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Trafficking in women and prostitution are situated in a continuum
of sexual exploitation that perpetuates and continually reinforces the
subordinate status of women. Sexual exploitation takes such forms, but
it not limited to, pornography, sex tourism, bride trade, temporary
marriages, and sexual violence, such as rape, incest, genital mutilation
and sexual harassment. Prostitution, the system that commodifies and
dehumanizes the bodies and persons of women and children of both sexes
for the use and profit of men, is today the object of an intense and
international mainstreaming campaign that is working for the social
and political acceptance of the hugely profitable industries of sex.
The following are statistics on the trafficking and prostitution of
women in Asia Pacific countries.
Australia
Federal Police estimate that prostitution grosses A$30 million annually.
International crime syndicates traffic drugs and women, with 10 smaller
syndicates trafficking 300 Thai women yearly.
Recruiters go to Russia to hire women for 'tabletop dancing' in clubs
often with links to brothels. The Australian Council of Trade Unions
recently recognized women in prostitution as a labor sector.
Korea
Around the military bases, there are 18,000 registered and 9,000 unregistered
prostitutes.
Forms of prostitution include escort and call girls, street prostitution,
and from cafes, clubs, cabarets, show cases, massage parlors and beauty
shops.
Women suspected of prostitution can be confined in rehabilitation centers
without due process.
Malaysia
There are an estimated 142,000 women in prostitution in Malaysia, with
between 8,000-10,000 in Kuala Lumpur.
Main channels of sexual exploitation: recreation businesses, i.e. entertainment,
fitness clubs and the like. Almost every town has a red-light district.
Bangladesh
There are an estimated 200,000 women trafficked to Pakistan in the
last 10 years, continuing at the rate of 200-400 women monthly. In 1994,
2,000 women were prostituted in six cities in India.
Nepal
There are an estimated 5,000 women trafficked to India yearly. After
India with 100,000 women, Hong Kong is the second biggest market.
Organizers in rural areas, brokers and even family members sell girls.
Husbands sometimes sell their wives to brothels.
Burma (Myanmar on Map)
There are an estimated 20,000 - 30,000 Burmese women in Thailand. Forms
of trafficking: deceptive job placements that land women in brothels,
abduction by agents for clients, sale of girls from hill tribes.
As illegal immigrants in Thailand, prostitutes are arrested, detained
and deported back to Burma, with 50-70 percent being HIV positive.
Philippines
There are an estimated 300,000 women in prostitution, and 75,000 prostituted
children.
'Entertainment' is the main channel, but a range of establishments from
dirt-floor beer houses to karaoke clubs to beach resorts to expensive
health clubs provide prostitution for men of every social class.
Government policies favor the export of entertainers and domestic helpers
that put women at risk.
China
Shangchuandao island off Guandong is a tourist spot offering drugs
and sex casinos with 300 women from all over China. In 1994, 500,000
tourists spent HK$55.8 million on legal tourist services alone.
There is a resurgence of prostitution all over China. Women are also
being trafficked for sale as wives to husbands who often resell them.
Sri Lanka
Eighty percent of labor migration in 1994 was of women workers. Job trainees in
Korea and Japan have disappeared into underground labor markets, including
prostitution..
Hong Kong
Fake contracts for domestic work land the women in brothes that employ Chinese
minders to prevent runaways. Influx of East European women in high-priced
clubs. Macau has Russian mafia bringing in women. In 1994, a woman attempting
to escape was murdered.
India
There are an estimated 2.3 million women in prostitution, of which a quarter are
minors.
Over 1,000 red-light districts all over India, where cage prostitutes
are mostly minors often from Nepal and Bangladesh.
Forms of trafficking: economic incentives offered to parents to part with
the children, fake job or marriage promises, abductions.
Taiwan
Forty percent of young prostitutes in the main red-light district are
aborginal girls. Girls under 13 have been made to undergo hormone injections
by brothels owners to hasten their physical development.
Indonesia
There are 65,582 registered prostitutes in 1994, with an estimated total of 500,000
in prostitution. Localized bordello complexes, 'localisasi,' are managed
under local government regulations.
The estimated financial turnover of the sex industry ranges from US$ 1.2
billion to US$ 3.6 billion.
Thailand
Estimates on the number of women in prostitution range from 300,000 to 2.8 million,
of which a third are minors. Thai women are also in prostitution in many
countries in Asia, Australia, Europe and the US.
4.6 million Thai men regularly, and 500,000 foreign tourists annually,
use prostituted women.
Vietnam
Most trafficking is to China and to Cambodia, including children.
Trafficking happens through kidnapping, especially for brothels, deceptive
job offers or tourist trips, match-making with foreigners who often
sell and resell the women abroad.
Prostitution is becoming a feature of the burgeoning tourism industry:
hotels and tourist companies provide women to clients. Also, business
deals are closed with presents of women.
Japan
The largest sex industry market for Asian women.
Over 150,000 non-Japanese women in prostitution, more than half are Filipinas,
40 percent are Thai women. One 'sex zone' in Tokyo, only 0.34 sq. km.,
has 3,500 sex facilities: strip theaters, peep shows, 'soaplands,' 'lover's
banks,' porno shops, telephone clubs, karaoke bars, clubs, etc.
Japanese men also constitute the largest number of sex tourists in Asia.
The sex industry accounts for 1 percent of the Gross National Product
and equals the defense budget.
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