About 450 sex workers who relocated to a new settlement outside the city after their squatter area off Sotheros Boulevard burned down in May have been told they must find some place else to work.
“They can go anywhere else suitable,” said Mann Chheoun, the cabinet’s municipal chief. He said the area was designed “for the poor to start a new life,” but the prostitutes’ presence was an offense to their honor. “Their sexy clothes contrast to the new settlers,” he said.
Over half the resettled prostitutes have moved to other areas, like Beung Salang, Chak Angre, Tuol Kok or Tralouk Bek. Those who stayed in the undamaged, legal buildings of the Bassac area have to pay double rent due to increased demand from others left homeless by the fire.
Meas Chanthan, education supporter for the Urban Sector Group said “They can’t go far away because they are ‘number three’ or ‘number four’ girls,” referring to a scale of experience commonly used in the prostitution business. “Their clients would go far for a fresh girl, or at least for a ‘number two,’” he said.
Brothel owners, most of whom owned their Bassac property, are also moving to the relocation area, 17 km from Phnom Penh. They, too, are uncertain about future business. “My girls are crying, most still owe me, and I just give them about $12 to get home to their families,” said Srey Pech, 31, a mamasan from the area. She is due to move this week. Asked about her plans for her business, she replied, “I don’t know yet.”
Most prostitutes have little choice about their jobs, said Dy Ratha, director of Indravedi, an NGO that runs a safe sex program in the Bassac area. “They just don’t know what else to do,” she said.
