These women served to US servicemen. Many of them who came from other countries worked at factories. However, there were women who didn’t return home after their labor visas expired or after they were fired, but stayed in the country illegally and tried to find a job. Recruiters tempted them with luxury life and high wages, and as soon as these women agreed to work for them, they became slaves and victims of human traffic. Yet we lack exact data, it is evident that at that time the number of such victims was not large, and nobody was just aware of them. There is no data also about the traffic in women in South Korea at that time.
As from 1990, the sex-industry started rapidly developing that stimulated inflow of foreign women to the country, and the human traffic became an urgent problem in South Korea. In 1996, the Korea Special Tourism Association (KSTA) that was involved in bringing to the country of foreign women with official leisure labor visas received an instruction of the Government to completely pay commissions for the use of foreign women in the clubs located in US military bases. The cases of illegal employment, exploitation and traffic in women were revealed when the police arrested the KSTA persons involved in recruiting women from Philippines and countries of the former Soviet Union. The KSTA recruiters falsified labor contracts and made the women be engaged in prostitution. It was the first official news on the recruitment of foreign women for the Korean sex-industry that became public.
However, the Government of South Korea refused to recognize the fact and tried to conceal the traffic in women in the country. It seems that this denial of sex-industry existence especially in the US bases by the supreme state authorities became a factor of its boom in Korea. The number of foreign women whose services were used in Korea has outgrown the specially provided areas such as the US military bases or so-called “Texas Streets” in Pusan. They started working not only in urban but also in rural areas.
Laws and penalties for the human traffic are different in different countries. The Korean Criminal Code stipulates severe penalty for the human traffic, but the law is applied rarely. Though the women engaged in the sex-industry often became victims of the human traffic, they are not law- protected.
In 2000, the US Congress approved an Act on protection of human traffic and violence victims and obliged the US Department of State to submit annual reports on compliance with the Act. In this document all countries are divided into three groups. The first group includes those countries that comply with the minimum requirements stipulated in the Act on Human Traffic. The second group includes the countries that fail to comply with the international requirements but endeavor to cope with the human traffic. The third group includes the countries that do not comply with the minimum requirements. When the first report of the US Department of State was published in 2001, Korea was included in the third group together with other 23 countries. The report stated that the Government of Korea does not make efforts to solve relatively new and ever-aggravating problem of human traffic. The country regulatory base lacks special laws against this evil. The foreigners are treated as persons violating the immigration law, and deported. The Government renders no assistance to victims of the human traffic and does not support non-governmental organizations assisting the victims. The Korean Government denied all this statements and demanded to make corrections in the report. As a result, Korea was included in the first group in the next annual report.
The US Government explained such reclassification by the fact that the Korean Government performed various actions including establishment of a Government-sponsored committee for restraint of the traffic, expansion of nongovernmental organization support, increase in the number of non-governmental organizations for prevention of human traffic, application of numerous security measures to restraint the human traffic prior to adoption of a special law to finish with the evil. However, the Korean Women’s Association (KWA), a local non-governmental organization, criticized the Government for succeeding in reclassification only due to diplomatic work with the members of the board. The KWA also condemned the Government for concealment of the fact that human traffic victims are prosecuted criminally in the country. Many women are sold to bordels and clubs by their employers. Those who attempted to escape are accused of deception or fraud. If they even advised the police on the violence, they would be punished in any case pursuant to the current law on prostitution. The official reply to the criticism said that the law on prostitution is not applicable to the foreigners who were engaged in prostitution by force. Even if they once violated the immigration/emigration law, they were recognized victims and immediately deported without any penalty. As for the women who ere engaged in prostitution at their own wish, they were punished for the violations pursuant to the law on prostitution.
According to many researches, the foreign women prostitution is a main business of show-business companies in Korea. These women are forced to render services in night clubs countrywide. The clubs may be classified into five categories. The first category includes the clubs of the US military bases. The Korean women offered earlier in these bars and clubs currently are replaced by the women from Philippines, Russia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kirgizia. The main clients of these clubs are American soldiers stationed in Korea and foreign labors. The Korean men are prohibited to visit these clubs. They may enter only if the American soldiers are prohibited to leave their barracks or late at night behind the back when there are no policemen in the vicinity.
The clubs of the second category are the clubs for foreigners located near the port facilities in Pusan. Local men are prohibited to check in there as in the clubs of the first category. They are mainly visited by sailors. They differ from the clubs of the US military bases in the fact that there Russian women render sexual services to their compatriots, Russian sailors.
The third category includes traditional bordels and other red-light shops located in many large cities. They use foreign women of the Korean or Chinese origin, women from Philippines and CIS countries. Their main clients are Koreans, foreign labors working in South Korea, and foreigners visiting the country on sex tours.
The clubs of the fourth category are respectful clubs in the downtown of any large South Korean city. Implementing the dreams of Korean men, these clubs sexually exploit Russian, Uzbek, Kazakh and Kirgiz women. In the clubs of the fifth category the sexual services are provided to any Korean men in any part of the country. They offer Korean and Chinese women as well as women from the CIS countries.
Women are contracted for the work overseas as a rule by various employment agencies and firms, which are numerous in any country. The international traffic in women brings huge revenues not only to the agencies themselves, but also to local recruiters and panders in the countries of destination. They have built sophisticated criminal networks that expand year by, because it is very difficult to clear these crimes and bring criminals to imprisonment without cooperation of concerned countries and tough work of their law enforcement agencies. For instance, if the victims of the traffic enter the country with official visas provided for by the recruitment agencies, it is practically impossible to trace them. It is noted that the number of Far-Eastern recruitment agencies sending the people to the work in South Korea annually increases. In so doing, Russian and Korean agencies work shoulder to shoulder in falsifying immigration documents and illegally receiving visas for women.
The corruption in the political establishment and executive bodies is a key reason of the illegal labor migration and human traffic. International criminal syndicates provide money to politicians who then turn a blind eye to illegal actions of criminal entities. If police and immigration authorities are corrupted, it facilitates the growth of the illegal labor migration and human traffic. It is difficult to find a ground to punish an employment agency and those persons who deliver women overseas where they are forced to be engaged in prostitution. Management and employees of such agencies conduct this illegal business to make commercial profit.
To break this vicious circle and restrain the growing labor migration overseas it is necessary to increase the level of economic and social development of under-developed countries. As a matter of fact, the majority of women go overseas to work in despair when they lose any hope to find a job adequate for normal life in their own country. The governments of all countries should harmonize their legislations with the international standards that would help to tighten penalties for the human traffic, and they should increase the level of judicial culture of their citizens. When people orientate in legal issues and respect the laws both of their own country and other countries, they will not find themselves in the situations when they are cheated and even sold. To eliminate the conditions of human traffic, all countries should impose tough supervision over the business of the firms involved in provision of overseas employment services.
