Cambodia has one of the world’s highest rates of child sexual exploitation and large numbers of women and children are being trafficked both locally and internationally. Cambodia is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of commercial sexual exploi-tation and forced labor. Cambodian women and children are trafficked to Thailand and Malaysia for sexual exploitation and forced labor in factories or as domestic servants, while Cambodian men are trafficked for forced labor in the agriculture, fishing, and construction sectors in these countries. Cambodian children are trafficked to Vietnam and Thailand for forced begging. Cambodia is a transit and destination country for the trafficking of Vietnamese and Chinese women and children for sexual exploi-tation. Sex trafficking of women and children occurs within Cambodia's borders, from rural areas to cities such as Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, and Sihanoukville.

Child Prostitution remains a major problem in South East Asia with children often forced into the sex trade, sold by their caretakers and stolen from their villages. Cambodia has become a popular and heavily frequented destination for sex tourists and child sex offenders.

Rape & Sexual Assault is prevalent in both city and provincial areas of Cambodia and due to lackadaisical law enforcement, poverty and unequal develo
ment opportunities, sex crimes against poor people are disproportionately prevalent in Cambodia compared to neighboring countries and other parts of the world.

Poverty in Cambodia is grossly wides-pread affecting a large majority of the country’s population, magnifying the vulnerability of men, women and children to human trafficking, bonded labor and sexual exploitation and encouraging criminals and sexual predators to exploit the population’s vulnerability. It is estimated that approximately 30% of the countries population lives on less than $1 a day.

Corruption influences local law enfor-cement and judicial process in many South East Asia countries resulting in extremely low numbers of local policing investigations of human trafficking and illegal sexual activity and minimal detection and prosecution of offenders, both local and international.