Thai girls become exotic German slaves

Agence France-Presse

BONN Some 2,000 young Thai women are delivered each year to West Germany for men with a yen for exotic girls, a spokesman of the Thai embassy here estimated.

The embassy and West German police have stepped up the struggle against this erotic slave trade with the cooperation of Interpol.

But the men getting rich by importing unwilling prostitutes in the last three years have found ways to dodge authorities.

Frankfurt police reported that girls from Thailand are "rented" to brothels masquerading as night clubs or saunas for $2,500 or sold outright for $10,000.

The girl's charms amortize the purchase cost in as little as one month.

She is often "resold" in a few months to a "club" in another town before police get too curious about her and because customers like "new merchandise" from time to time.

The girls rarely dare to denounce their employers. The women usually speak nothing but Thai, lack German working papers and are threatened by the white slavers.

Once in a while, a bar is closed because of a prostitution conviction. Several weeks ago, a bar operator in Leverkusen was sentenced to three years in jail for "selling" a pair of Thai girls.

The recruiters in Bangkok are jailed now and then, too. But they usually are released the next day on bail paid by Germans or Austrians.

Thai girls are tricked into going to Germany with promises of marrying a prosperous German or working as models or restaurant hostesses.

The bewildered women end up in bars with dim lights.

For the last few months, airport police have been barring any Thai girl with less than $1,000, an amount of cash considered the attribute of a bonafide tourist.

So the slavers now avoid airports by bringing the girls in by car from Amsterdam, the Nether lands, or Zürich, Switzerland.

Another dodge is to pay a German homosexual or petty criminal up to $5,000 to marry a girl in Bangkok and bring back his bride. Wives of German citizens cannot be expelled.