Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery Poverty drives the unsuspecting poor into the
hands of traffickers Published reports & articles from 2000 to 2025 gvnet.com/humantrafficking/SouthKorea.htm
The Republic of
Korea (ROK) is a source country for the trafficking of women and girls within
the country and to the United States (often through Canada and Mexico),
Japan, Hong Kong, Guam, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, for the purpose
of commercial sexual exploitation. The ROK is a destination country for women
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CAUTION: The following
links have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in the HOW TO USE THIS WEB-PAGE Students If you are looking
for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on
this page and others to see which aspects of Human Trafficking are of
particular interest to you. Would you
like to write about Forced-Labor? Debt
Bondage? Prostitution? Forced Begging? Child Soldiers? Sale of Organs? etc. On the other
hand, you might choose to include precursors of trafficking such as poverty and hunger. There is a lot to
the subject of Trafficking. Scan other
countries as well. Draw comparisons
between activity in adjacent countries and/or regions. Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources
that are available on-line. Teachers Check out some of
the Resources
for Teachers attached to this website. HELP for Victims International Organization for
Migration ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** South Korean labour laws reduce migrant workers to slaves Mostly Water, 16
March 2004 newsattic.com/d/hl/south_korean_labour_laws_reduce_migrant_workers_to_slaves.html [accessed 3
September 2014] Migrant workers
treated like "slaves" in South Korea's agricultural industry ILO Regional Office
for Asia and the Pacific apmigration.ilo.org/news/migrant-workers-treated-like-slaves-in-south-koreas-agricultural-industry [accessed 25
February 2019] To migrant workers,
the EPS is a law that allows slavery. According to the new law, migrant
workers can work in South Korea for only three years and for only one
employer. Since migrant workers cannot change their work place, the employer
basically has complete control over the wages and working conditions of
migrant workers; thus these workers are bound to the employer like slaves. ***
ARCHIVES *** 2020 Country Reports
on Human Rights Practices: Republic of Korea U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, 30 March 2021 www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/south-korea/
[accessed 25 June
2021] PROHIBITION OF
FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOR NGOs continued to
report that some migrant workers were subject to forced labor, particularly
those who had incurred thousands of dollars in debt for payment of
recruitment fees, making them vulnerable to debt bondage. Some migrant
workers in the agriculture, livestock, and fishing industries faced
conditions indicative of forced labor, including deceptive recruiting
practices, confiscation of passports, and nonpayment of wages. NGOs reported harsh
conditions for migrant seafarers, many of whom worked more than 18 hours per
day. Migrant seafarers, primarily from Southeast Asia, were physically or
verbally abused by Korean captains and other crew and were forced to work
even when sick. According to NGOs, deep-sea fishing vessels depended heavily
on migrant seafarers; 73.3 percent of workers on Korean deep-sea vessels in
2018 were migrants. PROHIBITION OF CHILD
LABOR AND MINIMUM AGE FOR EMPLOYMENT There were some
reports of commercial sexual exploitation of children (see section 6,
Children.) Freedom House
Country Report 2020 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/south-korea/freedom-world/2020 [accessed 7 July
2020] G4. DO INDIVIDUALS
ENJOY EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY AND FREEDOM FROM ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION? Protections against
exploitative working conditions are enforced by the authorities.
Nevertheless, foreign migrant workers remain vulnerable to illegal debt
bondage and forced labor, including forced prostitution. In August 2019, a
coalition of migrant workers’ groups and unions voiced opposition against a
proposal by the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Enterprises, a
government agency that proposed differing minimum wage standards for migrant
workers. Women in South
Korea are vulnerable to recruitment by international marriage brokers and sex
traffickers. In September 2019, five men were arrested for allegedly luring
seven Brazilian women to the country; they had promised to shepherd the women
into singing careers but instead forced them to engage in sex work. Although the
government actively prosecutes human trafficking cases, those convicted often
receive light punishments. Human trafficking
in S. Korea Editorial, The
Hankyoreh, Feb.28,2009 english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_editorial/341437.html [accessed 23
December 2010] “Natasha,” 29, came
to Kang Shin-who, Asian
Sex Gazette, 8 September 2006 dlib.eastview.com/browse/doc/10021395 [accessed 3
September 2014] m.asianews.it/news-en/US-charges-South-Korea-with-human-trafficking,-Seoul-denies-7177.html [accessed 28
September 2016] Seoul officials
yesterday challenged the United States’ portrayal of Korea as ``a frequent
destination for trafficked women and children from the former Soviet Union
and neighboring Asian nations.’’ Indonesia traffics
children who often become sexually enslaved, said the report, and women and
girls as young as 10 years old from Kyrgyzstan are transported for sexual
exploitation and end up in countries like South Korea, the report said. Source: english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200507/200507030020.html english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2005/07/03/2005070361020.html [accessed 3
September 2014] The number of
Korean women looking for work as prostitutes abroad or being trafficked for
the purpose is on the increase. Some 50 members of two gangs busted in Key US Gulf Allies
Cited in Human Trafficking Report Voice of www.voanews.com/articleprintview/548041.html [accessed 4
September 2012] www.cnn.com/2005/US/06/03/human.traffic/index.html [accessed 6 May
2020] Mr. Miller also
commended NBI Busts
Mail-Order Bride Syndicate The Philippine Star,
[accessed 24 June
2013] article.wn.com/view/2005/01/18/NBI_busts_mailorder_bride_syndicate/ [accessed 25
February 2019] In his report to
Wycoco, NBI Anti-Human Trafficking Division (AHTRAD) chief Romulo Asis said
the group’s modus operandi was to entice Filipino women to apply for
match-marriages with male Koreans.
Asis said Korean clients would come to the South Korea Assists
Illegal Foreign Workers Xinhua News Agency,
September 13, 1994 www.migrationint.com.au/news/oman/oct_1994-23mn.asp At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
Illegal foreign
workers deported from Moon Gwang-lip, The
Korea Times, 8 September 2004 www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=14444 [accessed 23
December 2010] In July, Lawrence
Summers, president of South Korea accused
of using slave labour Sally Hardcastle,
BBC News, 27 September 2001 news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/1566971.stm [accessed 23 December
2010] Garment workers
around the world are accusing South Korean companies of treating workers as
"virtual slaves" in factories abroad. The Secretary General of the International
Textile, Garment and Leather Workers Federation (ITGLW) has gone to Seoul to
protest about the treatment of workers in countries including Sri Lanka and
Bangladesh. The ITGLW, which
represents workers in the garment industry all around the world, alleges that
South Korean companies running factories abroad top the list of bad
employers. Global Dimensions
in Mapping the Foreign Labor Policies of Dong-Hoon Seol, Dept
of Sociology, www.calstatela.edu/centers/ckaks/Global_Migration_Conf/Seol_paper.pdf [accessed 23
December 2010] s-space.snu.ac.kr/handle/10371/86671 [accessed 18 June
2017] ABSTRACT - This paper
focuses on global dimensions in mapping the foreign labor policies of Sex slaves William H.
McMichael, Times staff writer, Songtan, prakorea.blogspot.com/2005/10/flesh-trade.html [accessed 23
December 2010] Lana came to The nine months she
has worked in clubs that dot the half-mile strip running straight away from
the front gate of the U.S. Air Force's Osan Air Base have left her with eyes
far too world-weary for a 24-year-old.
Stripped of her passport by her bar owner, in fear of corrupt South
Korean police and deeply in debt to her new bosses, she was forced to sell sex
to American servicemen. She became, in
essence, a sex slave. Thousands of Women
Forced Into Sexual Slavery For US Servicemen in Feminist News,
Feminist Majority Foundation, September 9, 2002 www.feminist.org/news/newsbyte/uswirestory.asp?id=6870 [accessed 23
December 2010] Since the mid
1990s, more than 5,000 women have been trafficked into Malia Rulon,
Associated Press AP, Washington, August 7, 2003 At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 11
September 2011] [scroll down] As a result of the
investigation, U.S. military officials in South Korea have made an additional
26 establishments suspected of being involved in prostitution and human
trafficking off-limits to U.S. servicemen. They also have increased
educational efforts for all service members on how to spot instances of human
trafficking. The report recommended
that the military create a standardized human trafficking curriculum; make
improvements to on-base entertainment and recreational facilities; and
continue coordination efforts with South Korean law enforcement officials. kalaniosullivan.com/KunsanAB/8thFW/Howitwasb11d6.html#Center At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 11
September 2011] Base Instincts Donald
Macintyre/Tongduchon, TIME Magazine, Aug. 05, 2002 content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,501020812-333899,00.html [accessed 23
December 2010] "The women are
here because they've been tricked," he says, nonchalantly. "They're
told they're going to be bartending or waitressing, but once they get here,
things are different," he adds, with a knowing look. The fact that the women may have been
forced into prostitution doesn't seem to bother most of their soldier-patrons.
Nor, until recently, did it bother the military brass at the bases. But now a
U.S. Senator and 12 members of Congress are demanding action. Alarmed by a
Fox Television news report casing brothels where trafficked women were
allegedly forced to prostitute themselves to G.I.s, the lawmakers sent a
letter to the Pentagon in May, asking for an investigation. Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child, 31 January 2003 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/korea2003.html [accessed 23
December 2010] [42] The Committee
remains concerned that, due to prevailing negative cultural traditions,
domestic adoptions may be arranged without authorization or involvement of
the competent authorities and that such arrangements do not necessarily take
into account the best interests of the child or, where appropriate, the views
of the child. The Committee also notes with concern the high number of
inter-country adoptions, suggesting that this form of adoption is not
necessarily a measure of last resort, and reiterates its concern, stated in
previous concluding observations, that the State party has not ratified the
Hague Convention of 1993 on Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect
of Inter-country Adoption. ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61613.htm [accessed 11
February 2020] TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS
– Women from All
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