Uzbek Mamasans Accused of Running Sex Trafficking Ring In Pattaya, July 11, 2007

Uzbek
Updated: [July 11, 2007 ] :: 16:34:59 [view 121]

Pattaya Daily News
http://www.pattayadailynews.com/shownews.php?IDNEWS=0000003384


The worldwide sex trafficking trade has inevitably come to Thailand and is being practiced by some of the foreign sex workers who ply their trade on the streets of Pattaya. The Thai Authorities are keen to suppress this abhorrent trade and when the Child, Youth and Female Crime Suppression Authority learnt of a Uzbeki sex trafficking ring operating in Pattaya, they obtained the necessary arrest warrants and swooped on the offenders on July 10th.

The ringleaders, identified as Miss Lola Mamadova (26) and Mrs. Mayram Yakubova, were operating as mamasans from Niran Condominium and were caught red-handed at 11.30 am by a police team led by Pol.Lt.Col. Kittiphob Anuwongworawet of the Child, Youth and Female Crime Suppression Authority, supported by Pol.Capt. Rojsak Naiphongsri. Both women were charged with providing illegal sexual services and abusing fellow female compatriots by forcing them to sell sex, mostly against their wills.

When the police conducted a more extensive search of two adjacent rooms in the condominium, they also discovered four other Uzbek women, the Misses Nigora Hasanova (19), Zuhra Yusupova (28), Mukadam Olimova (36) and Zarina Melieva (30), who they suspected of being sexual co-workers. The police also found incriminating books full of records and lists of sex customers. The police impounded them as evidence and arrested the whole gang, who will undergo further investigation.



The police first learnt of the presence of the Uzbek sex trafficking ring from two informants, a Samaritan and a Uzbek girl, Miss Mohichehra Shodiyarova (20), on July 5th. These two reported to Pol.Maj.Gen. Wimol Pao-In, a superintendent of the Child, Youth and Female Crime Suppression Authority, that two Uzbek mamasans, Miss Lola and Mrs. Mayram, were running the sex-ring from Niran Grand Condo, and that they abused the women in their control and forced them to sell sex to foreigners in Pattaya. Miss Mohichehra also asked the police to help the other Uzbek girls who are in the same boat as herself.



Miss Mohichehra declared that she had been persuaded by the procurers, Miss Lola and Mrs. Mayram, to come to Pattaya to sell sexual services and that she, and others in similar circumstances, had been advanced the travelling fare of 200,000 Baht. When she arrived, Miss Mohichehra was taken to stay at Niran Grand Condo, Central Pattaya, and her passport was kept by the mamasans to prevent her from escaping. She was forced to sell sexual services in the vicinity of the V.C. Hotel, South Pattaya, charging 1,500 Baht per customer, of which she only received 500 Baht, the remaining 1,000 Baht being kept by the mamasans as part repayment of the airfare advance. In the event that she was unable to get any customers, she would be severely beaten and abused. It all became more than she could bear, so she endeavored to escape the mamasans’ clutches and did so, also enlisting the aid of a Samaritan to report the matter to the police.

Pol.Lt.Col. Kittiphob said that there were many Uzbek women who were caught in the trap of poverty; many of whom were being exploited by the likes of the two mamasans or agencies.

In such cases, the unfortunate victims were usually fed stories to the effect that they could escape the poverty trap at home by working in such venues as Pattaya, Dubai and Bahrain, where the pickings are high. Many of them enter these venues on tourist visas, being passed off as holidaymakers. However, when they arrive, these poor unfortunates learn to their cost that they have often been brought to such places under false pretences and they are effectively imprisoned until they have repaid their airfare loans, usually by enforced prostitution, despite often having been told they would be employed in the hospitality trade.