Volume 15, 2006

Issue N. 4: Sex Trafficking in Asia and Australia

Sallie Yea

"Introduction," Vol. 15 (4), pp. 441-448, 2006
 

Larissa Sandy
"Sex Work in Cambodia: Beyond the Voluntary/Forced Dichotomy," Vol. 15 (4), pp. 449-469, 2006

This paper looks at the dominant voluntary/forced dichotomy shaping understandings of sex work internationally. It argues that the distinction between forced and voluntary participation in sex work cannot account for or help explain the multiple and contradictory subjectivities some women embrace and the constrained agency they exhibit in sex work. Based on ethnographic research and interviews with sex workers in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, this paper shows how elements of individual choice and coercion are intricately intertwined in women’s experiences.
 

Rosanne Rushing
"Migration and Sexual Exploitation in Vietnam," Vol. 15 (4), pp. 471-494, 2006
 

Young women from rural areas in Vietnam are encouraged or forced to migrate to urban areas to help their families. Young women feel obliged to migrate and are then exposed to highly vulnerable situations of sexual exploitation. Employing interviews with young migrant sex workers, parents of women migrants in the sending communities and key informants, this study documented the migration process leading to trafficking and sexual exploitation. Findings show that young women often migrate for employment due to obligations to their family. Upon arrival in the city with the help of networks, young women find themselves tricked, lured or forced into selling sex to supplement the family income.

Sallie Yea
"Foreign Women Trafficked to United States Military Areas in South Korea: Trafficking Processes and Victim Profiles in a Different Context," Vol. 15 (4), pp. 495-523, 2006
 

This paper details the specific circumstances of foreign women sex trafficked to American military base areas (camp towns) in South Korea, focusing particularly on Filipinas. I suggest that the processes and patterns of trafficking to Korea, including the victim profiles and their migration trajectories, differ in several important respects from those put forward under prevailing stereotypes of trafficking victims, which is based largely on selected findings about trafficking in South Asia and the Greater Mekong Sub-Region (GMS). The departures presented by the Korean context point to the need to recognize differences as well as commonalities in the characteristics of sex trafficking throughout the region and the need to draw more fully on a range of trafficking sites beyond the more often discussed South Asia and GMS in extending our understandings of trafficking.
 

Anne Gallagher
"A Shadow Report on Human Trafficking in Lao PDR: The US Approach vs. International Law," Vol. 15 (4), pp. 525-552, 2006
 

Since 2001, the United States government has issued annual reports on the situation of human trafficking in every other country deemed to have a significant problem in this area. This article focuses on the standards used in assessing the response of States to trafficking. It notes that international law already provides detailed and substantive guidance on the obligations of States in this area. Using Lao PDR as an example, the article demonstrates that the application of these international standards yields a far better result: one that is legally sound as well as more accurate, more nuanced and more likely to induce real and lasting change.

Jennifer Burn and Frances Simmons
"Trafficking and Slavery in Australia: An Evaluation of Victim Support Strategies," Vol. 15 (4), pp. 553-570, 2006

The paper evaluates legal protections and social support systems for victims of trafficking and slavery in Australia within a human rights framework based on the United Nations Protocol to Prevent and Suppress Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children and the UN Principles and Guidelines on Human Rights and Human Trafficking. A major focus of the paper is the evaluation of a system of visas offered by the Australian government to victims of trafficking and slavery. The paper argues that the visa system and social support program is restricted to the assistance of victims who participate in the criminal justice process, thereby limiting state protection of victims of trafficking and slavery.