Svay Pak is located eleven or twelve kilometres (6.8 or 7.5 mi) north of the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh,[5][6] in the district of Russey Keo,[7] at coordinates 11°38′48″N 104°52′17″E / 11.646719°N 104.871515°E / 11.646719; 104.871515.

[16] Post-war, Svay Pak's political corruption and instability led to local authorities extorting brothel owners, while the sex workers themselves "experienced raids, arrests, and rape from armed military and civil police forces operating under loose governmental control."

The Southern Vietnamese teens and 20-somethings working in these brothels followed established migration routes into Svay Pak after intermediaries, sometimes the girls' and women's families, were paid US$50–3,000 (equivalent to about $81–4,839 in 2023).

[11] The Phnom Penh Post reported that in 2005 the Cambodian government shut down the commune for a film production and simultaneously excised the brothels; by 2006, "prostitutes no longer operate[d] with impunity.

"[4] Gary Haugen of International Justice Mission (IJM) wrote that in 2000, Svay Pak was a lawless commune where "tiny, elementary-school-age girls" were prostituted to the public in broad daylight.

The Daily Telegraph supposed that any sex tourists in Svay Pak were there for the children, for if "a man wants an older girl then there are plenty on offer in the brothels and bars of Phnom Penh."

At the turn of the 21st century, clients of child prostitution in Svay Pak expressed little fear of authorities because the police were compensated by the brothels; foreigners were only arrested if "a bribe is missed, or an example needs to be made of someone".

Upon returning to Svay Pak six months later, Dateline members were again offered prostituted children; Minister Sochua was not surprised by the reversion, blaming "extreme poverty and widespread corruption".

"[18] However, in 2011, CNN reported that while pimps no longer swarmed every foreign man who came into town, and children were not to be seen prostituting themselves from streetside windows, the child-sex industry remained; volunteers with Agape International Missions (AIM) were still rescuing girls from the now-underground trade.

Burkhalter pushed back against the narrative that IJM and Dateline exposed in 2003, and proclaimed that Cambodian law-enforcement had rid the nation of child sex tourism (CST) in the face of international embarrassment and US Ambassador Charles A. Ray's threat of discontinuing United States foreign aid.

Agape International, Brewster wrote, had rescued 32 children from sex-trafficking in the preceding year, and "[t]he highest levels of Cambodia's anti-trafficking police agree" with his evaluation of the continuing crime in Svay Pak.

[24] In response to these stories, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen accused the non-governmental organization of exaggerating the sex trafficking in Svay Pak, announced a police investigation into AIM, demanded that US ambassador William A. Heidt do the same, and ordered—with "the force of law"—the charity group to leave Cambodia.