RM20 - that's the going price for a child prostitute

MALACCA: For six child prostitutes, their asking price was a mere RM20 per session and psychotropic pills to get them high.

The six, all under 14-years-old, were detained during an anti-narcotics operation by several enforcement agencies.

When questioned, they admitted to willingly selling themselves to the sex trade to feed their drug habit.

Authorities found it difficult to prosecute those who had sex with these underage girls as the identities of the clients were not known.

“And, the girls refuse to name them,” said state welfare, woman and family development chairman Datuk Latipah Omar.

She believed that there were many more girls who were willing to be sexually exploited as they were hooked on drugs.

“We are concerned. Teenage prostitutes are extremely vulnerable to HIV due to lack of knowledge or access to preventive methods,” she said.

Latipah said police recently arrested a 26-year-old man who had forced his 13-year-old girlfriend from Merlimau into the flesh trade.

The father of the runaway girl had stormed into the house at Peringgit Pantai on July 26 after receiving a tip-off that his daughter was forced to entertain men by her drug addict boyfriend.

“The girl said she, too, was into drugs and received RM20 per sex session from her boyfriend,” said Latipah.

Police investigations discovered that the girl was told to entertain clients at hotels and also at homes since June.

Latipah said the teenage girls were undergoing rehabilitation at a girl’s home here.

Sources said some of these child prostitutes had also launched their own business, cutting away the need to share their income with middlemen and pimps.

“They offer their services via social media,” one source said. “Most of them rented houses in a group to entertain their clients,” he said. “Some even do it at back alleys.”