Thai woman tells of sex 'contract' racket

A victim of enforced prostitution tells Tony Wall the practice is rife here.

She was lured to New Zealand with the promise of big money working in Thai restaurants. Instead she was forced to sleep with dozens of men at an Auckland brothel.

Bought out of her "contract" by a businessman with a conscience, the woman now hopes to see her family in Thailand again, something she once feared she might never do.

The 25-year-old and her partner spoke to the New Zealand Herald on the condition of anonymity; both fear for their safety if they are identified as having exposed the enforced prostitution racket that they say is rampant in Auckland.

The couple came forward following publicity about three New Zealanders implicated in a similar racket in Bangkok.

The woman said she came to New Zealand in May last year after meeting a Thai man with New Zealand residency at a dinner.

She was working as a personal assistant for an insurance company manager at the time and earning about $200 a month.

Attracted by an offer of up to $2000 a week working in Thai restaurants in Auckland, the woman agreed to come to New Zealand. She was one of three Thai women on the plane out.

On arrival the trio found no well-paid jobs waiting for them. Instead they were taken straight to the red-light district in Fort St.

The woman said she was placed on a $7000 "contract" and told that she had the length of her three-month visitors' visa to sleep with enough men to pay the Thai man that amount.

She was left in no doubt that if she tried to break the contract her family in Thailand would suffer the consequences.

She said another Thai woman who tried to escape to Wellington was tracked down by her Thai "masters" and had her contract bumped up to $20,000 as punishment.

She recalls with horror her hellish existence in a Fort St brothel. For almost two months she was forced to service men, seven days a week and for up to 18 hours a day.

She lived at the parlour and, if a customer arrived, would be woken and put to work.

It was during this period that she met her current partner, a New Zealand businessman with friends in the sex industry.

The man said he noticed the pretty Thai working at a parlour and that she was visibly upset about it.

He took her out to dinner, as a friend at that stage, and decided to buy her out of her contract.

"I fronted the [Thai] guy and told him I'd pay him $1000 to end the contract, take it or leave it, or I'd expose him to the authorities."

He then sponsored the woman to stay on in New Zealand and the pair are soon to be married.

The man said he contacted the Herald because he wanted to put an end to the trade in enforced prostitutes.

He said New Zealanders went on buying trips to Bangkok but the trade was mostly run by Thai nationals.

"If a girl wants to come to New Zealand and be a prostitute I make no moral judgment on her ... But if a girl is not willing and doesn't know what she's getting into, that's like meat being sold."

The man said there were Thai girls in parlours throughout Auckland, but most were now "legal" through one means or another.

"I was told of a restaurant I could go to where for $5000 a work visa would be issued. A certain lawyer's office offered the same service. A lot of the other girls have just gone and married Kiwis."

The man said he had told police about his partner's case and would soon hand over her file to authorities.

The woman said she felt disgusted by what she had been made to do.

She hoped to see her family again: "I miss them a lot."