Cambodian authorities have taken a strong step towards making the red-light district of the northern tourist town of Siem Reap more anonymous — by literally banning red lights, a police official said on Monday.
Siem Reap’s police chief, Sun Bunthong, said the action was taken a few days ago as part of a concerted crackdown on thriving prostitution in the town, which authorities fear is ruining its reputation with tourists.
”We have told brothel owners that red and yellow lights are illegal for businesses selling sex. Those colours are the trademark lights of a brothel and as such cannot be used by them,” Sun Bunthong said.
He added that the crackdown also included arresting more than a dozen sex workers and one brothel owner and holding them in jail overnight to discourage them from actively soliciting sex.
”They kept waving their hands at people on the street. This is bad for Siem Reap’s image and disrupts the social order,” he said.
The police chief said Siem Reap, famous as the gateway to the ancient Angkor Wat temple complex, also currently has about 800 workers in the karaoke industry — a notorious front for sex work.
The town is ready to focus on these businesses, too, in its drive to keep Siem Reap’s image clean for tourists, he said.
”For those workers in the karaoke parlour, there is often only a curtain between the singing and sex,” he said. — Sapa-DPA