US bases foster hidden Korea sex trade

Thousands of Philippine and Russian women are being smuggled into South Korea as prostitutes for United States military personnel.

The first comprehensive survey of the industry, written by Dr June J.H. Lee, of the International Organisation for Migration, was released by the Geneva-based body last week.

Previous studies have focused on the use of South Korea as a transit point for the trafficking of Chinese and other women to Japan and the West, and on South Korea as a source of women for illicit sex work overseas, but 'The Review of Data on Trafficking in the Republic of Korea'' highlights the role of the country as a sex-trade destination.

'Estimates based on official statistics and published reports suggest that up to 5,000 women would have been trafficked into South Korea for the sex industry since the mid-1990s. However, the reliability of such an estimate is not high, and there is reason to believe that the actual number may in fact be much higher than this,'' Dr Lee writes.

'Women trafficked into the South Korean entertainment industry endure working conditions that clearly exploit them,'' she says, adding the majority of the women trapped into sex work, primarily in clubs surrounding US military base camps, are from the Philippines and former Soviet states.

The trade has long been hidden because it has a veneer of legality, provided by the entertainment visas obtained for the women, who also often freely sign contracts for entertainment work. The Korea Special Tourism Association is the chief contractor for the visas, and is approved and regulated by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The association includes 189 club owners from various US military garrison towns in South Korea.

Philippine regulations have been tightened to guard against visa abuse, so the women are brought to Bangkok or Hong Kong under other guises and the visas applied for in these cities.