The seedy world of Hmong child sex tourism

October 28, 2015

What happens in Laos often comes back to the U.S. in the form of 'cultural wives'

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The seedy world of Hmong child sex tourism

When she was 14, Panyia Vang, who grew up in a small village in Laos, was told she was going to audition for a music video. Instead, she says she was raped by an American who traveled to Laos for "child sex tourism." The Minnesotan man, who's a member of the Hmong community, got her pregnant and forced her into a marriage. Now 22 and living in Minneapolis with her father who immigrated prior to her attack, Vang is suing her attacker. According to survivors and advocates in the U.S., many adult men travel to Laos to engage in "sex tourism." They often bring these young women back to the U.S., where they have multiple "cultural wives." In this America Tonight excerpt, Adam May talks to Vang and looks at the city of St. Paul, Minnesota, which has the second-largest Hmong population in the U.S.


 

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