Human Trafficking In East Asia

After years of high economic growth, East Asia has experienced a wide wealth disparity among its citizens and its beginning to show signs of upheaval.  People want to move to the cities in order to better their lives.  Previously, this would only include mostly men, but in the 1990s that trend began to change in the form of more women than men.  Women also wanted to better their lives, but when they arrived there was not much work for a number of them.  The women would most of the time resort to domestic services.  An influx of demand for domestic service in addition to the poor prospects of women obtaining quality jobs has fueled the increase in organized gang activity.  The women become human capital and this supplies the funds necessary to purchase illegal weapons for their illegal activity, and in extreme cases terrorism.  The United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) identified the exploitation of sex as the leading form of human trafficking.

The UNODC found that the majority of people indicted on these types of crimes are found innocent most of the time.  The problem is that the head men of the operations with all the knowledge of the avenues of the human trafficking industry are not being brought it, but the lower-level scrubs that can easily be replaced.  One reason that can be attributed to this problem is that there is documentation of political corruption by country's governments that the head men run their operation out of.  This usually comes in the form of monetary incentives.

The one-child policy enacted by the Chinese government is an example of the exploitation of women in East Asia.  This resulted in the gender ration being disproportional.  Because of this, brides are "sold" at a premium.  This is not really considered a crime there because it is a traditional practice.  There has also been links between U.S. soldiers and pimps and bar owners that "service" the soldiers with trafficked women.  "Entertainers" is a visa category and is abused by those in the trafficking industry to transport women across borders.  There are, however, heavy penalties enacted by South Korea and Japan for people that overstay their visas, even if forced to do so.  A good yet small step was taken by South Korea by way of the Prostitution Prevention Act which punishes the intermediate people involved in the sex industry.

I believe that more should be done about these violations of women's human rights.  It is hard however, when one is dealing with a society that does not value women as much as others.  Until there is strong and civil political backing of the fight on human trafficking, much will not be accomplished.

http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2012/07/25/human-trafficking-in-east-asia/