- Surveys show that
the majority of Asian women who now offer themselves as sex workers
first entered the sex trade unwillingly. One survey of sex workers found
that
- 3% were sold by a boyfriend
- 4% were raped and sold
- 5% were raped by a stepfather and sold
- 32% were tricked and sold by non-family
- 8% were sold by parents to pay debts
- 4% went to the city to find a job and were then sold.
- Recent cases of trafficked women found in a sweatshop in El Monte and a brothel in Westminster are considered the "tip of the iceberg" by law enforcement. There are between 4,000 and 5,000 women from the People's Republic of China engaged in prostitution in Los Angeles; many if not most of those women have been trafficked. There are large numbers of women from Korea, Thailand and other southeast Asian countries working in brothels or sweatshops in Los Angeles. We do not know how many have been trafficked and held in peonage or slave-like conditions.
Major Migrant Trafficking Flows Around the World
| Sources: New York Times, International Labor Organization, Cambodian Women's Development Center, Los Angeles Times, United Nations Human Rights Commission, Global Alliance Against Trafficking in Women, Foundation for Women, International Human Rights Law Group Women in Law Project, International Organisation for Migration. |
