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BANGKOK (IPS) — Children from the Mekong region have singled out karaoke bars mushrooming across their countries as a source of evil due to the sex that can be on offer during a night of song.

These bars trap children into the sex trade or are the reason human traffickers have lured children into a vicious industry, say the children.

Thus, they want their governments to "close the karaoke bars linked to the sex trade."

That appeal was one in a list of urgent requests made by 25 children at the end of a week-long conference in October to fight human trafficking in the Mekong Region.

"Karaoke bars have led to more children being trafficked," a 15-year-old Cambodian girl told the media here .

For her friend, a 16-year-old Cambodian boy, these bars known to offer sex to clients "must be closed because they lead to families breaking up."

In some towns across Thailand and Cambodia, karaoke bars known for offering sex follow a common ritual: the male customers are encouraged to have a hostess from the bar sit by their side and entertain them as a build up to sex, later on.

The children also singled out other areas that were aiding the gangs profiting from human trafficking.

They included a need for governments to stamp out bribery and corruption, provide "free quality education for children in high-risk trafficking areas," and the inclusion of anti-trafficking information and activities in the primary and secondary school curriculum.

In an appeal for compassion, the children from Cambodia, southern China, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam urged their communities to be sympathetic towards the victims of trafficking.

Parents should "do more to protect their children from traffickers" and the society must be "prepared to accept victims of trafficking and provide them with greater opportunity," stated the agenda for action that came out of the Mekong Children's Forum (MCF).

The forum was a milestone in the efforts underway to stop trafficking — it was the first time that children from the region sat at a conference attended by government officials to make their case.

"This is a first and the government officials must take note of the recommendations made by the children at the forum," Phil Robertson, programme manager of the U.N. agency on human trafficking in the Mekong region, told IPS.

"We have given children a level of empowerment at this gathering," Allan Dow, spokesman of the MCF told the media. (END/Copyright IPS)