A 12-year-old girl
suffers severe beatings after trying to escape a brothel in
Bangkok, Thailand. A 14-year-old must serve up to six "customers"
each night, and contracts HIV in the process. A Filipino family
survives on prostitution wages sent to them by a daughter working
overseas. In infinite permutations, the same scenario persists.
Click
here for a first hand account
Sex trafficking, which pulls women and girls into prostitution
against their will, is an epidemic almost unspeakable in its
darkness. The practice has joined unpaid labour and indentured
servitude to make up a kind of modern-day slavery, known comprehensively
as human trafficking. A United Nations resolution on trafficking
in women and girls, sponsored by the Philippines and adopted
unanimously by the General Assembly's Third Committee, is
the latest in a string of progressive measures that seek to
staunch the spread of forced sex work. Besides addressing
one of the most insidious problems facing the international
community, the latest anti-trafficking legislation is also
a case study in mobilization: learning what causes problems
and how to fix them, fast.
In Asia, perhaps the world's hub of trafficked women, the
practice became commonplace during the 1970s and 1980s. According
to the non-governmental agency Vital Voices, the presence
of foreign soldiers stationed in the region and an economic
boom in Japan at that time led to a high demand for prostitution.
Today, trafficked women are shepherded by middlemen to bars
and nightclubs that "purchase" them and are kept
against their will by debt pressure and the threat of physical
violence. "Poverty makes people vulnerable, and then
evil people exploit their dreams of a better life", said
Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director of the United Nations
Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), at a recent event on human
trafficking that it co-sponsored with New York University.
UNODC estimates that more than 2 million people worldwide
are in some way under the control of traffickers and agents.
It is quick to note, however, that the vast majority of trafficking
cases are likely unreported; some estimates of trafficked
women run as high as 10 million people.
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| The
largest billboard in Phnom Pehn, Cambodia, situated at
the exit of the city's international airport. (Worldvision
Photo) |
Signs of hope have surfaced recently, however, as experts
begin to look more holistically at the trafficking problem.
A February 2006 Commission on Human Rights report, written
by the UN's Special Rapporteur on the human rights aspects
of the victims of trafficking in persons, centres around the
demand side of trafficking, as opposed to a traditional look
at supply. "Demand must be understood as that which fosters
exploitation, not necessarily as a demand directly for that
exploitation", the report states, adding that this broad
look at demand places responsibility not just on traffickers
and "prostitute-users", but also on "the economic,
social, legal, political, institutional and cultural conditions
which oppress women and children throughout the world".
Targeting trafficking's social infrastructure is a concept
that evolved in many ways from the United Nation's universal
Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons,
Especially Women and Children, adopted in Vienna in 2000.
The Protocol defines trafficking as the "recruitment,
transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons"
by improper means, such as force, abduction, fraud or coercion,
for an improper purpose, like forced or coerced labour, servitude,
slavery or sexual exploitation. Member States that ratify
the Protocol are obliged to enact domestic laws that make
these activities criminal offences and to pursue traffickers
aggressively. Regional UN assistance has made a big difference
for many signatories of the Protocol. The United Nations Inter-Agency
Project on Human Trafficking in the Greater Mekong Sub-Region
(UNIAP), for example, provides support and research assistance
to a region, including Cambodia, Thailand and four adjacent
States, where the U.S. State Department estimates that 225,000
women and children have been trafficked.
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| Human
trafficking circuits in the Greater Mekong Sub-Region
(UNIAP photo) |
As the Assembly resolution demonstrates, this more holistic
human rights perspective on trafficking is beginning to seep
out of expert documents and gain practical standing in the
international community. The resolution urges Governments
for the first time to "take appropriate measures to address
the root factors, including poverty and gender inequality"
that may create deep-seeded demand for the exploitation of
women. While focusing on the human rights of victims, the
recent shift in anti-trafficking trends does not overlook,
however, the need for taking punitive judicial action against
traffickers and prostitute-users. The new draft resolution
calls for the criminalization of all forms of trafficking
in persons and the condemnation and penalization of offenders,
including the relatively new practice of holding citizens
of a State responsible for their sex crimes on foreign soil.
The Philippines, as the resolution's sponsor, has been particularly
proactive in its judicial measures. Its first trafficking
conviction under the 2003 law-a landmark event occurred in
2005. That same year, 67 cases were under preliminary investigation
and 31 cases were filed for prosecution, according to the
Philippines Star. Largely as a result of that law, the Philippines
has also led the way in multilateral coordination and in integrated
efforts with the United Nations, launching an investigation
into child pornography in conjunction with the United Nations
Children's Fund (UNICEF).
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| Children
rescued from trafficking stay at a UNICEF-assisted shelter
in the Philippines. (UNICEF photo) |
In 2004, the Philippines was one of 140 countries that responded
to a unique UN questionnaire on anti-trafficking efforts,
coordinated by the Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW).
By posting the States' complete responses on the World Wide
Web, DAW has also been able to increase transparency and accountability
on a wider level, and to publicize the success stories of
places like the Philippines. According to those responses,
grass-roots efforts to train women in practical skills, to
eradicate rural poverty and to promote gender issues are all
being accomplished largely through the work of non-governmental
organizations in the Philippines. For example, the Consortium
Against Trafficking of Children and Women in Sexual Exploitation
(CATCH-WISE), a Philippine NGO network, performs outreach
in Cebu City bars and nightclubs. It was also was recently
able to lobby the region to adopt gender training models in
its high school programmes.
UNODC will also co-sponsor the Abu Dhabi
Global Initiative to End Trafficking in Persons in the United
Arab Emirates in March 2007. Recalling that as an event venue
Beijing became synonymous with women's rights and Kyoto with
environmental issues, Mr. Costa urged the international community
to join UNODC in making the Abu Dhabi meeting a counterpart
of other historic gatherings. He said that the meeting should
firmly establish protective measures, raise international
awareness, and help States tackle the root causes of trafficking.
"This is not a wish list", he added. "This
is international law."
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Nu's Story:
A First-hand Account
I was abandoned by my parents and left
to be brought up by distant relatives. I studied up
to the primary level and did all the housework. When
I reached puberty, the son of the family I lived with
began making advances towards me. He raped me several
times, and began sending me out occasionally with clients
for short periods, warning me never to tell his parents.
I was already "spoilt" and decided to run
away and entertain clients of my own, instead of living
under his control. I came to Bangkok at the age of 15,
rented a room and began seeing clients independently.
But getting enough and good clients was difficult, and
operating independently without any protection was risky.
A hairdresser friend suggested that
I find a well-paying job outside the country that also
took care of my food and accommodation. She said that
there were plenty of Thai women who worked in Japan
and returned rich. She said that if I didn't know how
to go about things, she would introduce me to an agent
who would help me secure work in Japan. I was willing
and my appointment was fixed. I was told that I would
be working as a waitress in a bar earning approximately
US$200 per month, and that I was not bound to go out
with clients, but I could if I wanted to earn more.
Agent's fees and other expenses were to be paid after
I received my first wage.
The time when the agent first started
working on my travel documents to the time of my departure
was a little over two weeks. I was escorted from the
Bangkok airport by a Thai family and instructed to pretend
that they were my parents. At Natira airport in Japan,
my "father" took care of the immigration procedures
and kept my passport. After we collected our baggage,
the woman went her own way with the boy and girl, and
my "father" led me away to where we were met
by a Japanese man with three young Thai women in his
charge. My father took the 30,000 yen given to me by
the travel agent for expenses, left me with the Japanese
and disappeared. I learnt later that I travelled to
Japan on a tourist visa and someone else's passport
affixed with my photograph.
I was brought by taxi to a karaoke
bar in Shinjuku. The owner was a Japanese, married to
a Thai mamasan. The bar owner said that he did not accept
girls with big tattoos and body marks and asked us to
go one at a time into a cubicle at the back of the bar
and asked to undress. The owner examined me vaginally
and even slept with me before hiring me. I felt like
a piece of flesh being inspected. I had to take a blood
test for HIV/AIDS. I was the only one of the four women
bought by the bar. I later learnt that if women tested
HIV positive or were found to be physically unpleasing,
they were bought only by lower grade bars where earnings
are less and conditions much worse.
As soon as the others left, the mamasan
told me that I had to pay off a debt of over one million
yen. My food, rent and other expenses would be added
to this amount. Clients paid that mamasan directly for
taking the women out during the debt repayment period.
The mamasan warned me not to try to run away as she
would be very tough, and that all girls who tried escaping
where brought back by the Yakuza (Japanese gangsters)
and severely beaten or sold to other bar, accumulating
double the debt. I was shocked and realized that the
only way for me to pay off my debt was to go out with
as many clients as possible. Tips from clients were
the only liquid cash we earned.
Our living quarters housed thirty to
forty girls ages 14-30. Most were already in prostitution
in Thailand before they came to Japan, but like me did
not know that they would have to go out with clients,
pay off a huge debt, and live in total confinement.
A few, however, had no idea at all they were being sold
into prostitution and had a much harder time. We were
packed into a small room above the mamasan's house,
far off from the bar. We were warned not to peep out
of the window, as we would be arrested by the police
who came on their daily rounds. It was very cold, but
there was no heater or hot water. I was provided with
a sheet, a blanket, a pillow, a pair of socks and had
to sleep on the ground. We showered in batches to save
time and water. We cooked and ate a routine meal of
rice with raw, boiled, fried eggs or omelets mixed with
fish sauce and chilis and sometime fried vegetable.
We were never allowed direct communication with the
restaurant workers or anyone else. Even our letters
were censored.
On an average, I entertained about
three or four clients a night. Our clients were all
Japanese and the majority was over forty. We could never
refuse a client. Most of my young clients were very
insensitive and rough, and many thought that we had
come to Japan because Thai women love sex. Often they
would beat us before intercourse with sticks, belts
or chains, until we bled. If girls came back traumatized
after going out with a sadistic client, and reacted
hysterically or had nightmares, they would be beaten
by the mamasan and told that they must have provoked
the client to be violent. If we cried on the job or
resisted a client we were beaten even more. We routinely
used drugs before sex so that we didn't feel so much
pain. We had to work even when we were ill or menstruating.
The mamasan instructed us to tell our
clients to use condoms. Some men would, but most not.
If clients refused to use condoms, we had to give in.
The mamasan never asked them to use one. We used to
have a pill a day supplied to avoid pregnancy. Generally,
abortions were self-induced and facilitated by girls
in the bar. Letting the mamasan know that we were pregnant
would get her angry, and seeking her help or going to
a doctor would add to our debts. We didn't know much
about STDs/AIDS, except the names of these ailments.
We were only taken to the doctor when we were unable
to stand. Those who were taken to doctors had stiff
fees added to their debts. Other health problems were
stomach aches, fevers, injuries, nervousness, hysteria,
emotional disturbances, mental breakdowns, including
suicide. We were under constant pressure and we often
fought, screamed and punched one another. There was
also a lot of peer bonding as we only had only another
to depend on.
One of the girls who was depressed and
drunk slashed her wrists with a broken bottle, but fortunately
did not cut herself deeply. She went crazy in controlled
conditions, got few clients, and felt she would have
to work in the bar forever to pay off her debts. A girl
in the next building jumped out a window and died instantly.
The mamasan and the girls left the premises and we don't
know what happened after that.
Sometimes the police would come in to
check if there were over-stayers of visas. The owner
was mostly warned in advance by informants. Over-stayers
would be concealed or heaped into a bus and hidden in
a hotel close by until the police left. At other times,
only those with valid visas were produced before the
police, and the police bribed.
Of the thirty women in the bar, four
tried to escape, two successfully with the help of clients.
The other two were caught and returned to the bar by
the police only to be mercilessly beaten up by the owner.
The mamasan told us that the girls who escaped would
be tracked down and killed. Every single one of us dreamed
about escaping. Several of us made plans but were too
afraid to act on them.
Other girls wanted to go to the Thai Embassy, but were
afraid because they were told that the embassy officials
would cut their hair and throw them into jail as they
were illegal residents. Many girls who dared to leave
the bar to work independently after repaying their debts
were arrested by the police, fined, imprisoned, forced
to provide sexual favours to the police before eventually
being deported. We are punished for no fault of our
own, but the bar owners, the corrupt police and even
clients who abuse us badly are never punished.
One day I happened to walk into a Thai
restaurant and found a pamphlet that said, "If
you need a Thai friend to talk to, contact this number."
I rang the number and found myself talking to a Japanese
nun. I told her my story and requested her help to get
me back to Thailand. She made the necessary arrangements
and sent me to an NGO in Thailand. I returned with a
savings of 30,000 baht (about $800) after five years
of struggle.
Women need education and decently paying
jobs so they won't get into prostitution, and the same
for women in prostitution so they can get out. We also
need drop-in centre like the one I'm in now, and for
police to penalize the recruiters and mamasans, not
us.
In Japan I hated to be controlled. I
feel ashamed about being in prostitution, but I can't
change my past. I feel embarrassed when people look
at me. I think they do so because they know I was a
prostitute. It is very difficult to get off the night
life when you have been in it for so long. We get used
to a non-domestic routine. Society does not accept us.
Only women in prostitution won't look down on me and
can understand me.
*Nu was interviewed by the Coalition Against Trafficking
in Women (CATW). Her story was originally published
in CATW's 2002 report titled "A Comparative Study
of Women Trafficked in the Migration Process".
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For more information on human trafficking, please visit:
For more information on country-specific action against
trafficking, please visit:
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