By Kate Bartlett
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia
Police have arrested the owner of an English language school in the Cambodian tourist city of Siem Reap for allegedly using the school as a guise for running a prostitution racket pimping students to foreigners.
The Cambodian owner of the unregistered school -- which also included dormitories for the children -- was arrested Monday after a month-long investigation by police, and following a tip-off from a Danish woman who had previously volunteered at the school, a local newspaper reported Tuesday.
Veha Long's sister was also taken into custody. When police arrested the pair at their home, they also found nine girls aged between 17 and 18, who they believe may have been pimped out to foreign men, The Cambodia Daily reported.
"We have investigated and found that the suspect was providing two teenagers each time to have sex with foreigners who sponsored his association… We believe the suspect was sex trafficking," provincial anti-human trafficking police chief Duong Thavary, told the paper.
Cambodian NGOs have long campaigned against so-called "orphanage tourism" in Siem Reap as well as discouraging people from volunteering at such institutions -- partly due to a lack of background checks.
The "Underprivileged Children’s School" had 89 students aged 12 to 20, according to police, and some of them lived on site.
Abuse being reported at unregistered charities and orphanages is not uncommon in Cambodia, with several over the past years having been shuttered after pedophilia or child neglect allegations.
In the most recent case, a U.S. missionary was sentenced to one year in jail for abusing five young boys at the phony orphanage he ran.
The Underprivileged Children’s School’s website paints itself as a bastion of learning and altruism and appeals to donors with online payment options offered for credit card holders.
"Cambodia children who are almost facing dash and gloomy hope in life, will now hopefully to see the light of the day in their lives again," its mission statement reads.
