Amid a crackdown on prostitution, police raided a Phnom Penh guest house on Saturday, arresting one man on suspicion of sex trafficking and taking two underage Vietnamese girls into protection.
Bun Thoeun, 36, the owner of Sok Heng guest house in Daun Penh district’s Srah Chak commune, is scheduled to appear in Municipal Court today, said Thong Kim Heng, anti-human trafficking police chief at the Ministry of Interior.
The girls, both under the age of 12, are being sheltered at a local NGO, he said.
Also in Daun Penh district, anti-trafficking police on Thursday raided a brothel in Phsar Thmei III commune, rescuing six girls, two of whom are age 15, Thong Kim Heng said.
Two women and one man were arrested during the raid, he said, but did not disclose their names. Police said the three were suspected of colluding with the brothel owner to prostitute the girls, but the owner is still at large.
The girls, the other four of whom are younger than 18 years old, were also sent to a local NGO, where they will be “educated,” Thong Kim Heng said.
The brothel, which does not have a name, was raided last year and police rescued 11 Vietnamese women at the time, who told police they “were cheated…to be sex workers in Cambodia,” Thong Kim Heng said.
He added that police last week began cracking down on the Svay Pak commune area in Russei Keo district, notorious for its brothels.
The Ministry of Interior’s anti-human trafficking force has deployed 20 officers, operating in two shifts, who will patrol the area 24 hours a day for 100 days, he said.
“Since the brothels have stopped running, the guests have decreased step by step,” he said.
