Sex-trade traffickers condemned

The trafficking of Chinese women to work in the sex trade in Hong Kong and Southeast Asian countries is evoking protests from foreign governments and demands for action from Beijing, a newspaper warned yesterday.

Some of the women come from the southwestern province of Guizhou, where a criminal gang arranges legal permits to visit Hong Kong, with fake letters of invitation from 'relatives' in the SAR, said the Southern Weekend in a report on the boom in exports of women for the sex trade.

Yingzi, 19, from a small town in Guizhou, said that between May 2 and 28 last year, she was forced to receive more than 400 customers, with a maximum of 28 in one day.

'I did not know what day of the week it was. I wanted to die but could not even do that. Once, when I went to throw myself out of the window, the man who was guarding me prevented it,' she said.

Taozi, another woman from Guizhou, said that during her month in Hong Kong last year, she received 130 customers and was paid 5,000 yuan (HK$4,700) when she returned to Shenzhen.

She said the gang which controlled her gave her old clothes, a mobile phone and cosmetics, but no money or identity documents and she was under 24-hour surveillance by gang members. The normal rate for a 30-minute session was $350, of which she received $100 and the gang the rest.

The women said that after entering Hong Kong, they were virtual prisoners, forced into sexual slavery and into making pornographic films and photographs. They were not allowed to refuse customers even if they suspected they had sexual diseases.