non-profit Urban Light, this scene - which unfolds every evening in one of the country’s most popular tourist stops - sums up everything that is wrong with Thailand’s approach to trafficking and slavery. CHIANG MAI, Thailand (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Young boys walk in pairs late in the evening at Chiang Mai’s popular Tha Phae Gate, sauntering past tourists taking photos of the fort as locals hawk souvenirs.
