SEAsia - Facts on Trafficking and Prostitution

Factbook on Global Sexual Exploitation

Southeast Asia

Prostitution

A study, ''The Sex Sector: The Economic and Social Bases of Prostitution in Southeast Asia'', published by the International Labor Organization (ILO), covers Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand, and describes how prostitution in the region has developed into a lucrative business that influences employment and national income and contributes significantly to the region's economic growth. ''The scale of prostitution has been enlarged to an extent where we can justifiably speak of a commercial sex sector that is integrated into the economic, social and political life of these countries,'' the ILO study said. The study also said ''the economic and social forces driving the sex industry show no signs of slowing down, particularly in light of rising unemployment in the region.''

The study estimates that between 0.25% and 1.5% of the total female population of the four countries is engaged in prostitution and that the sex industry accounts for between 2% and 14% of the countries' gross domestic product (GDP). In all four of the countries studied, the report has shown prostitution to provide significantly higher earnings than any other form of unskilled labor. ''If we include the owners, managers, pimps and other employees of the sex establishments, the related entertainment industry and some segments of the tourism industry, the number of workers earning a living directly or indirectly from prostitution would be in several millions,'' said Lin Lean Lim, an ILO labor market expert and author of the study. Due to the economic meltdown since July last year, Lim said she expects the number of prostituted persons in the region to increase. ''Where you don't have social safety nets or where you don't have social security arrangements, then again the danger is much greater because it's perhaps one of the types of activities where anyone can go into,'' she said.

The study said government authorities also collect substantial revenues in areas where prostitution thrives, illegally from bribes and corruption and legally from licensing fees and taxes on the many hotels, bars, restaurants and game rooms that flourish in its wake. Lim also said many poor families in rural areas depend on the earnings of women who are prostituted. (Dario Agnote, "Sex trade key part of S.E. Asian economies, study says," Kyodo News, 18 August 1998)

The ILO stopped short of calling for prostitution to be legalized, but said it should be officially recognize, advantages being to extend "the taxation net to cover many of the lucrative activities associated with it" and "to formulate labor policies needed to deal with the several million people thought to be working in the sex industry." (Elif Kaban, "UN labour body urges recognition of sex industry," Reuters, 18 August 1998)

The sex industry has grown in Southeast Asia due in part to the surge in recent years in the number of women in Asia's migrant force, where they now equal or outnumber male migrants. (International Labor Organization, Elif Kaban, "UN labour body urges recognition of sex industry," Reuters, 18 August 1998)

Prostitution Tourism

International investigators say foreign paedophiles are usually American or European. Of 160 foreign pedophiles arrested on child sex-abuse charges in Southeast Asia between 1992 and 1994, the largest portion -- 25% -- were American, 18% German, 14% Australian and 12% English. (End Child Prostitution in Asian Tourism study, "In sex trade, chilhood is bought and sold," Lambiet, 17 May 1998)

Up to 40,000 pornographic photographs of children, many of from Southeast Asia, can be viewed on the Internet estimates Ron O'Grady, chair of the End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes group. "The demand for children in the sex trade is great. Every year, people from all over the world travel to Asia to have sex with children, taking photographs and videos," he said. (Poona Antaseeda, "Expert urges global law to end child pornography on the Internet," Bangkok Post, 3 June 1998)

Trafficking

The actual number of prostituted women enslaved, trafficked or kept in prison in Southeast Asia was no more than 20% of the total number of women engaged in prostitution. (International Labor Organization, Elif Kaban, "UN labour body urges recognition of sex industry," Reuters, 18 August 1998)

Smugglers are increasingly trading in women in Southeast Asia because of the shadowy nature of the sex sector. (International Labor Organization, Elif Kaban, "UN labour body urges recognition of sex industry," Reuters, 18 August 1998)

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Coalition Against Trafficking in Women
Factbook on Global Sexual Exploitation
Donna M. Hughes, Laura Joy Sporcic, Nadine Z. Mendelsohn and Vanessa Chirgwin