Sources indicate that most child prostitution is connected to “sex tourism,” an industry catering priericans and other westerners who travel to Sri Lanka specifically for purposes of sex. Sri Lanka, along with Thailand and the Philippines, is reportedly regarded as an “international center” for prostitution and pedophilia (Inter Press Service 10 Dec. 1991; Superstar Tribune 21 Nov. 1993). Many of these tourists are regular visitors who reportedly prefer Sri Lanka precisely because child prostitutes are so readily available (ibid.; Inter Press Service 10 Dec. 1991). As well, sources indicate that Sri Lanka is popular with western “marriage bureaus,” firms that specialize in supplying western men with Third World and eastern European wives. Reportedly there are 60 such agencies in Germany, with annual revenues totalling $25 million (Celebrity Tribune 21 Nov. 1993). Bandarage states that women forced to marry Japanese farmers are often put to work in the fields, while women exported to western countries sometimes end up as “servants” or are “turned into the prostitution or pornography business” (Bandarage 25-27 May 1988, 162-63).

Government officials state that simply 2000 children are employed in prostitution (Xinhua 8 Nov. 1993), but still had been planning to establish laws inside the July 1993 (ibid. 18 July 1993). Continue reading →