IOM report

Filipinas, Russians trafficked for US military bases in Korea

by GUSTAVO CAPDEVILLA (for Inter Press Service)
OFW Journalism Consortium

GENEVA- - More than 5,000 women, mostly from the Philippines and Russia, are caught up in a prostitution network in South Korea that targets US soldiers, reported a United Nations agency Tuesday.

The first concerns about the trafficking of women emerged in South Korea in the mid-1990s, when reports began to circulate that there were many foreign women, particularly from the Philippines, working in the bars near the US military bases.

"The plight of trafficked women in South Korea is quite serious," said the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in a study released Tuesday at its headquarters in Geneva.

The report's author, June Lee, former chief of the IOM mission in Seoul, said the most conservative estimates indicate that hundreds of women arrive in South Korea each month, brought by human traffickers to be used in the local sex industry.

"Those who bring these women to South Korea appear to have a good working knowledge of the immigration regulations of all the countries involved," she noted.

Lee said it is the responsibility of the government's criminal investigators to determine whether major crime rings are behind this phenomenon.

Korea Special Tourism Association

However, the report found a South Korean organization as the chief contractor for holders of the E-6 visa, which authorizes entry into this Asian country to work in the entertainment industry.

The organization, the Korea Special Tourism Association, is "approved and regulated by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism," says the document.

The association consists of 189 owners of clubs that operate near the various US military camps throughout South Korea.

Given these facts, "clearly there is some linkage" between the trafficking of women and the presence of US troops, said Christopher Lom, spokesman for the IOM, which is dedicated to ensuring the human rights of migrants and working with governments to develop humane responses to the challenges posed by human migration.

The bars located near the US military bases are the leading employers of Filipinas, who the traffickers apparently prefer for their English-speaking skills, and who are admitted into South Korea with E-6 visas.

According to the IOM report, these "foreign entertainers" are brought to South Korea because they are considered "essential to the survival of the military camp town businesses, which have been suffering from a declining supply of South Korean women."

The South Korean sex industry

The sex industry in South Korea dates back to the period when the country was a Japanese colony, from 1910 to 1945, and prostitution was officially sanctioned. Many South Korean women were forced into the sex industry to serve Japanese soldiers as "comfort women".

After Japan's defeat in World War II, in 1945, South Korea was liberated from Japanese domination, but was occupied by US forces until 1948. Washington sent forces again in 1950 for the Korean War, and they have maintained a presence ever since.

The IOM report states that some observers have suggested that there was an unwritten or "de facto" policy of the US military to "keep the men happy" with the presence of women near the bases.

The foreign women working in the sex industry in South Korea "have been predominantly from the Philippines and Russia," says Lee's study.

But there are also women coming from Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Indonesia, "though in very small numbers", and very rarely, there are women trafficked from Latin American countries, such as Peru.

In 1999, there were an estimated 1,000 Filipina women working in the US military base areas, according to the Overseas Workers Administration of the Philippine government.

The women were young, some under age 20, and the majority came from the central Philippine region of Luzon, and the Pinatubo area in particular.

The Filipinas and Russian women alike are well educated, and some -- particularly the Russians -- are university graduates, says the IOM report.

Seoul fails to take action

The IOM urges the South Korean government to reach official consensus "on Korean terminology to describe the trafficking of women into situations where they are exploited as prostitutes or placed in low-paying jobs by abusive employers."

It also cites a report released by the US Department of State in July 2001, which criticizes Seoul for its failure to take decisive action "to combat this relatively new and worsening problem of trafficking in persons."

The research conducted for the IOM highlights the participation of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in efforts to raise public awareness about the magnitude of the problem.

Among these groups are the Korea Young Woman's Christian Association (YWCA), Korean Church Women United, and Saewoomtuh, a local NGO that provides assistance for the Korean prostitutes who work in the US military camp towns (visit Inter Press Service at www.ipsnews.net).