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Factbook on Global Sexual
Exploitation
Saudi Arabia
Trafficking
In mid-1997 hundreds of Indonesian women, most
under twenty years old, were in prostitution in Saudi Arabia. (Mien Sugandhi, Minister for
Women’s Affairs in Indonesia reports, "Hundreds of RI’s Women Believed To
Work As Prostitutes in Saudi Arabia," Kompas, 7 February 1997)
Official Response and Action
A crack-down on a prostitution ring in Saudi Arabia,
into which Thai women are trafficked, in being coordinated by Bangkok Member of Parliament
and women's and children's rights advocate Paveena Hongsakul. (Preecha Sa-Ardsorn,
"Saudi woman procurer surrenders before police," The Nation, 19 July
1998)
Thailand’s President Wan
Muhammad Noor Matha said that Bangkok should make it clear to Saudi officials that the
Thai government wants justice in a case in which nine Thai women were forced into
prostitution in Saudi Arabia. Wan Noor said he was confident the Saudi authorities would
co-operate with their Thai counterparts. ("Wan Noor urges Riyadh to punish
wrongdoers," The Nation, 18 July 1998)
Case
The story of
two Thai women:
Two Thai women forced trafficked to Saudi Arabia have come
forward leading to the surrender of their trafficker, another Thai woman named Suna
Thianmanee. Both women had contacted Suna in hopes of finding high paying work in Saudi
Arabia, but instead were forced into prostitution. The women were forced to travel, in a
tiny compartment below the truck's undercarriage or empty oil tank of the vehicle tanker
in the scorching sun, from one construction site to another and to offer their sexual
services.
Upon arriving in the Saudi capital, they were forced to share a
five-metre-by-four-metre room with seven other girls, one of whom was Suna's sister. They
were told that they would be engaged in prostitution, not restaurant helpers as promised,
if they wanted to live. One of the women said that all nine girls, including herself and
Suna's sister, had been wrongfully lured into the sex trade. Each girl had to service four
to ten customers a day. Suna would earn about 200 to 800 riyals (Baht 2,000-Baht 8000) per
visit while the girls would get free room and boarding and earn occasional tips. In five
months, Suna was able to expand her brothel by renting a two-story, three-bedroom house.
Most customers were Thai and Filipino workers and some Saudi citizens. (Preecha
Sa-Ardsorn, "Saudi woman procurer surrenders before police," The Nation,
19 July 1998)
Factbook Table of Contents
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Coalition Against Trafficking in Women
Factbook on Global Sexual Exploitation
Donna M. Hughes, Laura Joy Sporcic, Nadine Z. Mendelsohn and Vanessa Chirgwin
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